Troubleshooting

The extension appears active but nothing shows up — no highlights, no errors, no response. This is the most common new-user issue.

1. Verify the extension is enabled — check for the Auto-Coursera icon in your browser toolbar, or visit chrome://extensions
2. Make sure you're on a Coursera quiz page — the extension only activates on graded or practice quiz pages, not lectures or course homepages
3. Check that an API key is configured — click the 🎓 button, open Settings, and verify at least one provider has a key entered
4. Open DevTools console — press F12, switch to the Console tab, and look for any error messages from the extension
5. Refresh the page — sometimes the content script needs a fresh page load to initialize
6. Check if auto-start is enabled — if auto-start is off in settings, you need to click the 🎓 FAB button and toggle the extension on manually

Chrome may disable newly sideloaded extensions by default. To fix:

1. Go to chrome://extensions
2. Find Auto-Coursera in the list
3. Click the toggle to Enable it

You may also see a banner at the top of Chrome saying "Disable developer mode extensions." Click Keep to keep the extension active.

AI models are probabilistic — they can and do produce wrong answers, especially for specialized or technical content. This is a fundamental limitation of all large language models, not a bug in Auto-Coursera.

• Raise the confidence threshold — if you're seeing wrong answers highlighted in green, go to Settings and raise the threshold above 0.7 (the default). A higher threshold means fewer answers are shown, but the ones that appear are more likely correct.
• Try a different provider — switch between OpenRouter, Gemini, Groq, Cerebras, and NVIDIA NIM in settings. Different models have different strengths. OpenRouter gives access to the widest range of models.
• Review before submitting — auto-select is on by default, but you can disable it in settings and review each answer manually before submitting.
• Specialized content is hardest — AI models struggle most with domain-specific material, recently published content, and questions that require exact recall of specific readings or lectures.

The extension won't work without at least one API key. All providers offer free tiers.

1. Click the 🎓 floating button on any Coursera page
2. Open Settings
3. Add your API key

See the Setup Guide for step-by-step instructions for each provider.

The extension only works on Coursera quiz pages. Try these steps:

• Make sure you're on a graded quiz or practice quiz page — not just any Coursera page
• Press Alt+Shift+S to manually trigger a scan
• Refresh the page and wait for the 🎓 button to appear
• Check that the extension is enabled in chrome://extensions

If you're seeing authentication or key-related errors:

• Verify the key format — each provider has a distinct prefix: sk-or- (OpenRouter), AIza (Gemini), gsk_ (Groq), cbs- (Cerebras), nvapi- (NVIDIA)
• Check that the key hasn't expired or been revoked
• Use the 🔌 Test Connection button in the settings overlay (click the 🎓 button → Settings → scroll to the bottom) to validate your key
• Make sure you copied the entire key without trailing spaces

• Check if auto-select is enabled in the extension settings
• Some question types (text input, numeric) can't be auto-selected — answers are shown but must be entered manually
• Verify that the confidence threshold isn't set too high — answers below the threshold won't be auto-selected
• Green-highlighted answers are auto-selected; yellow and red are display-only

• Check your internet connection
• Some corporate or university networks block AI provider APIs — try a different network or use a VPN
• Try switching to a different provider in settings
• If all providers fail, check OpenRouter status or the provider's status page

The floating 🎓 button may have been dragged off-screen. Try:

• Refresh the page — the button resets to its default position
• Press Alt+Shift+C to open the popup directly
• Check that the extension is still enabled in chrome://extensions

The extension uses a circuit breaker pattern. When a provider fails repeatedly, it's temporarily disabled and the next provider in your priority list is tried automatically.

• Wait a few minutes — the circuit breaker will attempt recovery (half-open state)
• Try configuring a different provider as primary in settings
• Check if the provider's free tier has hit its rate limit — most reset hourly or daily

If your AI provider goes down mid-quiz, the extension has built-in resilience — but there are limits.

1. Automatic failover — the extension uses a circuit breaker that automatically tries the next configured provider when one fails
2. Queued retries — failed requests are queued and retried, so answers may appear with a delay rather than being lost
3. If ALL providers are down — you'll need to answer manually until at least one recovers

To protect yourself on timed quizzes:

• Always configure at least 2 providers as backup — OpenRouter, Gemini, and Groq all offer free tiers
• Check provider status pages if failures persist: OpenRouter, Google Cloud

Auto-Coursera requires a Chromium-based browser. Supported browsers include:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Brave
• Vivaldi
• Arc
• Opera / Opera GX

Firefox, Safari, and other non-Chromium browsers are not compatible. The extension uses Manifest V3 Chrome APIs that aren't available in other engines.

This message appears when the extension was installed via the shell installer. The installers use Chrome browser policies to register the extension, which triggers this message.

• This is normal and doesn't affect functionality
• The extension has the same permissions whether installed manually or via script
• To remove the message: uninstall using the uninstall script, then install manually via the unpacked method

Chrome disables extensions in incognito mode by default. To allow it:

1. Go to chrome://extensions
2. Find Auto-Coursera and click Details
3. Enable "Allow in Incognito"

Other extensions can occasionally interfere with Auto-Coursera:

• Disable other Coursera-related extensions — they may conflict with question detection
• Some ad blockers can interfere with API requests — try adding coursera.org to the allowlist
• Privacy extensions that block third-party requests may prevent AI provider calls

To check which version you have installed:

• Click the 🎓 button — the version appears in the panel header
• Or go to chrome://extensions and find Auto-Coursera — the version is listed there

The latest version is v2.0.0. It's always available on the Manual Install page or the GitHub releases page.