FAQ /
Troubleshooting

Symptom: After developing in DxO or Lightroom first, Sidekick launches but skips the processing step.

Cause: Sidekick's restart-detection logic skips RAW development automatically when it finds existing TIF files in the output folder (e.g., 比較明用現像_自動露出).

Fix:

1. Delete the entire output folder (e.g., 比較明用現像_自動露出)
2. Run Sidekick again

Yes. Sidekick's RAW development only writes exposure and tone settings into the XMP sidecar file (.xmp). The RAW file itself is never changed.

Deleting the XMP file will cause Camera Raw to treat the RAW as untouched.

In the Sidekick GUI, uncheck "RAW Development" and check only "Light-Stacking", then run. Sidekick will use the existing TIF files as input — no re-development needed.

Symptom: Photoshop stops mid-run when processing 400+ frames.

Cause: Too many layers expanded in memory at once. Temp files can also pile up and exhaust storage.

Fix:

1. Change the GUI's "Block size" from 100 to 25–50 and rerun
2. Clear old stac_* / stac_async_* temp files from %TEMP% to free storage
3. Close unnecessary apps before processing to free RAM

Run the included GPU_セットアップ.bat (GPU Setup). It will display your GPU name and CUDA availability.

Symptom: Phase A exits with something like 0/227 masks and processing doesn't continue.

Possible causes:

• Older or non-CUDA GPU causing the exe to crash
• Problem with the input folder path
• Model file (startrail_unet.pth) not found

Fix: Update to the latest version of Sidekick Star. It automatically retries on CPU if GPU processing fails.

Yes — no special setup needed. When a GPU isn't available, Sidekick automatically falls back to CPU.

CPU processing takes longer (roughly 5–10× vs. GPU), but the output is identical.

Symptom: An error dialog appears during airplane removal and the process doesn't complete.

Cause: A timing issue can cause the script to advance to the next step before processing has finished.

Fix: Update to the latest version of Sidekick Star. The wait logic has been improved in recent releases.

From the June 2026 update, a Cancel button was added to the trial-expired dialog. You can also press ESC to close it.

If you're on an older version, update to the latest release.

No. Sidekick is a one-time purchase — not a subscription. You are charged once at the time of purchase. There is no auto-renewal.

No. Sidekick uses AI only to detect airplane trails and other artifacts. The actual removal uses the same pixel-replacement logic (sampling nearby background pixels) as manual clone-stamp or content-aware fill — no pixels are invented.

The result is factually identical to what you'd get doing it by hand, just much faster.

No. All processing runs entirely on your local machine inside Photoshop. Your photos never leave your PC.

Sidekick is developed and tested primarily on Adobe Photoshop (Beta). It also works on recent stable Photoshop CC releases.

Older versions (CS6 and earlier) are not supported.