Control Reelhost from your phone

Reelhost's screens work in your phone's browser too: run the check-up, add people, record a show, start a watch together. At home it works on your Wi-Fi; if you allow it, also from anywhere over your web address. It works while Reelhost is open on your computer, and it's off until you turn it on. It needs Reelhost 0.2.11 or newer, and 0.2.14 or newer for using it from anywhere at its own address and installing it like an app (see updating Reelhost). Use cases and safety in one place: the phone guide.

1. On your computer, open Connect devices. Under Control Reelhost from your phone, choose a password of at least 10 characters (it isn't your Jellyfin password), then click Turn on control from your phone.
2. Scan the QR code with your phone's camera, or type the address shown (for example http://192.168.1.10:8098). The rail's On your phone shows the code again.
3. Sign in with that password.

From anywhere, over your web address

Once your web address (or your own domain) is set up and working, turn on Also allow from anywhere (over your web address) in the same section. It's off until you do.

• The phone opens its own address next to your web address, https://app.yourname.watchhome.app (shown with its own QR code). It's HTTPS only, on the same port 443 as your web address, so nothing changes on your router. Its certificate is requested when you turn it on; that can take a minute, and if the certificate authority is busy, Reelhost says so and Caddy tries again by itself.
• Your own domain: add one DNS record at your domain provider first, app.yourdomain.com as a CNAME to yourdomain.com. Reelhost offers the switch once that record leads to your home.
• New phones are approved on the computer. The first time a phone signs in from away, it shows Waiting for approval on your computer and Reelhost on the computer asks Allow this phone? (with a notification), wherever you are in the app. Requests end after 10 minutes. Allowed phones are listed, each with Remove.
• From away, 5 wrong passwords from one place in 15 minutes make it wait; 20 in an hour pause signing in from away for an hour, and the computer says so.
• From away a phone also can't change the web address, the router, the firewall or the phone settings.
• Turning the switch off closes it straight away and signs out every phone that's away; its address comes out of DNS too. Turning off your web address turns it off as well.

Install it like an app

• iPhone: in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Android: tap Install the app when Reelhost offers it, or Add to Home screen in Chrome's menu. Install the app is also under More.
• The full install works over the HTTPS web address. On the home address, iPhone's Add to Home Screen works, but some Android phones add a shortcut instead.
• When the computer can't be reached, the installed app shows Can't reach Reelhost on your computer. It keeps only the app's own files, never your data.

Rules

• The home address is for home. It answers phones on your home network only, even if the port were forwarded on your router.
• Only from the computer: turning it on or off, the password, buying, entering or removing your license key, removing Reelhost and installing Tailscale.
• Sign out all phones signs every phone out at once and forgets phones allowed from away; each signs in again with the password (and asks for approval again from away). Changing the password signs everyone out too.
• Turn off closes both ways in and signs every phone out straight away.
• At home, five wrong passwords from a phone make it wait 15 minutes.
• On Windows, Reelhost adds a firewall rule, Reelfix - Phone control, for your home network only. Turning it off removes it, and so does removing Reelhost.

Forgot the phone password? Choose a new one on the computer: Change password.