BTT Mobile - IP address empty & unable to connect (macOS Tahoe 26.5, M4 MacBook Air)

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
1

Subject: BTT Mobile - IP address empty & unable to connect (macOS Tahoe 26.5, M4 MacBook Air)

Hi Andreas,

I'm unable to get BTT Mobile to connect to my Mac. The IP address field in BTT Mobile settings remains empty, and my iPhone cannot discover or manually connect to my Mac.

Setup:

  • MacBook Air 15-inch M4 (2025), macOS Tahoe 26.5
  • iPhone 15 Pro
  • BetterTouchTool version 2026033012
  • BTT Mobile (latest from App Store)
  • KPN Box 12 router (Netherlands), both devices on same subnet (192.168.2.x)

What I've tried:

  • Reinstalled BetterTouchTool completely
  • Enabled BTT Mobile support with peer-to-peer connections and remote scripting
  • Verified macOS Firewall allows BTT incoming connections
  • Verified Local Network permission is enabled for BTT (macOS and iPhone)
  • Disabled AdGuard, all adblockers, and VPN
  • Turned off macOS firewall entirely
  • Confirmed Wi-Fi isolation is disabled on router
  • Tested manual connection using IP 192.168.2.20 and port 63231
  • Tested via iPhone hotspot (bypassing router entirely) — still doesn't work
  • Toggled BTT Mobile support off/on and restarted BTT

Observations:

  • The IP field in BTT settings (under BTT Mobile) is completely empty, only the port (63231) is shown
  • Bonjour browser on macOS (Discovery app) DOES show _bttmobile._tcp advertising correctly on 192.168.2.20:63231
  • Despite this, BTT Mobile on iPhone cannot find my Mac, neither via auto-discovery nor manual IP/port entry

Since the hotspot test also fails, this doesn't seem to be a router issue. Could this be a compatibility issue with macOS Tahoe 26.5 on the M4 MacBook Air?

I can provide screenshots or logs if needed.

Thanks for your help!
Ray Ros

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2

BTT Mobile is not yet on the App Store, did you maybe try with the old BTT Remote?

3

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the old Remote works, thanks. somehow I got mobile and remote.

4

BTT Mobile is available via Testflight right now (not AppStore). However it generally also works on 26.5

5

BTT mobile is not available on TestFlight anymore ?

6

I cannot get BBT Mobile (downloaded via App Store) to connect to my MBP either (Tahoe 26.4.1, M1 chip). I tried similar things to what was noted above.

I was able to connect the (now deprecated) BTT Remote to do so, though.

7

firewall active? (that is the most common issue)

8

I tried disabling that.... but that did not solve it.

9

which firewall are you running?

10

EE Cyber Security (a rebadged Norton)....

11

OK, I finally figured out the solution to get it working and I am posting this in case anyone has the same issue. In macOS there is "Local Network" option under "Privacy and Security". I discovered that (for some unknown reason) BetterTouchTool.app was NOT checked on. Once checked on, my Mac then detected it on iPad. I hope that helps!

12

Thanks I'll add that to the docs!

13

Cool. It is a very deep tool and well worth a lifetime license IMHO. I am not a programmer, but your documentation and examples do help (here's a biggup for your good, deep docs!). After quite a bit of faffing about I have now managed to get iPad control buttons working. One small suggestion maybe? It would be really helpful if it was possible to resize all EXISTING buttons to be the same size, and also to auto change the number positions if moved. But, maybe both are already possible! Thanks for the app and great work Andreas!

14

you can select multiple items and change their properties simultaneously!

15

Cool. I will try that later. Tx!