Windows "Your Phone"

Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

I'm not a big phone guy.

How does this work ?

Are both devices using Wifi ?

And one can't raise the other ?

Does the phone acquire an IP via DHCP ?

Does the router have a table with all
the "connected" devices listed ?

Do you do Torrents on the router ? On some
routers, heavy traffic makes them crazy. My
routing device for example, a Windows 10 Upgrade
tipped it over once. Whereas some routers can
handle 1500 connections.

The other possibilities would be that some device
"sleeps". The Wifi on your desktop should be set
to never sleep, since there's no battery consumption
to worry about. Device Manager may have a tick box
for this. On a laptop, you'd probably have to
leave that tick box in "snoozy" mode.

*******

And I see here, they have an infinitely long list of
silly stuff to try. The OS excels at this.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-f...app-windows-10

The end result of all those bogus little controls,
is sites like that one have to write all that crap
down. It's giving people work they never wanted.

Paul

On 16/07/2020 09:36, Paul wrote:
Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We
can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to
the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.
I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

I'm not a big phone guy.

How does this work ?

Are both devices using Wifi ?


'Your Phone' has 4 functions - Notifications, Messages, Photos and Calls.


The first 3 of these can use WiFi and allow phone notifications and
photos to be viewed on a PC, and SMS messages to be received on and sent
from a PC. Under some circumstances (if you give the appropriate
permissions, etc.) it can use *any* internet connections (mobile data,
etc.) - so the phone and computer can be miles apart and connected to
different networks.

The fourth function - Calls - requires Bluetooth, and won't work without
it and - sometimes - even with it! For this to work, the phone has to be
within spitting distance of the PC. This is by far the most flaky bit of
the app. On a good day, it allows a PC to be used as a hands-free device
for the phone, making use of the PC's speakers and microphone.

My PC doesn't have BT as standard so, in order to use this function, I
bought a USB/BT dongle. The first one was a cheap far east import, and I
couldn't make it work with the phone. I then bought a slightly more
expensive branded one, and that works *most* of the time - but it still
has its occasional bad hair day.
--
Cheers,
Roger

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 04:36:06 -0400, Paul wrote:

Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

I'm not a big phone guy.

How does this work ?

Are both devices using Wifi ?

PC on ethernet, mobile phone on wi-fi.


And one can't raise the other ?

The app on the PC decides it can't refresh, even though it did a few hours earlier. Sometimes
restarting the PC does the trick.


Does the phone acquire an IP via DHCP ?

Yes, it does - same one since acquiring phone in March.


Does the router have a table with all
the "connected" devices listed ?

Yes


Do you do Torrents on the router ? On some
routers, heavy traffic makes them crazy. My
routing device for example, a Windows 10 Upgrade
tipped it over once. Whereas some routers can
handle 1500 connections.

No.


The other possibilities would be that some device
"sleeps". The Wifi on your desktop should be set
to never sleep, since there's no battery consumption
to worry about. Device Manager may have a tick box
for this. On a laptop, you'd probably have to
leave that tick box in "snoozy" mode.

The PC is mains powered, and often the phone is being charged via a USB port.


*******

And I see here, they have an infinitely long list of
silly stuff to try. The OS excels at this.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-f...app-windows-10

The end result of all those bogus little controls,
is sites like that one have to write all that crap
down. It's giving people work they never wanted.

Most of the time it works, the problem appears to be intermittent.


Paul

Thanks for your help.

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 12:18:02 +0100, Roger Mills wrote:

On 16/07/2020 09:36, Paul wrote:
Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We
can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to
the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.
I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

I'm not a big phone guy.

How does this work ?

Are both devices using Wifi ?


'Your Phone' has 4 functions - Notifications, Messages, Photos and Calls.


The first 3 of these can use WiFi and allow phone notifications and
photos to be viewed on a PC, and SMS messages to be received on and sent
from a PC. Under some circumstances (if you give the appropriate
permissions, etc.) it can use *any* internet connections (mobile data,
etc.) - so the phone and computer can be miles apart and connected to
different networks.

The fourth function - Calls - requires Bluetooth, and won't work without
it and - sometimes - even with it! For this to work, the phone has to be
within spitting distance of the PC. This is by far the most flaky bit of
the app. On a good day, it allows a PC to be used as a hands-free device
for the phone, making use of the PC's speakers and microphone.

I use it mainly for messages and photos, always locally.


My PC doesn't have BT as standard so, in order to use this function, I
bought a USB/BT dongle. The first one was a cheap far east import, and I
couldn't make it work with the phone. I then bought a slightly more
expensive branded one, and that works *most* of the time - but it still
has its occasional bad hair day.

Thanks for your help.

Optimist wrote:

PC on ethernet, mobile phone on wi-fi.

In Device Manager, the Ethernet has

"Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

I always untick that for my Ethernet stuff.

Have a look and see if it's unticked.

Paul

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 07:28:59 +0100, Optimist
wrote:

Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

I was going to say that I used to have problems with it as you
describe but haven't done for some time, but yesterday it wouldn't
connect. For some reason I started with the phone and found it
complaining that it couldn't connect to the wifi, despite putting in
the correct password. Eventually I repowered it - the wifi connected
and so did Your Phone.

Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We
can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to
the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

Check if the problem isn't on the *phone* side. I have a similar setup
- albeit with different software [1] - and sometimes/often get
connection failures, because the phone is - too much - asleep, i.e. the
phone hasn't been used for a while and the display is off. Pressing the
power button on the phone 'unsleeps' the phone (switches the display on)
and restores the connection.

BTW, what kind of phone do you have? Android or iPhone?

[1] WhatsApp on the (Android) smartphone and 'WhatsApp for Windows' on
the Windows side.

Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

My microwave oven kills every wifi and Bluetooth device in the house.
Most of the time they start working again by themselves but sometimes I
need to reboot the laptop and or wifi router.

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:42:29 -0400, Paul wrote:

Optimist wrote:

PC on ethernet, mobile phone on wi-fi.

In Device Manager, the Ethernet has

"Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

I always untick that for my Ethernet stuff.

Have a look and see if it's unticked.

Paul

How would that help? The phone connects to the LAN wirelessly, it connects to the USB solely to
recharge the battery.

On 16 Jul 2020 14:45:28 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:

Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We
can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to
the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

Check if the problem isn't on the *phone* side. I have a similar setup
- albeit with different software [1] - and sometimes/often get
connection failures, because the phone is - too much - asleep, i.e. the
phone hasn't been used for a while and the display is off. Pressing the
power button on the phone 'unsleeps' the phone (switches the display on)
and restores the connection.

Yes, I've tried that, the problem occurs both when the phone is wake and when it is dormant.


BTW, what kind of phone do you have? Android or iPhone?

Android.


[1] WhatsApp on the (Android) smartphone and 'WhatsApp for Windows' on
the Windows side.

In article , Paul in Houston TX
wrote:


My microwave oven kills every wifi and Bluetooth device in the house.
Most of the time they start working again by themselves but sometimes I
need to reboot the laptop and or wifi router.

that doesn't sound like it's the microwave oven.

only if the oven is cooking something will there be interference, and
only near the oven, and only sometimes because modern wifi is very good
at rejecting microwave oven interference.

at all other times, a microwave oven will have no effect.

once cooking is done, the interference is gone and everything is back
to normal.

if you need to reboot to fix things, then something else is going on.

if you switch to 5ghz, microwave ovens, cordless phones, etc., will not
cause any interference at all, plus the data rates are much faster.

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 15:16:08 -0500, Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Optimist wrote:
Why does this app keep failing every few days with the message "We can't connect to your phone"?
This happens even when the phone is next to the PC and is connected to the LAN.

I'm getting cheesed off with constantly having to "repair" the app.

I'm using Windows 10 home edition and it is up-to-date.

My microwave oven kills every wifi and Bluetooth device in the house.
Most of the time they start working again by themselves but sometimes I
need to reboot the laptop and or wifi router.

Yes, the wifi signal between the router and the Amazon firestick gets blocked when the microwave is
in use but as soon as it stops the video resumes. As I type this "Your phone" is talking to the
phone next to me.