Cannot connect to Google Calendar

[olegstepanov]

Checked for Existing Issues?

• Yes, I have checked existing issues and cannot find one related to this.

Software

Desktop Application

Operating System / Platform

macOS

Your Pieces OS Version

12.4.1

Early Access Program

• Yes, this is related to an Early Access Program feature.

Kindly describe the bug and include as much detail as possible on what you were doing so we can reproduce the bug.

When I connect my Google Calendar, after entering all the information and selecting all requested permissions (2), I get JSON {"error": "invalid state"}.

[michael-ashley-at-pieces]

Hi @olegstepanov, thanks for the report.

That invalid state response usually means the temporary handshake we use to verify the Google connection could not be matched on our end.

The two most common causes are:

1. Too much time passed between starting and completing the connection. The handshake expires after a short period, so if the Google consent flow takes more than about 10 minutes, the connection needs to be restarted.
2. The callback was triggered more than once. This can happen if the browser is navigated back or forward, or if the connect window is reopened after Google has already redirected once.

Could you try starting the connection flow again from the beginning? If it still fails on a fresh attempt, please let us know roughly when you tried, including your timezone, and we'll investigate from our side. If you’re able to share a screen recording of the issue occurring, please send it to support@pieces.app, as that would also help us debug further.

Thanks.

[olegstepanov]

It tried it twice, and it didn't look like either of the cases you mentioned was applicable: it was a standard chromium browser I use, and I went through the wizard rather swiftly. I cannot retry as I already uninstalled pieces because the current experience felt raw and not rewarding enough to keep it.

[michael-ashley-at-pieces]

Thanks for being honest about your experience here.

The "invalid state" response is actually a security check on our side, and only a small number of conditions trigger it. Based on what you described, none of those conditions should have applied, which is useful signal for us.

If you're open to it, we'd be happy to hop on a quick support call to debug further and better understand where the experience broke down. As a thank-you for your time, we'd also be glad to offer you a couple of free months of Pieces Pro.

Either way, we'd genuinely appreciate any additional feedback you're willing to share about what felt raw, confusing, or not rewarding enough. Your perspective would be very helpful for our team as we continue improving the product.

Thanks again for giving Pieces a try.

[olegstepanov]

Sorry, I don't have time for a call, but I'm happy to give you more detailed feedback here. I had several trigger points that affected my decision:

1. When I installed Pieces, it would install Pieces OS. I selected .pkg install (the recommended), and it downloaded a wrong version of the OS (12.4.0 instead of 12.4.1) and then complained about incompatibility, but still locked to 12.4.0. Had to remove it and reinstall with Homebrew.
2. The whole separation of Pieces vs Pieces OS adds cognitive pressure without clear explanation in the product. Some other AI tools install background monitors just as well without such separation.
3. UI isn't clear: the sidebar was hidden (don't remember if it's by default), and in this mode when I order a report, just nothing apparently happens in the UI
4. The daily summary was inappropriate for me: a lot of unnecessary details without clear picture.
5. Pieces OS often came up at the top of CPU Activity Monitor tab
6. This strange notification when I submitted feedback also added something

Overall, the product is interesting, but at this time really feels that it won't give me much value and like it doesn't have enough quality gates. This perception together with the level of access it gets to my machine and data, led me to my decision. It doesn't mean it's a bad product, not at all, but I'm just not an early enough adopter for this kind of tool.

Hope this helps,
Oleg

[mark-at-pieces]

Hi @olegstepanov,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write out such detailed feedback — this is genuinely valuable to us, and exactly the kind of perspective that helps us prioritize what to improve.

A quick update on point 1: we recently shipped a fix for the installer issue you ran into, where the .pkg would pull down a mismatched PiecesOS version and leave users stuck waiting for another update right after install. That was a rough first impression and we're sorry you hit it — it should be resolved in the current release.

Your other points (the Pieces vs. PiecesOS separation, sidebar discoverability, daily summary tuning, PiecesOS CPU usage, and the post-feedback notification) are all noted and shared with the team. The friction you described is fair, and "not an early adopter for this kind of tool" is a totally reasonable place to land — we appreciate you giving it a real try and being candid about where it fell short.

If you ever feel like giving Pieces another look down the road, we'd love to have you back, and I'm personally happy to help you get set up. For what it's worth, our own team leans on Pieces daily for keeping context across our work and boosting productivity, and we're working hard to make that "aha" moment land faster for new users like yourself.

Thanks again for your time, Oleg — feedback like this directly shapes where we focus next.

[olegstepanov]

Hi Mark,

thank you very much for the follow-up. The product itself is interesting and definitely aims at a real need. I will certainly give it another try some time later.

Best regards,
Oleg

@mark-at-pieces