owntone-server/docs/clients/remote.md

Using Remote

Remote gets a list of output devices from the server; this list includes any and all devices on the network we know of that advertise AirPlay: AirPort Express, Apple TV, … It also includes the local audio output, that is, the sound card on the server (even if there is no sound card).

OwnTone remembers your selection and the individual volume for each output device; selected devices will be automatically re-selected, except if they return online during playback.

Pairing

1. Open the web interface
2. Start Remote, go to Settings, Add Library
3. Enter the pair code in the web interface (reload the browser page if it does not automatically pick up the pairing request)

If Remote does not connect to OwnTone after you entered the pairing code something went wrong. Check the log file to see the error message. Here are some common reasons:

• You did not enter the correct pairing code

  You will see an error in the log about pairing failure with a HTTP response code that is not 0.

  Solution: Try again.

• No response from Remote, possibly a network issue

  If you see an error in the log with either:

  • a HTTP response code that is 0
  • "Empty pairing request callback"

  it means that OwnTone could not establish a connection to Remote. This might be a network issue, your router may not be allowing multicast between the Remote device and the host OwnTone is running on.

  Solution 1: Sometimes it resolves the issue if you force Remote to quit, restart it and do the pairing process again. Another trick is to establish some other connection (eg SSH) from the iPod/iPhone/iPad to the host.

  Solution 2: Check your router settings if you can whitelist multicast addresses under IGMP settings. For Apple Bonjour, setting a multicast address of 224.0.0.251 and a netmask of 255.255.255.255 should work.

• Otherwise try using avahi-browse for troubleshooting:

  • in a terminal, run:

    avahi-browse -r -k _touch-remote._tcp
    

  • start Remote, goto Settings, Add Library

  • after a couple seconds at most, you should get something similar to this:

    + ath0 IPv4 59eff13ea2f98dbbef6c162f9df71b784a3ef9a3      _touch-remote._tcp   local
    = ath0 IPv4 59eff13ea2f98dbbef6c162f9df71b784a3ef9a3      _touch-remote._tcp   local
       hostname = [Foobar.local]
       address = [192.168.1.1]
       port = [49160]
       txt = ["DvTy=iPod touch" "RemN=Remote" "txtvers=1" "RemV=10000" "Pair=FAEA410630AEC05E" "DvNm=Foobar"]
    

    Hit Ctrl+C to terminate avahi-browse.

• To check for network issues you can try to connect to the server address and port with nc or telnet commands.