I can't connect with Octoprint on my phone

Get Help Networking
1

What is the problem?
Hello everyone,

I've been having a problem using Octoprint that I can't seem to solve, and I was hoping someone could help me.
I started using Octoprint this weekend with my Ender 3, and so far it's been great, except for 1 thing. I can't connect to Octoprint on my phone.

What did you already try to solve it?
I can connect to Octoprint on my computer through the IP adress (octoprint.local doesn't work) so I know I'm able to reach Octoprint through this way. But my phone is a different story. I tried several things of trying to connect to Octoprint on my phone, and most didn't work.

If I try going to the Octoprint IP using the browser (chrome) on my phone with I get the error "ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE", obviously octoprint.local also didn't work. I tried turning off the lite feature in Chrome, I turned off data usage on my phone, I'm on the same Wi-Fi network on the 2.4GHZ but that didn't work either.

I tried using android apps such as OctoRemote, OctoAndroid and Printoid, but none of these apps could connect to Octoprint either. BUT if I use Polar Cloud or Spaghetti Detective and go to those websites on my phone, I can reach Octoprint (but obviously not use the functions and features of Octoprint)

Logs (syslog, dmesg, ... no logs, no support)
I did download the octoprint.log, but the file seems to be too large to upload to the forum, so for now I'll leave this empty.

Additional information about your network (Hardware you are trying to connect to, hardware you are trying to connect from, router, access point, used operating systems, ...)
I'm using a RPi 3B+ board with the latest version of Octoprint with a Creality Ender 3 printer. On my computer I'm using Windows 7 and the Firefox browser. I've a Xiaomi Mi A1 Android phone, and I'm using Chrome as a browser. I also tried to use a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 to try and connect to the Octoprint, but that also didn't work.

2

On the phone's Chrome, you might try to type in the entire address with the "http://" part as well as the known IP address. These mobile-version browsers will often prepend things with "https://" (or in the case of a hostname "www.").

If you can't see the hostname on your Windows-based PC, try this.

3

that is something that I have tried aswell, but that sadly didn't work.
I also tried adding the port behind the IP, but again, that didn't work.

4

At this point, I think I would attempt to verify if your DHCP service on your network (wifi) server is issuing all the correct information: valid IP address, netmask, gateway, DNS. I'd make sure that the phone is actually using the wifi network locally and not instead trying to forward the traffic over your cellphone data (which of course won't work).

5

I went into the router settings, and I changed a setting in wireless security where I added the mac adress from octoprint, and that actually seemed to work, so it was indeed a problem with my router blocking the wireless connection with octoprint.

But with each problem solved, another arises. I was now able to connect to Octoprint through my phone, but the connection speed with Octoprint on my phone is really really slow. It's so slow that it doesn't update the Octoprint information, and if I try to refresh the page, it times out and I get the "ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE" error again.

So I am able to connect with Octoprint on my phone now, but the connection is too slow to be actually useable.

One weird thing I did notice is that the router shows the octoprint connected as an Ethernet connection in the list of connected devices.

6

I used to do smartphone app development and honestly had two iPads, two iPhones, a Microsoft phone and an Android. I don't recall ever having difficulty setting the phone to use wifi and then to connect locally to the printer (minus the hostname lookup which I already linked).

7

Alright, the new mystery has finally been resolved, but don't laug at me ok.

The reason why the connection to Octoprint was bad, and the RPi showed up as connected through Ethernet, while it was Wi-Fi is because I'm using a Wi-Fi repeater.

I'm printing upstairs, which is too far away for my router, so I'm using a Wi-Fi repeater to extend the range. This repeater consists out of 2 units, 1 which you connect with an Ethernet cable and plug into your wall socket, and the second unit needs to be placed in the area where your Wi-Fi range is limited, and needs to be plugged into a wall socket aswell.

The RPi connected through the repeater to the Wi-Fi, which is why it showed up as being connected through ethernet.

Now that I know what the problem is I need to figure out how I get this working :confused:

8

I'm staring at an Orbi wifi extender right in front of me. The satellite companion to that is in the bedroom. This brand is actually made by Netgear and it just seems to work out without difficulties.

In your case, you'll need to review some of the router settings. Issuing a permanent IP address by MAC address is probably the best thing you could have done for this. You might see if this works if you move to the other zone in the house.

9

I tried placing the RPi in the living room before I knew about the Wi-Fi repeater problem, and the adress didn't changed, so that should be set correct.

I'm using a Tp-link repeater myself, and I think I solved the problem. I logged onto the settings webpage from the Tp-link repeater, and added the MAC adress to the whitelist, and now Octoprint works consistently on my phone, so it should all be good now.

1 Like
10

Also, if there's a setting for propagating broadcasts, that would help to allow distant computers to see the Avahi name broadcasts.