Help & FAQ

LAN Viewer scans the Wi-Fi network your phone is connected to and lists the devices it finds — with each device's IP address, MAC address, vendor and (where possible) a name.

It also includes tools to ping a device, check Wi-Fi signal, and keep a local history of what's on your network.

Connect your phone to the Wi-Fi network you want to inspect, open LAN Viewer, allow the local-network permission when prompted, then tap scan.

The app probes your subnet and fills in each device as it responds.

Recent Android versions require an explicit permission before an app can communicate with other devices on your Wi-Fi.

LAN Viewer needs this to discover and identify devices. If it's denied, scans will come back empty or time out — you can re-enable it in Android Settings for the app.

LAN Viewer checks with Google Play for a newer version each time you open it, and Google Play shows its own full-screen update screen when one is available. The app is young and ships fixes often, so running an old copy usually means living with a bug that's already fixed.

The screen isn't a reminder you can turn off. If you back out, the app still works and asks again next time you open it. The check itself isn't part of the optional analytics — it runs whether or not you opted in.

A device may be asleep, on a different network, or configured not to respond to probes. Some routers also isolate clients from each other ("AP isolation"), which hides devices from any scanner.

Try waking the device, disabling client isolation on your router, and scanning again.

LAN Viewer names devices from vendor lookup, reverse DNS, mDNS/Bonjour, NetBIOS and hostname patterns. When a device hides its name or uses a randomized MAC address, there's less to go on and it may stay unlabeled.

Rescanning, or checking the device when it's actively in use, can sometimes reveal more.

The app combines several signals at once: the MAC-address prefix (matched against a bundled vendor database), names the device advertises over the network, and common naming patterns.

Because it's based on network signals, identification is a best effort and can occasionally be approximate.

Open a device from the scan results and use the ping tool to send test packets. It reports whether the device responds and how quickly — useful for checking if something is reachable or dropping off.

It shows the network you're connected to and how strong the signal is, which helps when positioning routers, extenders or access points.

No. Scanning and identification happen on your device, and results are stored locally. They are not sent to our servers.

They're optional and off by default. Accepting the Terms doesn't turn them on — the app asks separately on first launch, and you can choose No and still use every feature.

If you decline, Firebase analytics and crash reporting stay disabled and the app doesn't read the Play Store install referrer. You can change your choice any time in Settings, and analytics never include your scan results.

Clear the app's history from within the app, or clear the app's storage in Android Settings. Uninstalling the app removes locally stored data from your device.