Troubleshooting

The device list is empty

Android: is USB debugging on in Developer options? Did the phone ask you to Allow USB debugging?
iPhone: is the phone unlocked? Does the cable carry data? Is Apple Mobile Device Support installed on Windows?
Try another USB port and another cable. On Windows, avoid front-panel ports and hubs.

The picture is frozen or black

Check whether the screen geometry changed: rotating the device or switching apps changes the encoded size and the app has to renegotiate. Give it a second or two; if it does not recover, disconnect and reconnect.

On iOS, a dropped tunnel falls back to AirPlay mirroring — the picture gets noticeably softer. That softness is the signal; replugging the cable puts you back on the tunnel.

The agent taps but nothing happens

Input on a real device needs a live connection:

input is ready roughly 300 ms after the session starts;
the device stops streaming if it hears no keepalive for 20–25 s, so the app sends one every 5 s;
if the picture is moving but taps do nothing, you have a view-only session — that is what an iPhone looks like with neither the tunnel nor the Bluetooth bridge attached. Reconnect the device.

Does my screen or my data go anywhere?

No. The video goes from the phone straight to your machine, and the MCP server listens on 127.0.0.1:7070 only. There is no relay and no account. The app sends anonymous usage counts (launch/exit, platform) to a self-hosted analytics instance — never screen content, app names or device identifiers.

Which devices are supported?

Android: 5.0 and newer, with USB debugging enabled.
iPhone: iOS 17 and newer can use the USB tunnel (recommended). Older versions fall back to AirPlay mirroring with the Bluetooth HID bridge, which is more limited.

Do I need root or a jailbreak?

No, neither.

Does the iPhone need Developer Mode?

Yes, but only to install the developer image - and you do not have to flip it yourself: the screen, touch, screenshot and pasteboard services are published by the developer image the device has mounted, and the device refuses to mount one while Developer Mode is off (iOS 16 and older skip the tunnel, but their screenshot service needs the image too). So for the first connection, and again after an iOS update invalidates the mounted image, the app warns for 10 seconds and then turns Developer Mode on itself, which restarts the phone once (unplug the cable during those 10 seconds, or flip Settings → Privacy & Security → Developer Mode, to do it by hand instead). The app downloads and mounts the image itself (about 16 MB the first time on iOS 27+, ~7 MB on older phones, cached afterwards); once it is mounted you can turn Developer Mode off again and the tunnel keeps working.

Can the agent and I use the phone at the same time?

Yes. The app and the MCP session share one connection to the device, so you can watch or take over at any moment. Screenshots prefer the live mirror frame, which costs nothing on the device.

How do I report a problem?

Post it in the community or email xphoneuse@aovik.com.

Last updated 2026-09-17