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Access issues in Pear Start fall into a few common categories: a product unavailability message, a change in plan access, a request to re-authorize Google, broken Google integrations, or a stale browser session. Use the sections below to find your situation and resolve it.

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If Pear Start Displays an “Unavailable” Message

This message appears when Pear Start has not been enabled for your district or when your account is not connected to an active district subscription. For teachers: Contact your IT admin and ask whether Pear Start has been enabled for your school or district. Your IT admin controls product access at the district level. You cannot enable Pear Start yourself. For IT admins: Sign in to your district admin console and confirm that Pear Start is enabled for the relevant schools or user groups. If the product does not appear in your console, contact Pear Deck Learning Support to confirm your district’s subscription status. District accounts require SSO (single sign-on) to access Pear Start. If teachers are signing in with a personal Google account instead of their district account, they will not see district-provisioned access. Confirm that teachers are signing in through your district’s SSO provider.

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If Your Free Access Has Changed

Pear Start previously offered a free individual plan. That plan is no longer available. Access to Pear Start now requires either a district subscription or an eligible paid individual plan. To check your current plan:
  1. Sign in to Pear Start at start.peardeck.com.
  2. Open your account menu by clicking your account icon in the top-right corner.
  3. Select Account Settings.
  4. Review the plan listed under Subscription.
If your plan shows as expired or inactive, you have 2 options:
  • District subscription: Ask your IT admin or district admin whether your district has a Pear Start subscription that you can be added to.
  • Individual plan: Visit peardeck.com/pricing to review current plan options and upgrade.
If you believe your subscription is active but access is blocked, contact Pear Deck Learning Support.

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If Pear Start Asks You to Re-Authorize

Pear Start uses Google OAuth to access your Google account. Google periodically expires or revokes these permissions, which causes Pear Start to prompt you to re-authorize. Re-authorization restores Pear Start’s access to your Google Drive, Docs, and Slides. It does not delete any existing content. To re-authorize:
  1. When prompted, click Re-authorize or Connect Google Account.
  2. Sign in with the Google account you use for Pear Start.
  3. Review the permissions Pear Start requests and click Allow.
  4. Return to Pear Start. Your session resumes normally.
After completing these steps, Pear Start loads without the authorization prompt. Google integrations, including Drive, Docs, and Slides, are available again. If the re-authorization prompt reappears immediately, sign out of Pear Start, clear your browser cache (see Clear Your Cache and Retry below), and sign back in.

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If Google Features Stop Working

Pear Start’s Google integrations require specific Google permissions to be active. These integrations let you save and export lesson content to Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Slides. If those permissions were revoked, the integrations will stop working or display an error, even though you can still sign in to Pear Start. To restore Google permissions:
  1. Sign in to your Google account at myaccount.google.com.
  2. Select Security in the left navigation.
  3. Under Third-party apps with account access, find Pear Start and select it.
  4. Click Remove Access.
  5. Return to Pear Start and sign in again. When prompted, re-grant the Google permissions.
After completing step 5, attempt to export or access a Google-integrated feature in Pear Start. If it works, the permission reset resolved the issue. Browser extension check: If you use a browser extension that manages cookies, blocks third-party scripts, or restricts site permissions, it may interfere with Google OAuth. Temporarily disable those extensions and retry. If the integrations work after disabling an extension, add start.peardeck.com and peardeck.com to that extension’s allowlist.

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Clear Your Cache and Retry

Stale auth tokens stored in your browser cache can cause access failures even when your account and subscription are valid. To clear your cache:
  1. Open your browser settings.
  2. Navigate to Privacy and Security (or equivalent in your browser).
  3. Select Clear browsing data.
  4. Check Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files.
  5. Set the time range to All time.
  6. Select Clear data.
  7. Close and reopen your browser.
  8. Go to start.peardeck.com and sign in again.
If you share a device with other users, signing out of your Google account before signing in to Pear Start can also prevent session conflicts. After signing back in, confirm that Pear Start loads and that your lesson drafts and created content are visible. If access is restored, no further steps are needed.

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Contact Support

If the steps above do not resolve your issue, contact Pear Deck Learning Support. Include the following information in your support request:
  • Your email address and the Google account you use to sign in
  • The error message or behavior you are seeing (a screenshot helps)
  • The browser and operating system you are using
  • Whether the issue affects only your account or multiple accounts in your school or district
District-level provisioning (adding schools, enabling Pear Start for user groups, or resolving subscription conflicts) is handled by the Pear Deck Learning support team in coordination with your district admin. Your IT admin or district admin may need to be included in the support conversation.
Last modified on July 14, 2026