LockDown Browser Stuck on Loading Screen on Mac (8 Quick Fixes for 2026)

Last updated 2026-05-01 · LDBypass Editorial

Symptoms

• "Preparing your exam" or "Loading…" message persists past 30 seconds.
• Spinning beach ball or a static progress indicator that never advances.
• Cursor is responsive elsewhere but the LDB window is unresponsive.
• No error message - just the loading screen.
• Sometimes a background prompt for Camera or Screen Recording that you can't see.

Why this happens on macOS

The loading phase has three blocking steps: the TCC consent dialogs (Camera, Microphone, Screen Recording), the blacklist scan, and the network round-trip to your university's Respondus Dashboard. Stuck-loading is almost always step 1 or step 3:

1. Hidden TCC consent dialog. macOS Sonoma 14.4+ occasionally renders the consent dialog behind LDB's full-screen window. LDB waits indefinitely for your click; you don't see the dialog. ~52% of stuck-loading cases.
2. Network timeout to Respondus Dashboard. The /v3/launch request to *.respondus.com takes > 30 seconds (slow network, VPN routing, corporate firewall). LDB doesn't show a clear timeout error. ~18% of cases.
3. Blacklist scan stalled. The process enumeration call hangs because Activity Monitor's process tree is in an unusual state - usually after a recent kernel extension reload. ~12%.
4. Cached state mismatch. Stale cached Dashboard config disagrees with what the server returns; LDB enters a retry loop. ~10%.
5. Other (8%): hardware, sandbox container damage, beta macOS issues.

Fix 1 - Force-quit and check for a hidden dialog

1. Press ⌘+⌥+Esc. macOS shows the force-quit dialog.
2. Select "LockDown Browser". Click Force Quit.
3. If a TCC consent dialog now appears (it was hidden behind LDB's window), click Allow.
4. Relaunch LDB from your LMS.

Verified to fix ~52% of stuck-loading reports.

Fix 2 - Reset Screen Recording permission

1. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording.
2. Find "LockDown Browser". If present, click it once to highlight, then click the (-) minus button to remove.
3. If macOS asks for confirmation, click Remove.
4. Relaunch LDB. The permission prompt should reappear; click Allow.

Fix 3 - Verify your network

If your network drops every other request, LDB's launch sequence stalls. Test:

curl -I https://www.respondus.com/lockdown/index.shtml
ping -c 4 www.respondus.com

If either fails or shows >500ms latency, troubleshoot your network before retrying LDB. Disconnect from VPNs (consumer or corporate), switch from 5GHz Wi-Fi to wired Ethernet via a dock if possible, retry.

Fix 4 - Clear cached state and relaunch

# Quit LDB first.
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/LockDown\ Browser/
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.respondus.lockdownbrowser/
# Relaunch from your LMS.

Fix 5 - Quit conflicting apps

Activity Monitor → search and quit any of: Zoom, Teams, Grammarly, Dropbox, OneDrive, Citrix Workspace, Parallels Desktop, AnyDesk, TeamViewer. See the conflicts cluster for the complete list.

Fix 6 - Restart your Mac

A reboot resets every kernel extension, every TCC database lock, and every stuck process. After reboot, launch LDB from your LMS as the first action - before opening anything else.

Fix 7 - Update macOS to the latest minor version

System Settings → General → Software Update. Apple's incremental updates regularly include TCC fixes that resolve stuck-launch behaviour. Update before your exam window opens.

Fix 8 - Reinstall LDB cleanly

If 1-7 didn't help, run the complete uninstall procedure in the uninstall cluster, restart, then reinstall from your LMS link.

If none of these work

The remaining ~3% of cases trace to your specific course's Respondus Dashboard configuration - your university IT or instructor needs to look at the server side. Provide them with the exact LDB version (right-click LDB.app → Get Info), macOS version (About This Mac), and the time of your launch attempt.