One thing to be SURE you do for plate solving (or really for good plate solving) is go into your options on the Alignment tab and download the extra index files.
You need at least down to 4205/5205 (2Mass & Tycho2/Gaia). You will need to change the index files location to get them to download as the default area you cannot write to. You just clock on the box and choose the local stellarmate user storage location.

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