model download stuck

Symptom: the brain badge stays on "queued", the time estimate stops moving, a model shows failed, or onboarding says "Hm — {model} didn't come down properly, and I can't listen without it."

Model downloads are the one large network transfer yapyap makes — several gigabytes on a fresh install. They resume, retry, and run in the background, so most hiccups heal on their own.

work down this list

1. Give it an honest look. The badge shows "{ready}/{total} ready" and a time estimate. The estimate is a forecast, not a measurement — on a slow connection it recalibrates as it goes. Moving slowly is not stuck.
2. Click retry. A model marked failed has a Retry the download action. One click restarts only the broken piece.
3. Check disk space. A model needs its full size free, plus room to unpack. See the sizes in the model matrix. Free space, then retry.
4. Check the network path. Corporate and school networks sometimes block large downloads or the hosts that serve the models. Try a different network once — if that fixes it, the block is in the network, and the list of hosts under what talks to the internet is what to allow.
5. Restart yapyap. Downloads resume from where they stopped — a restart costs nothing and clears a wedged connection.

meanwhile

Recording works the whole time. Recordings made before the models arrive wait in the queue and are transcribed when the download completes — you lose nothing by recording during the download.

a model downloaded, but transcription still fails

A download can complete and still be broken on disk — an interrupted write, a full disk at the wrong moment. The fix is the same Retry, which verifies and replaces the file. If the same model breaks repeatedly, see troubleshooting local AI.