Blank screen
Grok Bot white screen, empty roster, or hidden bots
Do not Reset to find a missing bot. Cursor Help: open the same account on the phone, then Hidden Bots in the sidebar. Hide from sidebar removes the row only. The bot stays active. Chats are stored outside the computer, so a blank window is not deleted history.
Three blanks that are not the same bug
People say white screen, black screen, and empty roster as if they were one reinstall. Split them. The fix for a local Mac config folder will not provision a free-plan computer, and Reset will not repaint a window whose config is still broken.
- White window right after install, usually Mac. The package may be fine. Local config is not.
- Black spinner with no desktop, especially on first setup. Either the computer is still coming up, a tunnel is blocking it, or no computer was ever provisioned.
- Empty roster after you already had bots. Often sleep. Sometimes you logged in while a rebuild was still starting, and the app showed the new-user flow.
White window on Mac
Fully quit with the menu-bar Quit item. In Finder, Go to Folder, open ~/Library/Application Support/, and rename Grok Bot to Grok Bot.bak. On Windows the twin folder is %APPDATA%\Grok Bot. Open the app from Applications or the Start menu, not from the installer. Reinstall alone does not clear that folder, which is why a second download from x.ai/bot changes nothing. Keep the .bak folder until you see the roster. This is local app state. It is not the cloud computer, and renaming it is not Reset. If the app hangs on every launch after a real quit, Cursor Help says contact support with the platform and version from About, rather than Reset.
If macOS never got as far as a window because it said the app is not supported or damaged, stop treating it as a white screen. That is the wrong chip package or a bad file. The Mac download page is the Gatekeeper and Apple silicon path. Drag a fresh official build into Applications after you trash the bad one.
Black spinner
A black loading screen during initial setup has two common causes, and they ask for opposite fixes. On a free Cursor plan, or a team admin without a Standard or Premium seat, no hosted computer is provisioned. The spinner is the app waiting for a machine that will not be created. Network tweaks will not help. You need access, then a full quit and reopen. On a paid seat, a black screen can instead be the tunnel: WARP has produced a blank screen, and a Zscaler-style tunnel has stuck Windows 11 on a black loader. Use a phone hotspot before you conclude the install is corrupt. The can't-reach page lists that order.
A black or white loader next to an empty roster, after you previously had bots, is the wake-from-sleep case below. Do not mix it up with the free-plan spinner. If you had a roster yesterday, you are not in the missing-seat case today unless the plan actually changed.
Empty roster after reconnect
Check Hidden Bots before you assume the roster was wiped. Cursor Help: Hide from sidebar only removes the row. Open Hidden Bots or Show Hidden Bots, then Unhide. Sections and hidden rows sync between iPhone and desktop. Deleting a sidebar section moves bots to Unassigned. It does not delete them. Also open the same Cursor account on the phone. A different login is an empty roster with your bots still on the other account.
The Agent Computer waking from sleep is slow. The app can show an empty roster and a loader while the machine comes back. Nothing was deleted. Wait. Fully quit. Open again. Do not Reset to force the list to repaint. Reset is how an empty-looking roster becomes an actually empty computer. A low-disk warning is also not data loss: Disk Saver proposes cleanup and deletes nothing until you confirm.
The crueler variant shows up after a rebuild. Logging in while the computer is still starting draws the first-run UI, as if you were a new user with no bots. Fully quit. Do not create a first bot in that window. A bot created there is a new teammate on a computer that was about to show the old ones, and you will not be able to tell which is which. Come back when the computer view is a desktop you recognize. Then open the roster before you type anything.
What still is not a white screen
Account unavailable after a password change is a stale session. Log out, fully quit, sign in. That screen is the login page. Not responding, with the computer visible, is usage. Can't reach, with those words on screen, is the network page. If you have tried the rename, the seat check, and a patient reopen, and both phone and desktop are blank for days, email hi@cursor.com rather than Reset. Include the version and whether iOS on cellular is blank too.
FAQ
Grok Bot opens to a white screen. Will reinstalling fix it?
Not by itself. Fully quit, rename ~/Library/Application Support/Grok Bot to Grok Bot.bak, and relaunch. That local config survives a reinstall.
The roster is empty. Were the bots deleted?
Often no. Open Hidden Bots, and check the same Cursor account on the phone. Hide from sidebar does not delete a bot. Sleep can also show an empty list while the computer wakes. Do not Reset to look for them.
It looks like a brand-new account after a rebuild. Should I create a first Bot?
No. Logging in while the computer is still starting shows the first-run screen. Fully quit and come back when the computer is up. Do not create a bot in that window.
The spinner is black and I am on the free Cursor plan.
No hosted computer was provisioned. That is not your network and not a broken download. You need a plan that includes Grok Bot, or a real seat on a team.
Related
- Grok Bot guide — Confirm you installed Grok Bot and not grok.com or Grok Build.
- Mac download — Chip package, Applications, and Gatekeeper.
- Stuck labels — Connecting and Setting up, when there is text under the spinner.
- Can't reach — Hotspot, DNS, and tunnels that paint a blank screen.
- First Bot — Only after a real roster is visible. Not during a fake first-run.
Sources
- White screen on open
- Empty roster and sleep
- New-user screen after rebuild
- Free-plan spinner
- Admin without a seat
- Official troubleshooting