Itch support confirmed there were problems with web games in the previous app. Update to 25.0.0 (https://itch.io/app ) and all seems well!
Let me know if you have any other issues, and thank you for alerting me. I actually really like the app now!
yep using desktop app. downloaded new version of itch and it works just fine now. no need to launch from file explorer to get it to work.
