# Autopsy 4.23.0 start always in Developer mode

**URL:** https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/autopsy-4-23-0-start-always-in-developer-mode/5570
**Category:** Autopsy Help
**Created:** [May 7, 2026, 5:31pm UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/autopsy-4-23-0-start-always-in-developer-mode/5570 "2026-05-07T17:31:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Homeuser76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Homeuser76](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/u/Homeuser76)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 5:31pm UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/autopsy-4-23-0-start-always-in-developer-mode/5570/1 "2026-05-07T17:31:22Z")

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Since upgrading (clean install) to Autopsy 4.23.0, the application always starts in Developer Mode.  
This was not the case with version 4.22.1  
I have install autopsy-4.23.0-64bit..msi from [https://github.com/sleuthkit/autopsy/releases/download/autopsy-4.23.0/autopsy-4.23.0-64bit.msi](https://github.com/sleuthkit/autopsy/releases/download/autopsy-4.23.0/autopsy-4.23.0-64bit.msi)

% shasum -a 256 autopsy-4.23.0-64bit.msi cebc637497eee96b43b23390292b7aba9723ac71e63e8f442e9a13ab1de20580 autopsy-4.23.0-64bit.msi

 ![Autopsy_4.23.0._developermode](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/sleuthkit/original/2X/6/6ea886a38437c5943ebd037ec6c42c411cd6020d.png)

**What I tested:**  
Clean install of Autopsy 4.23.0 on multiple Windows systems

- Removed `%APPDATA%\Autopsy` completely before restarting

- Verified no special shortcuts or startup flags (no `--dev`)

- Started directly via `autopsy64.exe`

- Same behavior on all Windows 11 tested systems

Autopsy always starts in Developer Mode, regardless of configuration or clean install.

Is this a known issue in 4.23.0, or is there a way to disable Developer Mode?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Artifact\_Hunter](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/sleuthkit.discourse.group/artifact_hunter/32/2233_2.png) [@Artifact\_Hunter](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/u/Artifact_Hunter)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2026, 5:33pm UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/autopsy-4-23-0-start-always-in-developer-mode/5570/2 "2026-05-07T17:33:41Z")

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@Homeuser76 thanks for bringing this to our attention. It has been addressed in the new release

> **[Release Autopsy 4.23.1 · sleuthkit/autopsy](https://github.com/sleuthkit/autopsy/releases/tag/autopsy-4.23.1)**
>
> Fixes a release error with 4.23.0. That was released as a Develop build, instead of Release.
> Some of the settings were not available.
> No other changes.

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### Author: ![oscarjs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@oscarjs](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/u/oscarjs)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2026, 10:48am UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/autopsy-4-23-0-start-always-in-developer-mode/5570/3 "2026-09-21T10:48:23Z")

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In Autopsy 4.23.1, Python plugins are being loaded from the `dev` directory on the Windows file system.

I don’t think this is the expected behavior. I’m not sure whether this is a programming bug or if there is a configuration setting that needs to be changed.

Could you please let me know why this is happening and how I can configure Autopsy to load the Python plugins from the correct directory?