> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.usepitboard.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Recover after a crash, a restore or a move

> Finish or give up on an interrupted switch, find lost parked logins, and take over another computer's pitboard directory.

A crash, a restore or a move to another computer can leave pitboard out of step with your logins. Most fixes use the command line. If you have only the app, first [add the app's command line to your `PATH`](/install#add-the-apps-command-line-to-your-path).

## An interrupted switch cannot be finished

Every command that changes something stops with an error saying an earlier switch `was interrupted, and pitboard cannot yet tell whether it finished`. In the app, a switch fails with the same message, and the **Accounts** pane shows the notice **An interrupted switch is waiting**. `pitboard doctor` and the app's **This Mac** pane list `interrupted switch` until a change finishes it.

A switch stopped halfway, for example in a power cut, and pitboard cannot tell whose login the tool is using. For how pitboard settles a switch, see [How switching works](/concepts/switching#interrupted-switches).

<Steps>
  <Step title="Run the tool and try again">
    Run `claude` once for Claude Code, or `codex` for OpenAI's Codex CLI, so the tool refreshes its login. Then run the command that stopped again. It finishes or undoes the switch first, and a warning says which: `it had in fact finished` or `it had not finished, and nothing was lost`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Give up on the switch">
    If the error comes back, for example because Anthropic cannot be reached, run:

    ```sh theme={null}
    pitboard abandon
    ```

    ```text theme={null}
    Gave up on the interrupted switch from work to personal. 2 login(s) kept; nothing was deleted. Run `pitboard` to see who is signed in.
    ```

    In the app, click **Give Up** in that notice, then click **Give Up** to confirm.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check who is signed in">
    Run `pitboard`. The account each tool is using shows `signed in`.
  </Step>
</Steps>

If instead the error says `this run reads it from somewhere else`, pitboard is running with a different `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` or `CODEX_HOME` from the switch. Run the command again with the variable set as it was then, or run `pitboard abandon`.

If it says `the record of an interrupted switch` is damaged, check that `pitboard status` shows the account you expect as `signed in`. Then delete the file the error names, usually `~/.pitboard/journal.json`.

## pitboard lost track of parked logins

After `~/.pitboard` is restored from a backup or loses files, `pitboard` can show `nothing parked` for an account whose [parked login](/concepts/switching#parked-logins) is still there.

Run `pitboard repair` before you sign in to any account again. Signing in parks a login, and `repair` gives nothing back to an account that has one.

```sh theme={null}
pitboard repair
```

It looks for parked logins pitboard has no record of, in the keychain or, on Linux, in `~/.pitboard/vault/`. It gives each back to its account if that account has none, and prints `Gave personal back a parked login that nothing named.` For its other messages, see [Recovery commands](/reference/recovery-commands#repair).

On macOS, every pitboard directory shares the keychain, so pitboard cannot tell which one a login `repair` gives back came from. `pitboard forget` and `pitboard uninstall` leave such a login in the keychain until you switch to its account or pitboard renews it.

## The pitboard directory came from another computer

If Migration Assistant, a backup from another Mac or a copy brought `~/.pitboard` to this computer, pitboard refuses to use it. Commands stop with an error saying the account list `was written on another computer`. In the app, pitboard's menu shows **Couldn't read usage**, and the **Accounts** pane shows **Couldn't Read Accounts** with the same message.

Run `pitboard adopt`. It keeps your accounts and drops the parked logins that came with them.

```sh theme={null}
pitboard adopt
```

```text theme={null}
Took over this directory: 2 account(s) kept.
1 parked login(s) dropped, because a login belongs to the computer that signed in.
Sign in to each again:
  pitboard enroll personal --sign-in
```

Then sign in to each account it lists: run the lines it prints, or follow [Sign in to an account again](/guides/sign-in-again).

For why parked logins stay on the computer that signed in, see [What pitboard will not do](/concepts/limits#rules).