Ulysses Not Working? Common Errors & Fixes

Ulysses syncs only through Apple's iCloud Drive, so sync failures almost always come from iCloud settings: different Apple Accounts, iCloud Drive or Ulysses turned off, full iCloud storage, or stalled background services. Check those, restart every device, then contact Ulysses support.

Ulysses asks you to subscribe even though you paid. It's almost always an App Store sign-in mismatch: sign out of the App Store and back in with the account that bought the subscription, then restart the device.

Restore Purchases fails when you're signed in with a different Apple Account, the subscription has lapsed, or you're restoring on a different platform than where you bought it. Restore on the original platform; other devices then pick it up through iCloud.

Missing sheets are usually a sync issue or a sync conflict, not deleted data. Check the other devices first, then restore from Ulysses' built-in local backups via File > Browse Backups on the Mac.

Ulysses publishes to WordPress over XML-RPC. 'Failed to connect. Please verify the URL of your blog' usually means your host, server config or a security plugin blocks xmlrpc.php. Allow XML-RPC (and use HTTPS), then add the blog again.

If you locked Ulysses with a password and forgot it, recover it from Keychain Access on the Mac. On iPhone/iPad, send the Password Token from Settings to Ulysses support to get a reset token.

A gray Ulysses icon means you're still on the old 'Ulysses Mobile' app. Install 'Ulysses Writing App', confirm your subscription and content are there, then delete the gray app.

Ulysses supports tables since version 27, but only in the Markdown XL markup. If (tbl) does nothing, convert the sheet to Markdown XL or assign the (tbl) tag in your custom markup.

Current Ulysses needs macOS 15.4+ or iOS/iPadOS 26+. On older systems you can only get the last compatible build from the App Store, and only if Ulysses was installed before with the same Apple Account.

Ulysses subscriptions are handled by Apple, so cancel in your Apple Account subscriptions and request refunds at reportaproblem.apple.com. Ulysses itself can't cancel or refund.

Slow PDF export of long texts and blank pages caused by manual page breaks were bugs fixed in Ulysses 41.2 (October 2026). Update the app; if blank pages remain, remove manual page breaks.