The Canopy Desktop Assistant lets you edit, scan, and print documents stored in your Canopy account directly from your Windows machine, and locks documents to prevent accidental overwrites. This article covers what to do when it won't open.
You may be seeing one of these:
You double-clicked the Desktop Assistant icon, but it isn't opening.
You right-clicked a document in Canopy (app.canopytax.com) and selected Edit, but the document doesn't open and the Desktop Assistant doesn't launch.
The Desktop Assistant is running as a background task, but never comes to the foreground.
When the Desktop Assistant won't open, you can't edit or scan documents into client files — this walkthrough gets you back to working on returns without waiting on support.
Table of Contents
Check whether the Desktop Assistant is running in the background
Several fixes below require the Desktop Assistant to be fully closed. Use this check first, and any time a step asks you to confirm it isn't running.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
Under Background processes, look for the Canopy Desktop Assistant (Canopy logo).
You may see several Canopy tasks listed. This is normal.
Select each Canopy Desktop Assistant task and click End task to fully close it.
Reinstall the Desktop Assistant
An outdated or corrupted install is the most common cause, so start here.
These steps may require administrator (UAC) permissions. If you can't complete them, contact your IT professional.
Confirm the Desktop Assistant is closed. If it's running as a background task, end it first (see Check whether the Desktop Assistant is running in the background).
Press the Windows key, type Control Panel, and open it.
Click Programs (or Programs and Features).
Click Uninstall a program.
Select Canopy Desktop Assistant from the list.
Click Uninstall at the top of the list and follow the prompts.
In Canopy (app.canopytax.com), open Settings.
In the left navigation bar, select Integrations, then click Download.
When the download finishes, run the installer to reinstall the Desktop Assistant.
Reboot your machine and try launching the Desktop Assistant again.
If the Desktop Assistant still won't launch, continue to Clear the current configuration.
Navigate to the control panel.
Navigate to Settings in Canopy.
Navigate to Integrations, and click Download.
Clear the current configuration
Skip this section if the reinstall fixed the problem. If it didn't, a corrupted local configuration may be blocking launch.
Confirm the Desktop Assistant isn't running as a background process (see Check whether the Desktop Assistant is running in the background).
Press Win + E to open File Explorer.
In the address bar, type %appdata% and press Enter.
This opens **C:\Users[your user]\AppData\Roaming**.
Locate the folder named Canopy Desktop Assistant.
Rename that folder to Canopy Desktop Assistant OLD.
Do not delete this folder. It can contain local copies of documents with important edits.
Launch the Desktop Assistant again, either manually or by editing a file in Canopy.
After clearing the configuration, check the renamed folder for any documents left behind — see Recover documents from the old configuration.
Type %appdata% in the search bar.
Rename the Desktop Assistant folder.
Recover documents from the old configuration
Skip this section if you had no unsaved edits open in the Desktop Assistant. Otherwise, check the renamed folder so you don't lose any local document versions.
Return to %appdata% (**C:\Users[your user]\AppData\Roaming**) and open the Canopy Desktop Assistant OLD folder.
Open the FILES folder inside it.
Copy any documents to your desktop (Copy + Paste).
These files may contain earlier edits. Re-upload these versions to Canopy so the changes aren't lost.
Once you've confirmed the folder no longer holds documents you need, you can delete the OLD folder.
If you're unsure, contact Canopy Customer Support and we'll walk you through it.
Summary
If the Desktop Assistant won't launch, work through the fixes in order: confirm it isn't stuck as a background task, reinstall it, then clear its local configuration if needed. Always rename — never delete — the configuration folder, and recover any local document edits from it before removing it.
Need Help?
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