LearnGrokYour Bots work on a cloud machine. When that machine is unavailable, the app cannot do much, but your Bot profiles and saved conversations are not necessarily gone with it, and the order in which you try things matters more than usual here.
First: is it setting up, or actually stuck?
Initial setup and image updates take several minutes and show progress while they run. If the progress text is still changing, wait. Restarting during setup buys you nothing and starts the clock again.
If it has stopped changing, or you get an error, work down the list below.
The recovery ladder
Take these in order. They are listed least destructive first, and the last one is the only one that can lose work.
| Step | What it does | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Retry, or reopen the conversation | Nothing structural | Nothing |
| 2. Restart the Grok Bot app | Reconnects the client | Nothing |
| 3. Recover computer (when offered) | Replaces an unreachable machine | Preserves durable files and logins |
| 4. Update Agent Computer (Settings → Beta) | Rebuilds on the latest image | Preserves durable files and logins |
| 5. Wait for the replacement to come up | - | Time |
| 6. Reset Agent Computer | Returns to the last durable snapshot | Can discard recent unsaved or unsynced work |
Step 6 is the one to be deliberate about. Reset is not a stronger restart; it rolls back to a snapshot. Use it only when recovery and update have both failed and losing recent work is acceptable.
Where you can, let active work finish before starting a recovery.
What survives: and what does not
Durable across recovery and update: files in the shared workspace, browser state, and supported sign-ins. Explicitly replaceable: temporary directories, packages installed by hand, and unsaved application state.
The practical lesson is about where work lives. A result that only exists in a temp directory is a result you can lose to a recovery. Project files belong in the shared workspace, in clear folders.
Things people confuse
Updating the app is not updating the computer. They are separate. A desktop app update does not reset or rebuild the cloud machine, and an out-of-date app is worth ruling out early; it is on the documented list for a machine that will not come up.
A closed laptop is not a stopped Bot. Cloud work carries on when the desktop app or phone is closed or disconnected. If the app cannot reach the computer, the Bot may still be working; you have lost the view, not the worker.
Mobile cannot reset a computer. That is a desktop-only operation.
If it keeps happening on a team
Repeatedly losing the machine, or losing sessions on it, is worth raising with whoever administers your organisation; sessions inside the computer can drop when it is recreated or its network address changes, and there are organisation-level remedies that individual members cannot apply.
What changes
Recovery controls sit partly under a beta section and their names and placement move. Check the current troubleshooting page if a control described here is not where you expect it.
