Download, install and update

Audience: Anyone setting up Manager on a computer for the first time, or keeping an existing install up to date.

How to obtain meshO Manager, install it on Windows or Mac, run it from the system tray or menu bar, open it on other devices, and keep it updated.

Install on one machine only

Before you start, the most important thing to understand:

You only install Manager on one computer per event. Every other device — registration laptops, the download desk, leaderboard TVs, commentators' tablets, spectators' phones — connects to that one machine through a web browser. Nothing to install on them. No accounts to create. They just open a URL.

Pick whichever computer you'd like to act as the server — your registration PC, your download PC, or a dedicated machine. As long as the other devices can reach it on the local network, it works. See How meshO Manager works for the architecture in more detail.

One exception: meshO Prime must plug into the server

There's a single piece of hardware that has to be physically connected to the server computer rather than any of the browser-only devices: the meshO Prime field unit that receives radio punches from the controls in the forest.

Prime connects to the server over USB (serial) and the server process is what reads from it. Browsers can't talk to Prime — they only display what the server has already received.

So when you pick which computer to install Manager on, make sure it has a free USB port for the Prime field unit.

Everything else — SportIdent download units, leaderboard TVs, registration laptops — can be on any device because those run through the browser. See Connecting meshO Prime and radios for the full setup.

System requirements

• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), or
• macOS 12 (Monterey) or later — both Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) and Intel are supported.
• A local network the other event devices can reach (Wi-Fi or wired). The server doesn't need an internet connection during the event — it's only required for downloading updates.

Download

Manager is distributed from the meshO Manager releases page on GitHub.

Open the latest release and pick the file that matches your computer:

Computer	File to download
Windows PC	meshOManager-<version>-win-x64-setup.exe
Mac with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)	meshOManager-<version>-osx-arm64.dmg
Intel-based Mac	meshOManager-<version>-osx-x64.dmg

Not sure which Mac you have? Click the Apple menu → About This Mac. If the Chip line says "Apple M1" / "M2" / "M3" / "M4", choose the osx-arm64 download. If it says "Intel", choose osx-x64.

About the .zip for macOS: the releases page also lists osx-arm64.zip and osx-x64.zip files. These are the raw application contents for the in-app auto-updater and for advanced users running Manager outside /Applications. For a normal install, use the .dmg — it's the standard Mac drag-to-Applications flow.

Install on Windows

1. Run meshOManager-<version>-win-x64-setup.exe.
2. Work around the browser and SmartScreen warnings — see Allowing the install on Windows below. Manager is currently distributed without a Microsoft-recognised code-signing certificate, so Windows will warn you about it the first time you install or run it.
3. The installer is a per-user install — there's no UAC / admin prompt. Manager is installed under your user account at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\meshO Manager.
4. Accept the default install location (recommended) or change it.
5. Click Install.
6. On the final page, leave Launch meshO Manager now ticked and click Finish.

The installer creates:

• A Start Menu entry under "meshO Manager"
• A desktop shortcut

Both shortcuts launch the tray app, not the server directly — see The tray icon (Windows) below.

Allowing the install on Windows

Until Manager ships with a code-signing certificate that Microsoft recognises, you'll have to click past two or three "are you sure?" prompts during install. None of them indicate a real problem — they just mean Microsoft hasn't seen this exact file enough times yet to vouch for it.

1. Browser download warning. Chrome and Edge may flag the setup.exe as "not commonly downloaded" and refuse to save it.

• Edge: click the ⋯ next to the blocked download → Keep → confirm Keep anyway.
• Chrome: click the ⋮ next to the blocked download → Keep.

2. Windows SmartScreen — "Windows protected your PC". When you run the installer, a blue dialog may appear: "Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognised app from starting."

• Click More info (the small link below the message).
• A Run anyway button appears — click it.

3. Antivirus quarantine. Some third-party antivirus products will quarantine the installer or the installed Server.exe because it's an unsigned executable that listens on a network port. If Manager fails to start after install, check your antivirus's quarantine list and add an exclusion for the install folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\meshO Manager).

Install on macOS

1. Double-click the downloaded .dmg. Finder mounts it and opens a window showing meshO Manager.app next to an Applications shortcut.
2. Drag meshO Manager.app onto the Applications shortcut to copy it across.
3. Eject the disk image — drag its icon to the Trash, or click the ⏏ next to its entry in the Finder sidebar.
4. Open Applications and launch meshO Manager for the first time.
5. Work around Gatekeeper — see Allowing the app on macOS below. Manager isn't notarised by Apple yet, so macOS will block the first launch.
6. Once you've allowed it, the app launches into the menu bar — see The menu bar icon (macOS) below.

Allowing the app on macOS

Apps that haven't been notarised by Apple are blocked by Gatekeeper on first launch. You only need to do this once — after the first successful launch, macOS remembers your decision and Manager opens normally from then on (including auto-updates).

Try the steps in order — most installs only need step 1.

1. Right-click → Open. In the Applications folder, right-click (or Control-click) meshO Manager.app and choose Open. A dialog appears warning that the developer can't be verified — click Open to confirm. Double-clicking the app instead of right-clicking won't show the Open button — it just blocks.

2. Approve from System Settings. If step 1 didn't work and you just got a flat "cannot be opened" dialog:

• Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
• Scroll to the Security section. You should see a message: "meshO Manager.app was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer."
• Click Open Anyway next to that message.
• Authenticate with Touch ID or your password if prompted.
• Launch the app again — this time a dialog will offer an Open button. Click it.

3. Clear the quarantine flag from Terminal. If macOS says the app is "damaged and can't be opened", that's the quarantine attribute set by your browser when you downloaded the zip. Open Terminal and run:

xattr -cr /Applications/meshO\ Manager.app

Then launch the app normally. This removes the quarantine attribute that was triggering the "damaged" message — the app itself is unchanged.

Why does this happen? Apple requires developers to submit each app build to its notarisation service, which scans for malware and signs the result. Manager's first release didn't go through that process yet, so macOS treats it as an unknown developer. Notarisation is on the roadmap and will remove these steps for future versions.

How the server runs in the background

Manager is split into two pieces:

• The server — the background process that holds your event data, receives radio punches from a connected meshO Prime field unit, and serves the web UI.
• A small tray / menu bar app that starts the server, keeps an icon visible so you can interact with it, and shuts the server down cleanly when you quit.

SportIdent download units (BSF7-USB / BSF8-USB) are not handled by the server. They're read directly by the browser on whichever device runs the download desk, using the browser's built-in Web Serial support, and the downloads are sent up to the server from there. That's why your download desk can be a different computer to the server — the SportIdent reader plugs into the download laptop, not the server. (meshO Prime, on the other hand, does plug into the server — see above.)

You never see a console window or a main app window. The server runs silently in the background; everything you see is in a browser tab.

When the tray / menu bar app starts:

1. It launches the server as a child process.
2. The server binds to port 5154 by default and starts serving the web UI.
3. Your default browser opens automatically to http://localhost:5154/manager.
4. The tray / menu bar icon stays visible so you can re-open the browser, find your data files, or quit.

Tip: If you have Google Chrome installed, Manager will use it. Chrome is the browser the UI is developed and tested against, so it tends to give the best results. Other browsers also work.

The tray icon (Windows)

After install, look for the meshO icon in the system tray (bottom-right of the taskbar, near the clock). You may need to click the ^ arrow to see hidden icons.

Available actions:

Action	How
Open Manager in browser	Double-click the tray icon, or right-click → Open (or Ctrl+O while the menu is open)
Find your event files in Explorer	Right-click → Show Files in Explorer
See the installed version	Right-click → About
Quit (also stops the server)	Right-click → Quit (or Ctrl+Q while the menu is open)

The menu bar icon (macOS)

After launch, look for the meshO icon in the menu bar at the top-right of the screen.

Available actions:

Action	How
Open Manager in browser	Click the menu bar icon → Open (or ⌘O while the menu is open)
Find your event files in Finder	Click the menu bar icon → Show Files in Finder
See the installed version	Click the menu bar icon → About
Quit (also stops the server)	Click the menu bar icon → Quit (or ⌘Q while the menu is open)

Manager doesn't appear in the Dock or ⌘+Tab switcher by design — it's a background app, controlled from the menu bar.

Opening Manager on other devices

The other devices at your event — laptops, tablets, phones, TVs — connect to the server over your local network.

1. Find the server's IP address

On the server PC, find its local IP address:

• Windows: open Command Prompt and run ipconfig. Look for an IPv4 Address under your active network adapter (e.g. 192.168.1.42).
• macOS: open System Settings → Network, click your active connection, and read the IP address at the top.

2. Open the URL on the other device

On the other device, open a web browser and navigate to:

http://<server-ip>:5154/manager

For example: http://192.168.1.42:5154/manager.

That's it — no install, no login. The page loads the full Manager UI and stays in sync in real time with everyone else.

Tip: Bookmark the URL on each device, or save it as a Home Screen shortcut on phones and tablets, so volunteers can re-open it with one tap on event day.

Different port?

If you've changed Server.Port in Settings → Server, use that port number instead of 5154 in the URL.

Firewall prompt on first launch

Windows may show a Windows Defender Firewall prompt the first time the server starts, asking whether to allow Manager to communicate on private and public networks. Tick Private networks and click Allow access — without it, other devices on the network can't reach the server.

Quitting Manager

Quit through the tray / menu bar icon:

• Windows: right-click the tray icon → Quit.
• macOS: click the menu bar icon → Quit.

This shuts down the server cleanly. Closing the browser tab on its own does not stop the server — the server keeps running in the background until you quit from the tray / menu bar.

Tip: You don't have to quit between events. Manager is happy sitting in the tray / menu bar indefinitely — leave it running and it'll be there for the next event with all your previous events still loaded. Many users just leave it running all the time.

Warning: Don't shut down the server PC mid-event. The server flushes event data to disk continuously, but a sudden power-off can still cost you the last few seconds of in-flight data. Always quit Manager first, or use the OS shutdown command (which gives Manager a chance to exit cleanly).

Re-launching

• Windows: open the Start Menu and search for "meshO Manager", or use the desktop shortcut.
• macOS: open Applications → meshO Manager, or launch it from Spotlight (⌘+Space, type "meshO").

Manager re-opens silently into the tray / menu bar and reopens your browser to the events page. Your previous events, settings, and downloads are all preserved — they live in a separate folder from the application itself (see Where your data is stored).

Launching at login

If you want Manager to start automatically when you log in:

• Windows: drop a shortcut to meshO Manager into shell:startup (open File Explorer, type shell:startup in the address bar, then drag the desktop shortcut in).
• macOS: open System Settings → General → Login Items, click + under "Open at Login", and add meshO Manager.app.

Updating

Manager checks for new versions in the background and tells you when one is available. You can apply updates manually, or let Manager apply them automatically when nothing's going on.

When a new version is available

A notification appears in the bottom-right corner of the Manager UI:

A new version (X) is available. Your current version is Y.

The notification has three buttons:

• Update Now — downloads and installs the new version immediately. The server stops, replaces itself, and restarts. The browser page reloads automatically once the new server is ready (usually 10–30 seconds).
• Release Notes — opens the GitHub release page in a new tab so you can see what changed.
• Dismiss — hides the notification for this browser session. It'll come back next time you reload, or when an even newer version is released.

Tip: The update notification is automatically hidden while a live event is running, so an installer banner can't distract a timing operator. Updates resume showing once the event is finished.

Automatic updates

If you'd rather not think about it, turn on automatic updates:

1. Open Settings → Auto Update.
2. Turn on Automatically install updates.

With auto-update on, the server checks for new versions every 30 minutes and applies them when all of these are true:

• No event is currently in Live mode.
• No browser tab is connected to Manager.

Those two guards mean an auto-update never interrupts an active event, and never yanks the page out from under you mid-session. If either guard fails, the update is deferred — auto-update will simply try again at the next check.

If an event is active or browsers are connected, the notification banner appears instead and you choose when to apply the update.

Manual check for updates

You can also force a check at any time:

1. Open Settings → Auto Update.
2. Click Check for Updates.

If a newer version exists, an Update Now button appears next to the result. Click it to apply the update immediately.

Installing an update manually

If you'd rather install updates by hand — for example, you want to test a release on a non-event machine before rolling it out — turn off Automatically install updates and download new installers from the releases page as you would for a fresh install.

• Windows: quit Manager from the tray, run the new setup.exe, and let it install over the existing version. You'll see the same SmartScreen and browser warnings as the original install — clear them the same way (see Allowing the install on Windows).
• macOS: quit Manager from the menu bar, mount the new .dmg, and drag meshO Manager.app onto the Applications shortcut, choosing Replace when prompted. Because the new download carries a fresh quarantine attribute, Gatekeeper will block the first launch of the replacement — clear it the same way (see Allowing the app on macOS).

Your events, settings, and downloads are kept across the upgrade.

Auto-updates don't hit these warnings. When Automatically install updates is on, the in-app updater downloads new versions directly (not through your browser, so no quarantine attribute on macOS) and on macOS it ad-hoc re-signs the new bundle and clears the quarantine flag for you. There's nothing to click past.

Where your data is stored

Manager keeps application files (the program itself) and your data (events, settings, logs) in separate places. Uninstalling or upgrading Manager only touches the application files — your data is preserved.

Windows

• Application files: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\meshO Manager (e.g. C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Programs\meshO Manager).
• Settings, logs and runtime state: %LOCALAPPDATA%\meshO Manager.
• Events and downloads: C:\Users\Public\Documents\meshO Manager — shared across users on the machine.

The fastest way to find your event files is Tray icon → Show Files in Explorer.

macOS

• Application: /Applications/meshO Manager.app.
• Events, settings, logs and downloads: ~/Library/Application Support/meshO Manager.

The fastest way to find your event files is Menu bar icon → Show Files in Finder.

Uninstalling

Windows

1. Quit Manager from the tray icon.
2. Open Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find meshO Manager, and choose Uninstall.

Your data folders (%LOCALAPPDATA%\meshO Manager and Public\Documents\meshO Manager) are intentionally left in place so you don't lose events if you reinstall later. Delete them manually if you want them gone.

macOS

1. Quit Manager from the menu bar icon.
2. Drag meshO Manager.app from Applications to the Trash.

Your data folder (~/Library/Application Support/meshO Manager) is left in place. Delete it manually if you want a clean slate.

Related

• How meshO Manager works — the one-server, many-browsers architecture in more detail.
• Walkthrough: your first event — what to do once Manager is installed.
• Multi-operator setup — patterns for running several operators against one server.
• Settings — auto-update, server port, and other options.
• Troubleshooting — what to do when something doesn't start.