Support

First thing to check: same Wi-Fi

Your phone and your TV device have to be on the same Wi-Fi network, and they have to be allowed to talk to each other on it. That is the whole trick — the pictures travel from the phone to the TV directly, so if the two can't reach each other, nothing else in the app can fix it. If your home has two network names — a main one and a guest one, or a “2.4G” and a “5G” that your router keeps separate — put both devices on the main one.

Sconce found my TV, but the pictures never arrive

That is the classic one, and it is almost always the router rather than either device: your TV can see the app, but it can't reach your phone. Your router is probably keeping devices apart. Put both on your main Wi-Fi and try again. In practice it is one of four things:

Client or AP isolation — a router setting that stops devices on the same Wi-Fi from talking to each other. It is often on by default on newer routers, and it is sometimes called “client isolation”, “AP isolation” or “device isolation”.
A guest network — guest Wi-Fi is isolation with a friendlier name. Move the phone (and the TV, if it is on one) to the main network.
Different subnets — some setups put wireless and wired devices, or two access points, on separate networks that can see the internet but not each other. A TV on the wired network and a phone on Wi-Fi is the usual shape of this one.
A firewall or VPN app on the phone — a VPN sends the phone's traffic somewhere else entirely, and a firewall app can block the TV's request. Turn it off for the length of the show and try again.

iPhone: it never finds anything at all

iPhone asks one question the first time you tap Cast: whether Sconce may find devices on your local network. If that was answered with Don't Allow — or dismissed — iPhone will not ask again, and Sconce cannot find your Chromecast at all. There is no way for an app to re-ask, so it is a trip into Settings:

Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network → Sconce, and switch it on. Then open Sconce and tap Cast again.

One aside worth knowing: iPhone only asks that question when the app is in front of you. If casting is ever started from somewhere other than the app itself, the request can be refused silently, without a dialog.

Can I lock my phone during a show?

During a photo show, yes — the pictures are handed to the TV before the show starts, so the television has what it needs and keeps going on its own. Sconce tells you on screen when it is safe to lock.

During a video, no. A video is streamed from the phone to the TV as it plays, so the phone has to stay awake, stay on the Wi-Fi, and keep Sconce running until the video is over. If the video stops, the TV will say so and ask you to wake your phone.

The show stopped on its own

A few ordinary things end a show: the phone left the Wi-Fi, another app on the phone or another person in the house started casting to the same TV, or the phone's battery saver stopped Sconce in the background. Some TV devices also switch themselves off after a few hours of what they consider inactivity, which is a TV setting rather than an app one. Open Sconce again and it will offer to pick the show back up.

Does it do AirPlay, or mirror my screen?

No. Sconce casts to Chromecast and Google TV. It does not use AirPlay, and it does not mirror your screen — your notifications, messages and whatever else is on the phone never appear on the television. Only the photos and videos you picked do.

Do my photos go to the internet?

No. Your photos and videos go straight from this phone to your TV over your own Wi-Fi. We never upload them anywhere. Casting itself does need the internet, though, because your television loads Sconce's TV screen from us, and Google's Cast framework does its own device discovery. The whole story, including the parts that are Google's rather than ours, is on the privacy page.

Why does it want to send a notification?

So there is something to press. The notification is the pause and stop control for the show, on your lock screen, and it is also what keeps Android from stopping the app while a video is streaming. It is asked once, the first time you cast, and if you say no the show still runs — you just control it from inside the app instead. It is never asked again.

I paid for Pro and I'm on a new phone

Open Sconce and use Restore purchases, while signed into the store account that bought it — the Google account on Android, the Apple Account on iPhone. There is no Sconce account, so there is nothing to log into, and nothing for us to look up.

How do I get Sconce?

Not yet — Sconce hasn't been released. Android goes first, in Early Access on Google Play, and there's nothing to join in the meantime.

Found a bug? Have a thought?

Email us any time at [email protected] — the phone model, the Android or iOS version, and which TV device you're casting to help a lot with bugs.