# Wakefield's Daily Tips

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/wakefields-daily-tips/43371>\
**Category:** Blog\
**Tags:** online, pavlovia\
**Created:** [January 1, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/wakefields-daily-tips/43371 "2025-01-01T15:36:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 73

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/wakefields-daily-tips/43371/73 "2025-03-13T21:41:42Z")

</div>

## Pilot mode

Piloting a PsychoPy experiment can mean one of three things.

Locally you can switch between Pilot and Run mode by clicking on the toggle between the two words.

 ![Pilot mode](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/6/4/64fa30c82b2667a778e189adaba0d230bda68c97.png)  
 ![Run mode](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/c/c/cc3aaa35ccc95fe7df9150299ca5d195ea52743d.png)

In pilot mode the two run buttons are orange instead of green.

Pressing the main run button will run the experiment in a window (rather than full screen) and include a and orange border and the warning **PILOTING: Switch to run mode before testing**.

 ![Running locally in pilot mode](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/7/0/704841cc30aedb728f36dad07f474d86643838a0.png)

The parameters for Pilot mode can be edited from File / Preferences

 ![Pilot mode preferences](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/3/8/38ee4ce38ddf5aa2e396647755e7d77cda7c5b7d.png)

If instead of piloting locally, you press the JS run button, the experiment will be run locally in your default browser (in full screen). To do this, a copy of the PsychoJS libraries are downloaded to a lib folder in your experiment folder.

 ![Local lib folder](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/d/6/d6ca5228397df73461e3a303a7a16cd0a3dc38af.png)

If you switch to Run mode and press the JS then you will instead be sent to the appropriate web link. However, if you haven’t already synced your experiment with Pavlovia then you will first be prompted to create a project and will the get a 404 not found error.

 ![run.pavlovia.org/test-suite/test-simple](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/5/a/5a574f8a9e7f1acd17cf4177a7edbba30940ffef.png)

Before you can run an experiment online, you must visit the project page – the link appears in the Stdout and Pavlovia tabs of the Runner every time you sync.

 ![New Pavlovia project page](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/a/9/a9f4b5b74b80fcda3c6d03fcbbeaa2a242ef35b1.png)

Online, experiments can be in one of three modes: Inactive, Piloting and Running. In this screenshot, the software platform is unknown and the platform version is 0. The experiment will not run online. To pilot the experiment online, switch the mode to Piloting by clicking on the Piloting message.

 ![pavlovia.org/test-suite/test-simple](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/9/1/91b8aab024fd64fbb11b5f5dad1c3c2f34d2c50c.png)

The experiment now has platform PSYCHOJS and version 2024.2.4 (or whatever version you are using). To pilot online, you press the Pilot button in the top right.

A pilot token will be generated so the experiment can run, e.g.

```auto
https://run.pavlovia.org/test-suite/test-simple/? __pilotToken=3c59dc048e8850243be8079a5c74d079&__ oauthToken=6204c1a913ae8582005a283175a1aa23cade068d6403dce894a26bb8b2bf5641

```

When you pilot an experiment, data is downloaded to your computer. You should therefore keep the results format set to CSV so you get spreadsheets rather than JSON data files – though you will get a JSON download after every embedded Pavlovia Survey and a sound file after each microphone component.

If the experiment is in piloting mode online and you try to run it online from Builder, you will now get a different error message.

 ![Missing pilot token](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/6/4/647ad522bfedca3c8b23355f981ea238e0a9a3a7.png)

If you switch the experiment to running mode, then it will now run if you have a licence or have assigned credits to the study. If neither of these are true, the error message will be:

 ![Not enough credits](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/7/5/75ca9bfd7bb33062fd17766cf4d6c8d07f40d710.png)

If you are using credits, don’t forget to turn off save incomplete results before you add any.

Note that the lib folder from piloting in the local browser does not get uploaded. If you view code, your Gitlab folder should look something like this.

 ![gitlab.pavlovia.org/test-suite/test-simple](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/2/c/2cbc956b1c46d19ef91660ead1172e02d9708b5e.png)

> [@New to psychpy: Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 ()](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/new-to-psychpy-failed-to-load-resource-the-server-responded-with-a-status-of-404/43455):
>
> URL of experiment: [SDS [PsychoPy]](https://run.pavlovia.org/lvillarreal22/sds_2/? __pilotToken=e4da3b7fbbce2345d7772b0674a318d5&__ oauthToken=81949ee1f139c16f386d18b6bd63206bfa119ed8b33a910aadc4c868e85cbd1d) Description of the problem: Hi I’m brand new to pavlovia and coding in general, I’ve been having issues getting my file working online. Currently, I’ve created a brand new file with just a red triangle for stimuli just to see if I can get something up, but even this is getting the 404 error. I’ve turned the project into pilot mode, and have tried launching from both the builder and the pavlovia website. I looked around the forums and saw that switching to the …

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