Support

Get sift working.

sift installs a privileged helper and a content-filter system extension. Most setup problems are one-time macOS approvals.

Where do I paste my license key?

Open sift and click Unlock sift. Sign in at dashboard.alcahq.com, copy the license key shown under sift, and paste the whole thing into the box. sift checks it on your Mac, so there is nothing to sign into inside the app.

My key was refused

Copy it again from the dashboard, all of it. Keys are long and a partial copy looks exactly like an invalid one. If sift says the key is for another product, you have copied a key from a different Alca app. If it says the key has expired, open the dashboard and copy the current one — keys are short-lived and renew automatically, so an old copy stops working.

Do I have to be online?

No. sift verifies your key on your own Mac, so a locked-down session keeps running on a plane or with the Wi-Fi off. It quietly renews the key when it can, and keeps working for a week if it cannot reach us, so an outage never interrupts something you have paid for.

How many Macs can I use one license on?

Three at a time. sift renews its license quietly in the background, and each renewal includes a random identifier for that installation, not your hardware and not a serial number. Reinstalling sift counts as a new device, and a slot you stop using frees itself after 30 days. You can also remove a device yourself, any time, from your dashboard.

Billing, cancelling, and refunds

Everything is at dashboard.alcahq.com: Manage subscription opens the billing portal where you can change your card or cancel. Cancelling during the free trial means you are never charged. Cancelling later stops future charges and you keep access until the end of the period you already paid for. If you were charged by mistake, tell us and we will refund it.

A lockdown is running and my subscription lapsed

The lockdown finishes. sift will not let you start a new session without a licence, but it never ends one that is already running — otherwise cancelling would become a way out of a lockdown, which is the one thing sift exists to prevent.

The content filter is waiting for approval

Open System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions. Scroll to the bottom. The switch is under the second section, Extensions, not in the login-items list at the top. Find the entry labelled SiftLockdown (it says “Network Extension” underneath), turn it on, then return to the app.

If the app still says the filter is off after you enable it, quit sift and open it again. Reinstalling does not reset this switch either — macOS remembers an approval you gave a previous install, so it may already be on.

The block screen does not appear

Blocking still happens below the browser. To show sift’s branded page, allow sift under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation for each browser you use. Firefox remains blocked but cannot show the branded page.

Browser support

Core blocking runs below the browser using a macOS content filter, alongside DNS and firewall rules. Safari and Google Chrome are verified for both blocking and sift’s branded page. Arc, Brave, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, Chrome Beta and Canary, and Chromium are built into the branded-page integration but still need broader launch testing. Firefox and other browsers are blocked at the network layer and may show their own connection-error page instead.

Does sift turn off iCloud Private Relay?

No. Blocking has been tested with Safari Private Relay active: macOS still exposes the original destination hostname to sift’s content filter. Automation permission is used to show the branded block page; it is not required for that content-filter protection.

Does sift work with VPNs and encrypted DNS?

sift’s content filter checks destination hostnames, so blocking does not rely only on DNS or firewall rules. Blocking has been tested alongside NordVPN. sift also applies rules for known encrypted-DNS resolver endpoints. Compatibility with every VPN, custom resolver and browser configuration has not been verified.

A session ended but a site still looks blocked

Reload the tab once. If it persists, quit and reopen the browser. sift removes its hosts and network rules automatically when the timer expires.

Updates and removal

Choose sift → Check for Updates… for the newest signed release. To remove every installed component, use sift → Uninstall sift… after the current session ends.

Private support

Email erik@alcahq.com or use the feedback form for billing, recovery, privacy or security questions. Include a contact email if you need a reply. Never include passwords, license keys or card details.

Report a bug

Include your macOS version, browser, sift version, and what you expected to happen. Do not include private browsing history or passwords. Open a report in sift’s public support tracker.