Make Otto use the browser you're already signed in to (Edge or Chrome) - and stop "Verify you are human"

You asked Otto to do something on a website and it opens its own browser instead of the one you use every day. None of your sign-ins are in it, so now it wants me to sign in to a new browser on chrome everytime and log in, and on some machines before i can finish signing in, it closes the window. Or the page never loads at all: Cloudflare puts up verify you are human, you tick the box, it says Verifying you are human, and then it loops instead of loading the site with a new Ray ID every round. Those look like two separate faults. They are one fault, and one setting fixes both.

This is also your article if you wrote in with after the newest update, my Google Sheets connection stopped working, or i was connected through Microsoft Edge and it would read my browser and just fill the information for me, or Still having problems getting desktop to work thru my Microsoft Edge browser. And if The commands on terminal work just fine while the desktop operations aren't as smooth as Terminal, that gap is real and it has a cause: in the terminal you approve every step as it happens, so nothing has to be arranged in advance. The desktop app works hands-off, so it runs entirely on the saved switches below.

Why Otto's browser has none of your logins

An update moved Otto's web work into its own dedicated Chrome window, the tool called Web browsing (Chrome). That window deliberately runs a separate browser profile, kept in its own folder inside the app's data, so that a sign-in and a half-finished page survive from one turn to the next and never touch your personal browser. The trade-off is the thing in front of you: it will never show your everyday Google login, your Microsoft Edge session, or the Google Sheet you already have open, because it is not your browser and it never will be.

The Cloudflare loop is the same fact wearing a different hat. That separate profile carries none of your cookies and none of your session, so when Otto opens a lead page on a marketplace like GigSalad or The Bash, Cloudflare sees a brand new anonymous automated browser with no history and throws the human check. You pass it, the next request looks anonymous again, and the Cloudflare challenge keeps looping with a fresh Ray ID each time. Two real ones captured from a customer's session: a21d52d58ef8f7af and a21d533c4e1dcb91. You cannot click your way out of that loop. Nothing is wrong with your clicking; the browser has no trusted history with the site.

An earlier version of this article blamed the browsing helper restarting under you. That was a real fault and it was fixed, and there is a section on it at the end. It is not what causes the human-check loop. The separate profile is.

Signing in to that window will not give you your own logins

Almost everyone tries this first, so it is worth being exact about what it buys you. A sign-in you make inside that window does last: that profile is kept on purpose, so the login is still there on the next run. What it cannot do is hand Otto the session you already have. It is a different profile from yours by design, so signing in there gets you a second, unrelated session, never your everyday Google or Microsoft one. If the window also shuts before you finish, that is the long-lived window failing to take hold on your machine, so Otto falls back to a throwaway window that is destroyed the moment the turn ends, taking the half-finished sign-in with it. On older builds the usual cause was not having Google Chrome installed at all. Either way, it is not the road to your own logins, and the setting below removes the need for it.

One more expectation to set plainly: Web browsing (Chrome) will not drive the Microsoft Edge window you are signed in to. Recent versions can run that dedicated window on Edge when Chrome is not installed on the machine, but it is still a fresh separate profile, not your everyday Edge with your logins in it.

The setting that fixes it: Web tasks use my own browser

Version 1.11.14 added a setting called Web tasks use my own browser. With it on, Otto stops using its own separate window and does its web work by clicking inside the browser you are already signed in to: your Edge, your Chrome, your logins, your Google Sheets. The separate-profile browser never launches while that routing is active. Cloudflare lets Otto straight through, because the session it sees is your real trusted one, and Otto can read the full lead page (venue, guest count and budget) and pre-fill the quote form for you to send with one click. Turn the preference off later and the old dedicated-browser behaviour comes back exactly as it was.

Three things must all be true or the routing never activates:

1. Web tasks use my own browser is switched on in Settings.
2. Control this computer is switched on under Tool access on More > Connections.
3. Control this computer's reach is set to Read & write (allow actions) on Settings > Permissions.

Point three is the one that catches people, and it is worth saying bluntly. Switching Control this computer on gives it look-only reach by default. It can see your screen and it cannot click or type. So you can follow every instruction, have every switch on, and still watch Otto fail with no explanation at all. From version 1.11.15, when the reach is look-only the app keeps using its own separate browser (which works) rather than stranding you with a browser nobody can drive, and it says plainly what is missing, both in Settings and in chat.

Do it in this order

1. Update first. The setting only exists in recent builds, and the two fixes that make it survivable came later still, so aim for 1.11.23 or newer. In the app, click Check for updates at the top of the window, or download it directly: Windows booked.kivimedia.co/download/win, Mac booked.kivimedia.co/download/mac, Linux booked.kivimedia.co/download/linux. On Windows, SmartScreen will warn you: click More info, then Run anyway. To see what you are on, open Settings and read the Updates section, which names your version.
2. Set the reach before you flip the switch. Open Settings > Permissions, find Control this computer, and set it to Read & write. If it is not in that list yet, switch it on under Tool access on More > Connections first, or ask Otto for it in chat and tap Approve.
3. Now switch on Web tasks use my own browser in Settings.
4. Fully quit Booked Solid, not only close the window, and open it again.
5. Open your own browser, Edge or Chrome, sign in to the site you want Otto to work on, and leave that window visible on screen, not minimised.
6. Start a fresh chat and tell Otto in plain words: use the Chrome window I already have open, or name Edge if that is the one you use.

One correction while you are in there, because support gave this out wrongly once and sent a customer hunting: there is no Accounts tab. Tools are switched on under Tool access on More > Connections, and how far each one may reach is set on Settings > Permissions.

Why the quit and the fresh chat are not optional

This is the part that costs people a week, so read it even if the rest looked obvious. Otto decides which browser it will use once, at the moment a conversation begins. The tool wiring and the routing are fixed when the chat starts. Flipping these switches in the middle of a conversation changes nothing in that conversation. It takes effect in the next one.

A customer had all three settings correct for days and kept testing in the chat he already had open, which was the one chat that could not possibly use them. Two support replies in a row told him his settings were wrong. They were not, and he had to send screenshots to prove it. From version 1.11.23 the Settings panel states this outright, in a note under the switch, so nobody else loses a week to it.

What success looks like: Otto works inside your own window, and no separate Chrome window pops up.

How to tell it is actually on

Under the Web tasks use my own browser switch there is a small amber note. While anything is still missing, that note names exactly what: that Control this computer needs switching on, or that it can only look right now. When the amber note is gone, the routing is live. That is your green light, and it is the app's own verdict rather than a guess. From version 1.11.23 the look-only version of that note also carries an Allow actions now button that sets the permission in place for you, so you do not have to go to another tab for it.

Do I need to turn off Web browsing (Chrome)?

No. The question came in word for word: Do I need to turn off the Web Browsing (Chrome) so it stops using Chrome to check everything? Once Web tasks use my own browser is on and Control this computer is at Read & write, the app benches its own separate Chrome for Otto's web work. That connector is not registered for the session at all, so Otto cannot reach for it even if it wanted to. Leaving Web browsing (Chrome) switched on does no harm. It sits there as a fallback for if you ever turn the other switches back off.

So if it's still opening Chrome, or It kept opening a new browser window until I told it to use the one I already had open, the cause is almost always a chat that started before the settings took hold. Fully quit, reopen, start a fresh chat. If a separate window still opens in a brand new chat after a clean restart, that is a deeper routing problem and we want to see it. See the last section.

Mac only: one more permission, from macOS itself

Control this computer also needs a one-time permission from the operating system on a Mac, and without it clicking and typing are refused however the app is set. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security and enable Booked Solid under both Accessibility and Screen Recording. On Windows the Read & write reach is all it needs.

Known issue: the Booked Solid window takes focus back

While a Control this computer task is running, Otto keeps pulling focus back to the app window. One customer reported that clicking the address bar immediately returned focus to the Booked Solid app window, and that clicking a tab or using Ctrl+2 puts me back in Booked Solid rather than the browser. That was reproduced across five consecutive attempts with no settings changed in between. It is a bug on our side, not anything you set wrong, and we are tracking it.

The workaround is the same fix as above: stop letting Otto hand-drive a separate window. With own-browser routing on, there is no second window left to fight over focus.

If you cannot update yet

There is a way to get the old behaviour back on an older build. Under Tool access, turn Web browsing (Chrome) off so Otto stops opening the separate window. Leave Control this computer on at Read & write. Open Google Sheets, or whichever site you need, yourself in your normal already signed-in browser, then ask Otto to fill it in and add the words use the Chrome window I already have open. Otto then reads your real screen and types into your real signed-in browser: no new window, no new sign-in. Anything that would submit or post still waits for your OK.

GigSalad and The Bash: a partial stopgap in the meantime

If Otto cannot reliably read or reply to new GigSalad leads right now, because navigating to my GigSalad page through the Chrome browser connection hits the wall described above, you can read the new-lead notification email through your Gmail connection instead. Ask Otto to search from:gigsalad.com. That reliably returns the event type, date and time.

Be clear about what it does not give you: the GigSalad notification email does not contain the venue, the guest count, or the budget. Those exist only on the lead page itself. So this is a partial picture and you cannot quote accurately from it. It is a stopgap while you get the settings lined up, not a replacement for them.

If the page keeps resetting to blank, or the connection keeps dropping

That is a different and older fault, and it is fixed. The browsing helper used to be fetched fresh from the internet every time it started, so a slow resolve or a version that changed mid-session showed up as browser control dropping and reconnecting, the page resetting to blank, and a human check that could never finish underneath it. Version 1.7.16 pinned the helper to a fixed version, and current builds ship it inside the app so it never re-fetches at all. If you are seeing this, you are on an old build: update and it goes away.

If it still does not work

If a separate Chrome still opens in a brand new chat, after a clean quit and reopen, with your own browser open and visible on screen, that is a routing problem and we want evidence rather than another guess. Open Settings, turn on Enable Support Logging, reproduce the problem once, then click Generate Support Bundle and send us the file. The bundle does not capture your messages, your client details, your passwords, or your saved keys. From version 1.11.23 it does report your real permission levels; before that it reported only a count with the values hidden, which is exactly why support once told a customer his permission was wrong when it was not.

Related reading: Web browsing and Browser control: what Otto can and cannot do for what each browsing tool can reach, Computer control: let Otto work your desktop, and its limits for what Control this computer can and cannot do, and Settings > Permissions: how far each connected tool can reach for the reach levels themselves.

Still stuck? Submit a ticket from this help center and we will take it from there. Tell us which browser you use, which version you are on, and whether the amber note under the switch is showing.