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Nearly every case is one of these:

• Same Wi‑Fi network. The phone and the console must be on the same network. 2.4 GHz versus 5 GHz does not matter, but a guest network does, and so does AP isolation (sometimes called "client isolation") in your router settings. Both stop devices from seeing each other, which is exactly what the console needs to do.
• Keep CouchPortal open and on screen. iOS pauses networking for apps in the background. Lock your phone or switch apps and the console stops hearing the phone.
• Wait up to a minute. The console asks for LAN games every few seconds, but the Friends tab sometimes takes a while to redraw.
• Restart Minecraft on the console. Fully quit it, not just back out to the menu. Then open Friends again while the app is still on screen.

Still nothing? Tap Report a problem in the app right after it fails. The app's own log tells us whether the console's request ever arrived, which is the one thing that decides where the fault is.

This message comes from the console after it has left the phone behind and tried to reach the real server. So the phone and the handoff worked; the server did not. That means one of:

• The server is down or restarting.
• The port is wrong. Most Bedrock servers use 19132, but not all. Check the server's own website.
• The server runs an older version than your console. See the next question.

CouchPortal checks the server before you watch the ad. If that check said the server did not answer, believe it: the console will not have any better luck.

Minecraft updates every few weeks and servers lag behind, sometimes by days, sometimes longer. When the console is newer than the server, the server refuses the connection. Nothing is wrong with your setup or with the app. Wait for the server to update, or pick another server.

No. CouchPortal works by making a server appear in the LAN games list under Friends. Minecraft on Switch has no LAN games list at all, so there is nothing for the server to appear in. This is a limitation of the Switch version of the game and no app can work around it. We say this before you download so you don't find out after.

On the app's main screen, under Remove ads, tap Restore purchase. That asks Apple for your purchase record and turns ads off. It needs an internet connection and you must be signed in to the App Store with the Apple ID that made the purchase, or one in the same Family Sharing group.

Family Sharing: the purchase is shared with your family, but each family member has to tap Restore purchase on their own device once. It does not switch on by itself.

If Restore says there is nothing to restore, check the purchase went through under Settings → your name → Media & Purchases → Purchase History on your iPhone.

No. The phone talks to the console for a fraction of a second, just long enough to tell it the real server's address. From then on the console is connected directly to the server, and the phone carries no game traffic. Your ping to the server is whatever it would be from the console anyway. If the game feels slow, that is the server's distance or load, not the app.

CouchPortal uses two things the game already does on its own: the LAN games list, which the console uses to find games on your home network, and the transfer mechanism, which servers use to move players between their own worlds. It does not modify the game, does not touch the console, and does not bypass any purchase. Third-party servers are an established part of Bedrock Edition; consoles just have no way to type an address in.

CouchPortal is an independent app by Simple Tree LLC. It is not an official Minecraft product and is not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft.

The fastest route is the Report a problem button in the app, right after the failure. It includes the app's own log of what happened, which usually answers the question before we have to ask it. You see everything in the report before it's sent, and it contains nothing that identifies you.

If you'd like a reply, or the app itself won't open, use the form below.