Can't connect to your PC?

Your PC and phone need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.

Public Wi-Fi and guest networks often block device-to-device traffic.

Turn on Settings → Keymate → Local Network.

Restart Keymate after enabling the permission for it to take effect.

Keymate must be running on your PC.

If you haven't installed it yet, grab it from the download page.

Check that Keymate is allowed to accept incoming connections in macOS Firewall.

If you're on a VPN, try turning it off briefly.

Many public and corporate networks isolate devices from each other for security, so your phone can't reach your PC even on the same Wi-Fi. Hotels, airports, cafés, coworking spaces, schools, and office guest networks all commonly do this.

Quick test: connect both devices to a different network (your home Wi-Fi, a mobile router, or someone else's phone hotspot) and try pairing again. If it works there, the original network is blocking device-to-device traffic and there's nothing the app can do about it.

Some routers and mesh systems split traffic across separate subnets. For example, they may put 2.4GHz and 5GHz on different networks, or isolate IoT devices from your main devices. When this happens, your PC and phone look like they're on the same Wi-Fi but actually can't see each other.

Try connecting both devices to the same band (both on 5GHz or both on 2.4GHz), or to the main SSID rather than a guest/IoT one. On mesh systems, sticking close to the same node can help.

VPNs like Tailscale, WireGuard, a work VPN, or privacy VPNs (Mullvad, ProtonVPN, NordVPN) route traffic through a tunnel that bypasses your local network. Your devices end up on a virtual network instead of the physical Wi-Fi, so they can't find each other for pairing.

Turn off the VPN on both devices, pair, then turn it back on. Once paired, some VPNs allow LAN traffic to bypass the tunnel. Check the VPN's settings for an option like “Allow local network access”.

Open Direct Connect on your PC to find the IP and port, then enter them on your phone via Connect Directly to pair.