Verify your WiFi network connection
The steps below outline advanced steps in troubleshooting connections between your smartphone and your WiFi network. If you are having trouble getting your mobile app to sync with the desktop then please start at the mobile sync troubleshooting guide first before delving into the steps below.
Please follow the steps that match your computer operating system, regardless of your phone type (Android or iPhone).
Windows
Make sure your computer and your phone are on the same network so they can talk to each other.
-
Open YNAB on your phone and go to the Sync screen. Once it connects to WiFi, it will give you an IP address.
Windows XP: Go to Start->Run. Type cmd and hit Enter.
Windows Vista or 7: Go to Start and type cmd and hit Enter. - A command prompt will appear.
- At the prompt, type: ping followed by your phone’s IP address. Example: if your IP address was 192.168.1.122, you would type: ping 192.168.1.122
- Hit Enter. You should see something like this:
If you see 0 (0%) loss, your computer can talk to your phone, so something else is preventing YNAB from syncing. If you see Timeouts instead of 0 lost packets, your computer can’t talk to your phone (possibly because they're not on the same network). Another cause is often an overzealous firewall. Try temporarily disabling any firewall, security software, or tell it to ignore YNAB.
- If the ping test above gave timeouts instead of showing 0% loss, you need to verify that your computer and iPhone are on the same network/subnet.
- To do that, type ipconfig and hit Enter. You will see something like this:
Your computer’s IP address should be almost identical to your phone’s IP address, except for the LAST NUMBER.
Example:
Phone IP address=192.168.1.20.
Computer IP address=192.168.1.84.
If this is the case, your computer and the phone are on the same network. If your computer and phone differ by more than one number, your computer and phone are on different networks. Ask a computer guru friend to help “get them on the same subnet”. If you still can’t get it to sync, try using an ad-hoc network but only if you have an iPhone (Android phones don't support ad-hoc networks).
Mac
- Open YNAB on your phone and go to the Sync screen. Once it connects to WiFi, it will give you an IP address
- Open the Network Utility app on your Mac. (Found under Applications/Utilities)
- Click on the Ping tab.
- Enter the IP address of the phone as the Network address to ping. Limit the pings to 3.
- Click Ping and it should tell you 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss:
If it doesn’t say the above, your Mac can’t see the phone. Click on the info tab to view your Mac’s IP address:
The computer’s IP address and your iPhone’s IP address should be identical except for the last number.
Example:
Phone’s IP address=192.168.1.20
Computer’s IP address=192.168.1.84
If that is the case, your computer and phone are on the same network which means something else is preventing them from talking to each other. The cause is often an overzealous firewall or security software. Try temporarily disabling any firewall, security software, or tell it to ignore YNAB.
If your computer and the phone differ by more than one number, your computer and phone are on different networks. Ask a computer guru friend to help get them on the same subnet. If you still can’t get it to sync, try using an ad-hoc network but only if you have an iPhone (Android phones don't support ad-hoc networks).