The "Web browsing" switch will not turn on: update the app first, and the other reasons a connector refuses (key, sign-in, Node.js)

You tapped the switch for Web browsing (Chrome) and it did not move. You wrote in the way one customer did: the Web Browsing button isn't working. Or you have pressed it five times and nothing happens when I tap it, so the switch won't turn on and by now you have decided the button is broken. It is almost certainly not broken. On any recent version of the app the fix is also not the one the older help pages gave you, so start with the section below rather than with an install. This page covers Web browsing first, because it is far and away the switch that refuses most often, and then the other notes any connector can stop you with.

Start here: Web browsing has not needed Node.js since version 1.7.20

If you have read anywhere that Web browsing needs you to install the free Node.js tool before it will switch on, that was true and it is no longer true. It is worth saying flatly, because it is the single biggest time waster on this connector.

Web browsing (Chrome) used to launch through a package fetched from the internet each time it ran. That meant Node.js had to be present on your computer, and without it the switch refused with this exact note: This one needs the free Node.js tool installed first (nodejs.org). Version 1.7.20, released on 17 July 2026, moved that browser tool inside the app so it runs on the app's own runtime. Nothing is fetched and nothing is left for you to install.

So your first move is not a download. It is to check your version and update.

1. Let the app update itself. It checks on its own, so a newer build may already be waiting the next time you open it.
2. If you would rather have it now, get it from booked.kivimedia.co/download.
3. Open More > Connections, find Web browsing (Chrome) under Tool access, and press Turn on.

Anything in the 1.11 line is long past this. The same change fixed a second complaint people rarely connected to it: on the old path the browser server was re-fetched on every relaunch, which showed up as browser control dropping and reconnecting inside a single session, pages resetting to blank, and a Cloudflare verify you are human check that could never complete. Bundled inside the app, the version is frozen at build time and starts instantly.

The one thing Web browsing does still need: a browser on the computer

Node.js is gone. A browser is not. Browsing runs in a dedicated Chrome window that keeps its own sign-ins between runs, and the app's own card says as much: Needs Google Chrome installed on this computer. Since version 1.11.8 a machine that has never had Chrome will use Microsoft Edge instead, because Edge runs the same engine underneath. Chrome is still preferred when both are installed. If the computer has neither, installing one of them is the real missing piece.

Older than 1.7.20 and you cannot update right now

Only in this case does the Node.js route still apply, and there is a step in the middle of it that almost everyone misses.

1. Go to nodejs.org and take the big green LTS button. Run the installer and accept all the defaults. It is free.
2. Fully quit Booked Solid and open it again. Do not skip this one. On those older builds the app could hold on to the answer it got when it started, so it kept refusing the switch even though Node.js was now sitting right there on the machine. Tapping the switch harder cannot clear that. Quitting and reopening can, and it costs you thirty seconds.
3. Go back to More > Connections, find Web browsing (Chrome) under Tool access, and press Turn on once more.

That is the sequence that ended the ticket this article came from. The customer reported the finish line in his own words: I did get the nodes thing working and that button that didn't do anything now says "on". If you get there too, you will describe it the same way, because that is exactly what it looks like: the button that didn't do anything now says on.

Updating is still the better answer. This route leaves you carrying an install you do not need.

Where the app tells you why, in plain words

A switch that refuses is never silent by design. There are two places the reason is printed, and both print the same words, because both screens flip the same switch.

• On the Connections tab. Press Turn on on a card under Tool access and, if it is refused, the reason appears inside that same card, right beside the button you pressed. This is where to look first.
• On Settings > Permissions. Under What each connected tool may do, every connector has its own on and off switch, and a refused switch-on prints the reason in plain words at the top of that list. It covers every refusal the app can give: a missing key, a missing account login, a missing inbox or calendar, a connector this computer cannot run, and the legacy Node.js note.

Whatever it says, that wording is the single most useful thing you can put in a support ticket.

"Discover integrations" cannot install Web browsing. Skip that step.

Almost everyone tries this first, and it is a dead end. It is also the specific dead end that made a customer conclude the Web Browsing button was broken, so it earns its own section.

Discover integrations only scans for tools that some other app on this computer has already set up, so that you can reuse them. It looks at Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Cursor. On a fresh machine there is nothing to find, and that is completely normal. The scan says so and stops: Nothing found - no other app on this computer has tools set up that I can reuse. On older builds that was the end of the road on the Connections tab, while the switch that actually adds Web browsing sat one section higher up the same screen, unmentioned. Version 1.7.16 rewrote that empty state so it points at Tool access instead of leaving you at a full stop. The scan on Settings > Permissions still ends on the original wording, so if you meet it there it means the same thing: nothing to reuse, use the switch instead.

The path that works is More > Connections > Tool access > Web browsing (Chrome) > Turn on. That connector ships with the app and switches on right there. Discovery is only for adopting something you already have.

The notes a connector refuses with, and where each fix lives

"Add its key first (on the Connections tab), then switch it on"

Most add-ons (Apollo, Hunter.io, Telegram, HighLevel CRM, GitHub, Netlify, OpenAI images, ElevenLabs voice, Stripe, Square) run on a key you paste once. If the key is missing, the add-on will not turn on until you add it.

1. Open the Connections tab.
2. Find the card for the service (for example Apollo or Telegram).
3. Click Paste key. The app can open the provider's key page for you, so you do not have to hunt for it.
4. Paste the key. It is saved encrypted on your computer, and you will only ever see a masked preview of it.
5. Go back and switch the add-on on. It should turn on now.

"Connect its account first, then switch it on"

A few connectors use a saved login rather than a single pasted key. PayPal and Mago CRM are the two you are most likely to meet. The wording differs but the fix is the same shape: on that connector's own card on the Connections tab the button reads Enter login rather than Paste key. Complete it there, then switch the connector on.

"Sign in to Microsoft first (on its card), then switch it on"

The Microsoft 365 add-on (Outlook, Teams) does not use a pasted key. It uses a Microsoft sign-in with a short device code, so no password ever touches the app. If you have not signed in yet, the add-on refuses with that note.

1. Find the Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams) card.
2. Start the sign-in. You get a short code to enter on microsoft.com/devicelogin.
3. Once the card shows a green Signed in as ... line, press Turn on on that same card. Signing in is not the same as switching on, and that last button is the one people miss.

"This one needs the free Node.js tool installed first (nodejs.org)"

This note is now a legacy note. On current builds no connector that ships with the app asks for Node.js, Web browsing included. Older help text said the Stripe and PayPal add-ons needed it; that is out of date too, because both now run on a server bundled inside the app. Stripe refuses for a missing key, and PayPal for a missing account connection, not for Node.js. If you are genuinely seeing this note, you are on an old build, and the answer is the update at the top of this page.

"Gmail" and calendar switches that will not move

Two connectors refuse because something has to exist before them rather than because anything is broken. Gmail (app password) needs your Gmail saved as an inbox first, under Mail & calendars higher up the same screen; saving it switches the connector on for you. The native calendar connector needs at least one calendar added there, by private calendar link (ICS) or a private calendar sign-in, and it too switches itself on once one exists.

"... is not available on this computer yet"

Some connectors only exist on some systems. Web browsing (Safari) is Mac only, and Outlook on this computer and Control this computer are Mac and Windows only. This note is not a fault and there is nothing to install that changes it.

It is fine to park browser control, and here is why we say so

Worth hearing before you spend another evening on this. Browser control and computer control are the two fiddliest connections in the app, and Otto works perfectly well without either of them. If this one keeps fighting you, park it and come back another day. Gmail and your calendar are the connections that actually move the needle on getting booked, and neither of them needs browsing to work.

Good to know

• Most add-ons start with read access only. The three mail connectors (Microsoft 365, Outlook on this computer, Gmail (app password)) also start able to prepare drafts, because drafting is the whole of what they can do: none of them has a send tool at any setting. Anything outgoing goes through the Draft flow so you approve it first, and each tool's reach is yours to change on Settings > Permissions.
• Which tools a conversation has are decided when that conversation starts. If you switch a connector on while a chat is already open, that chat carries on with the tools it was born with. Start a new chat after flipping any switch.
• If a saved key can no longer be unlocked on this machine (for example after a computer or password change), the tool is quietly left out of Otto's runs rather than running half-broken. The fix is the same as the first note above: click Remove key on its Connections card, then Paste key again.
• Anything a browsing task tries to submit, upload, or post waits for your approval, whatever the rest of your settings say.

Prefer a fully managed experience? Booked Solid OS runs on your computer and you stay hands-on. If you would rather have this handled for you on a hosted platform (lead finding, follow-ups, email sending, invoicing, all managed in one place), take a look at KM Hub from the same team.

If it still does not work

Go down this list and stop at the first thing that is not true of your setup.

1. You are on 1.7.20 or newer, ideally the current 1.11 line.
2. Chrome, or Edge on a machine that has never had Chrome, is installed.
3. You pressed Turn on under Tool access on the Connections tab, not Discover integrations.
4. You read the refusal note next to that card, or on Settings > Permissions.
5. You started a fresh chat after the switch went on.

If all five are true and it still refuses, email bookedsolid@kivimedia.freshdesk.com and a person will help. Send three things and you will save yourself a round trip: your app version, the exact wording of the note on the card or on the Permissions tab, and whether the switch stays off or flips on and then falls back off. Those three answers usually name the fix in the first reply.