Common Issues

You have most likely not correctly configured your model. We have seen this problem in practice when your model has been considered for “streaming” responses, which is wrong. It should provide the response in one go, as otherwise parts may be missing. For instance, when using the Google Gemini models, do not set them up as “streamGenerateContent”, rather “GenerateContent”. Once this is done, which also needs to be configured on the server side in the case of Google, it should work. 

Outlook has a feature that monitors the time add-ins take to start. If this is not immediate (e.g., 500-1000 milliseconds), it will complain and turn-off the add-in. You have to then do two things:

• First, you have to turn in on again. In Outlook, go to “Options”, then “Add-ins” and at the bottom of the page, go to to “COM-Add-ins” and “Go…”. There you can turn-on Red Ink again. On your next start-up, you will be asked whether you want to keep it activated, which you want. However, this setting will only work for up to 30 days. For more, see the second step.
• Second, ask you IT department to configure Outlook not to monitor the performance of add-ins when starting up or permanently whitelist Red Ink. To do the former, add to the registry at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\<Version>\Outlook\Resiliency the DWORD DisablePerformanceMonitor = 1. If you use the key DoNotDisableAddinList you can also individually whitelist Red Ink.

One user needs only one license, even if such user uses Red Ink on several systems. However, the license needs to be registered separately on each system and in each add-in separately. Unless you use a centrally managed license activation, you will therefore have to enter the license information for each copy of Red Ink and on each computer (only once unless you re-install Red Ink). Hence, if you have all three Red Ink add-ins on two separate computer systems, you need to enter your license information six times.

When entering the license information, make sure you provide always the same user ID. If you use different user IDs the license management server will treat this as two or more separate users and you will run out of user activations too fast (in such case, you need to deactivate them via your account in the online shop or using the license management feature accessible via “Settings” > “About Red Ink”). If you set up your license manually, we recommend to use your e-mail address as a user ID. If you partially or fully use a centrally managed configuration (e.g., if you are using Red Ink in a virtual desktop environment or network), we recommend using a user ID that can be generated automatically and do so using the configuration file ‘redink.ini’. For example, an entry could look like this:

LicenseKey = 71bd20fds4c8ebc447sf9321bad46285ab272e322
LicenseProductID = 1493
LicenseUserID = %USERNAME%
LicenseAutoMode = True
LicenseClearAll = True

; optional, if you do not want the user to be notified of the license activation/registration
LicenseAutoModeSilent = True

The variable %USERNAME% will translate to the user name configured in your network (e.g., Peter.Parker). The advantage of this approach is that license activation and registration happens automatically. If you additionally need to do a “manual” installation, make sure you use the same user ID on these systems (you can see the user ID used through “Settings” > “About Red Ink”).

The reason for this is that the deinstallation of an old version of Red Ink did not work properly and that, therefore, the installation program runs into a problem that it cannot handle (it still sees remainders of the old version). 

We recommend the following two options:

1. You can install the “Preview” version instead.
2. You follow the instructions here.

If this does not help, tell us at support@redink.ai. 

• This is likely because you did not provide OpenAI with a working payment method and a budget during the creation of the API key. Follow the instructions here.

• Error 429 can have different meanings depending on the provider, but it usually indicates a problem with the API provider. The cause is often an incorrectly configured endpoint, an overwhelmed server, or an exhausted resource (overload). To resolve this, try again later, reduce the speed, size, and number of your requests, or configure a different endpoint (e.g., switch to another data center or use a regional/global endpoint).

• The add-in may have temporarily lost its configuration or run into a different problem. Close the application you are using (Word, Excel or Outlook) entirely, and then start it up again. It will reload configuration. If this does not help, update the application using the links here (or as provided by your internal IT).

Your installation may be running on its own, local configuration file. Make sure you are using the centrally managed configuration file. If you know that there is one, use either the feature ‘Give up local config’ in the ‘Settings’ menu or use the Windows Explorer to delete (or rename to redink.ini.bak) the config file redink.ini. It is found in %appdata%/Microsoft/Word and possibly also in %appdata%/Microsoft/Excel and %appdata%/Microsoft/Outlook.

This happens because the installation wizard already created the “redink.ini” file. If it finds such a file, the installation wizard will not appear. If you want this to happen, just delete the “redink.ini” file by opening Windows Explorer, and in the field on the top (where you see “Start” or a path), enter “%APPDATA%/microsoft/word” and hit Enter.

This will usually get you to the directory where “redink.ini” sits (it may only show up as “redink”). Just delete this file and the next time you start Word, the Red Ink add-in will again start the installation wizard.

This happens because the configuration of the model is not correct. The response of the model consists of various fields of information, and they have references/identifiers such as “text” or “content”. Sometimes these identifiers existing multiple times. Where that is the case, you need to tell the system which one to use (or to combine them all). This can be done by amending the “response” parameter, for  example:

response = text (rkmode_first)

In this case, Red Ink will look for the section with the identifier “text” but will only consider the first such identifier, not any others. There are also different options, such as “(rkmode_all)” in which case it will combine them all, should the model split responses in different parts. More information is in the manual.