Please help to connect mobile app

Mobile Apps Home Assistant Companion for Android
1

Hi everyone,

I’m new to Home Assistant and have spent a full day trying to connect it to the Android phone app, but most of my attempts have failed. I really need your help!

My Setup:

  • PC: Running Windows 11 with Hyper-V. I installed the latest Home Assistant Core from the official website.

  • Home Assistant: Works perfectly on the PC.

  • Browser Access: I can access Home Assistant via Firefox using these addresses:

    • http://homeassistant.local:8123
    • http://172.27.168.xxx:8123 (This IP was shown in a Home Assistant add-on).

  • Local IP Issue:
    My PC’s IP is 192.168.31.xxx (confirmed via ipconfig), but I cannot access Home Assistant using http://192.168.31.xxx:8123 on any device, including the PC itself.

  • Phone Details:
    My phone is a OnePlus device, about 2 years old, running the latest OS with the latest WebView installed, running under same Wifi as PC.

Problem:

I cannot connect to Home Assistant from my Android phone, despite trying several methods.

Methods I’ve Tried:

Method 1: Direct Connection

  • Installed the latest Home Assistant mobile app from the Play Store.

  • Tried the following addresses in the app, but none worked:

    http://homeassistant.local:8123
http://192.168.31.xxx:8123
http://192.168.31.1:8123
http://192.168.31.xxx:443
http://192.168.31.xxx:4357
http://192.168.31.xxx
http://172.27.168.xxx:8123

    (Plus all HTTPS versions of the above).

  • Cleared app data, reinstalled the app, and retried, but the app never proceeded to the login page. Most of the time, I received a timeout error or a connection refused error.

  • None of these addresses worked on mobile phone - either Chrome or the Home Assistant mobile app.

Method 2: DuckDNS

  • Attempted to set up external access using DuckDNS, following this guide:

    1. Registered a DuckDNS subdomain.
    2. Installed and configured the DuckDNS add-on.
    3. Verified the add-on was running correctly.
    4. Updated the Home Assistant configuration file and validated it.
    5. Restarted Home Assistant.
    6. Set up port forwarding on the router:
      • External ports 80, 81, and 443 forwarded to 192.168.31.xxx (internal) port 8123.

  • Result: After these changes, I couldn’t access Home Assistant from any device.
    Addresses I tried:

    http://homeassistant.local:8123
http://192.168.31.xxx:8123
http://192.168.31.1:8123
http://192.168.31.xxx:443
http://192.168.31.xxx:4357
http://192.168.31.xxx
http://172.27.168.xxx:8123
http://<my-subdomain>.duckdns.org
http://<my-subdomain>.duckdns.org:8123
http://<my-subdomain>.duckdns.org:443

    (Plus all HTTPS versions of the above).

  • None of these addresses worked on mobile phone - either Chrome or the Home Assistant mobile app.

Method 3: Tailscale

  • This method worked:
    • Tailscale was already set up on my phone and Docker (it works perfectly for Immich).
    • I installed the Tailscale add-on in Home Assistant, logged in on both the phone and Home Assistant.
    • Entered the HA’s Tailscale IP (http://<tailscale-ip>:8123) into the Home Assistant app on my phone, and it connected successfully.

This confirms that both the phone app and Home Assistant are working correctly and reachable.

What I Need:

Although Tailscale works. It seems there’s something not quite right with the IP addresses, and I’d like to resolve that.

If you need more details, let me know. Thanks in advance!

2

DuckDNS comes with LetsEncrypt (assuming you accepted the terms).

So you need to use https not http.

And you will have to add a security exception in your web browser as the ssl certificate can only be used for your DuckDNS domain.

3

I think I mentioned, i tried both HTTP and HTTPS, all of them not working.

when you say add security exception did you mean change the config to add the ssl part?
if you mean I need to make changes for web browser, did you mean I need to change all devices for all browsers? if so could you please provide more details how to change for DuckDNS, thank you.

4

When you attempt to visit the local https address (not DuckDNS) in your web browser it will warn you that the site is not secure. How you ignore this depends on what web browser you are using.

5

when those warning turn up, I click the ignor then the web showing up.
but when I visit the duckdns domain, it does not even open the web, so that I am not at the ignor step yet.
still working on how to get the duckdns working .

6

You won’t get that message for the DuckDNS address as the SSL certificate is valid for it.

What port forwarding rule did you set up in your router?

7

External ports 80, 81, and 443 forwarded to 192.168.31.xxx (internal) port 8123.

I got it sorted now, I was forwarding that to the PC’s IP, not the acutal IP for HA, changed IP and all good now, thanks for your help!!

8

Remove these two:

You don’t need them and the fewer security holes you have the better.

The address you should be using to access your home assistant instance is:

https://your_duckdns_domain_here.org

No port on the end as you are using port 443 which is the default for https.

If that does not work:

Go to the DuckDNS admin website where you set up your domain. Does the IP address reported there match the public IP address of your router?

9

all working now thanks!!