My phone can't find my desktop for sync

Overview

Your phone finds your desktop app over your local Wi-Fi network, the same way a smart TV or printer shows up automatically on your home network. That kind of discovery depends on a few things going right. When it doesn't, there's almost always one of the causes below, and a manual fix that works regardless.

Check the basics first

Before anything else, confirm two things:

• The desktop app is open and running, not just installed. A closed app has nothing to discover.
• Both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network. If your phone is on cellular data, or your desktop dropped onto a different network, discovery won't find it.

These two cover the majority of cases. If both check out and discovery still isn't working, keep going.

Some networks block this on purpose

Guest Wi-Fi, hotel networks, and networks with "client isolation" turned on are common culprits. These networks deliberately stop devices from finding each other, usually for privacy or security reasons on shared networks. If you're on one of these, automatic discovery may never work, no matter how long you wait or how many times you restart the apps.

The fix: enter the address manually

Your desktop's Settings screen shows its own network address. If your desktop has more than one active network connection, it may show more than one address, try the first one, and fall back to the others if it doesn't connect.

Type that address into your phone instead of waiting for automatic discovery. This works even on networks that block discovery outright, since you're telling your phone exactly where to look rather than asking it to find your desktop on its own.

iOS: check Local Network permission

Discovery on iOS relies on a system permission called Local Network. If you've never been prompted for it, or you're not sure whether you granted it, check Settings → Lexxio on your phone and make sure Local Network is turned on. Without it, discovery won't work at all.

Android: go straight to manual entry

Automatic discovery on Android is newer and less reliable than on iOS right now. If you're on an Android phone, don't spend time troubleshooting automatic discovery first, go straight to the manual address entry above. It's the more dependable path on Android today.

Testing from a Mac terminal

If you're comfortable in a terminal and want to test your desktop's sync server directly, keep in mind that recent versions of macOS require Local Network permission for command-line tools too, not just apps with a window. A failed manual test from Terminal doesn't necessarily mean the server itself is broken, it may just mean Terminal (or whatever tool you used) hasn't been granted that permission.

For the full walkthrough on pulling books down once your phone connects, see Getting books onto your phone. Sync of your reading progress works differently and doesn't depend on any of this, see How your progress syncs across devices.