Why is my Mac online but not getting Darkbloom jobs?
A Darkbloom provider can look healthy, online and with a model loaded, and still receive no paid work for hours. Other providers see the same thing. Most cases have one of a few causes, and most are fixed by a clean restart.
1. Check the basics first
- Run darkbloom status in Terminal. The provider should be running, signed in and serving a model.
- Make sure the Mac is awake and on power. A sleeping Mac drops off the network and gets no work.
- Check that your Mac appears in Darkbloom’s provider list in the console. Right after a restart it can take a few minutes to show up again.
2. Routing stall: online, but the network stopped sending work
The most common case. Your Mac is connected, but the coordinator has stopped routing requests to it. Providers in the Darkbloom Slack report that these fix it, in order of effort:
- Restart the provider: darkbloom restart. Let it finish (see the drain note below), then give it a few minutes.
- If that doesn’t help, reboot the Mac.
- A request to your own Mac that is only local (127.0.0.1) is not reported to help, because it never goes through the coordinator.
3. The provider is drained after a restart
Since Darkbloom 0.9.9, darkbloom start and restart first drain: new work is refused while accepted requests finish, for up to 10 minutes by default. If that wait times out, the provider can stay running but drained, and it serves nothing until it is restarted again. See the drained provider article below.
4. The coordinator’s record of your Mac is stale
A model_not_loaded reply for a model that is loaded means Darkbloom’s coordinator has an old picture of your Mac. A restart makes the provider reconnect and report its current state.
5. Nobody is asking for your model right now
Demand moves between models through the day. When the model you run goes quiet, a healthy Mac still earns little. Switching to a model with steadier demand helps (see which model to run).
6. A problem on Darkbloom’s side
Sometimes many providers stop at once, for example on September 25, 2026, when a verification change in Darkbloom 0.9.9 dropped many Macs for about an hour. If restarts don’t help, check the #providers channel in the Darkbloom Slack before changing anything else.
How Bloomkeeper helps
Bloomkeeper notices when steady paid work stops and works through the same fixes on its own: a nudge, then a restart that waits out the drain, then switching models, and it tells you if none of that works.
Questions
Why does my Darkbloom provider say online but earn nothing?
Usually the coordinator has stopped routing work to the Mac (a routing stall), the provider is still drained after a restart, or demand for your model has dropped. Restart the provider with darkbloom restart and let it finish; if nothing arrives within a few minutes, reboot the Mac.
Does sending my own local request to the model help?
Providers report that a plain local request to 127.0.0.1 does not restart routing, because it never passes through Darkbloom’s coordinator.
What does model_not_loaded mean when my model is loaded?
Darkbloom’s coordinator has a stale record of your Mac. Restarting the provider makes it reconnect and report its current state.
Related
- Darkbloom provider stuck draining after a restart
- Which Darkbloom model should I run on my Mac?
- Darkbloom provider on a Mac: setup checklist
Updated 2026-09-26. Still stuck? Ask in #bloom-dash-optimizer on the Darkbloom Slack or contact us. Bloomkeeper is independent and not affiliated with Darkbloom.