Help

Updated 22 August 2026

Postal address

Rote is published by an independent developer. Written correspondence, including anything of a legal nature, should go to the mailbox above; we will supply a postal address on request.

Searching found nothing

An empty result is nearly always a network matter, not a fault in the software. Try these in order:

1. Same network, both ends. The phone and the set have to sit behind the same router. A guest SSID is a separate network even when it comes out of the same box, and a phone that has fallen back to cellular data is not on your network at all.
2. The local network switch in iOS. Open iOS Settings, find Rote, and make sure the local network toggle is on. With it off, no application on the phone is permitted to see anything else on your network, and the search will come back empty every time.
3. A VPN profile. Most of them hide everything on the local side. Turn it off, search again, turn it back on afterwards if you like.
4. Two bands, one router. Some routers keep the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz sides apart. If the phone is on one and the set on the other, they cannot see each other; joining the phone to the other band settles it.
5. The set has to be awake. A set cut off at the wall answers nothing. Wake it with its own remote first.

If none of that helps, skip the search: type the address instead. That path does not depend on discovery working at all.

Typing an address by hand

Choose Enter address — it sits beside the search button on the add screen, and is repeated on the empty room screen, the search screen, the search result, the screen after a declined permission, and in settings.

Use the address your set shows in its own network settings — four numbers with dots between them, and the field itself prints the shape as a hint. Leave the port at 8060 unless you have a reason not to. When nothing replies, the app names the address it tried and leaves your digits where they were, so a mistyped number costs one tap rather than a fresh start.

Where the address is written down

On the set itself, the address lives in the network section of its settings screen, usually under a heading such as About. Your router's admin page lists it too, next to the name of the device. Both give the same number.

A step in a scene failed

The run sheet names the step and puts the reason beside it, and the run carries on to the steps after it; once everything has settled, the failed step offers Retry this step and Skip and continue. Two causes account for most of them: the set had not finished waking up when the next step arrived, and a channel that is no longer installed. For the first, raise the wait step in front of it by a second or two. For the second, open the scene and pick the channel again from the list the set reports now.

Volume behaves oddly

A scene changes volume by pressing the button, once per step, exactly as the plastic remote does. On a streaming player the press has to travel down the HDMI cable to the set, and not every set accepts it; where that fails, the set's own remote is unaffected and still works. There is no way to jump straight to a chosen level, so the app never offers one.

Turning a set on

Waking a set over the network only works if it was left in a state that listens. A set switched off at a wall socket, or with its own network standby disabled in its settings, cannot be reached until someone presses its own power button. Nothing in the app can work around that.

Typing on the set

Text arrives only where the set is already expecting it, so open the search box on the set first and type from the phone afterwards. Characters go over one at a time; if sending stops partway, the app says how many of them got through and offers either to carry on from that point or to go back and edit what you wrote.

Do I have to sign up?

No — there is nowhere to sign up. Nothing to log into, nothing to cancel, no subscription lurking behind anything. Deleting the app takes everything it held with it.

Removing what the app stored

Settings has a Reset all data item. It asks you to confirm, then erases the rooms, the sets and the scenes you made, forgets your preferences, and puts the three example scenes back — the app ends up as it was on the day it was installed. Deleting the app clears the same things. Neither needs our help, and neither sends us anything.