Support

Start with the checks below. Private testers should contact the person who supplied their invitation, with the app versions, system versions, connection route and what failed.

Email hello@lumozz.com with “Vitral support” in the subject. This is the existing Lumozz product-support inbox. Our source repository is private.

Mac installation steps are on the setup page.

Vitral can’t see your windows

The Vitral menu on your Mac says Screen Recording Is Off, or your iPhone or iPad connects but shows no windows.

1. On your Mac, open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording. On macOS 14, it’s called Screen Recording.
2. Turn on Vitral.
3. Quit Vitral and open it again. macOS offers to do this for you.

In Vitral’s settings, Permissions has buttons that open these pages for you.

Taps and typing don’t reach your Mac

Vitral needs Accessibility to click, scroll and type for you. On your Mac, open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility and turn on Vitral. It works right away.

Using a keyboard or trackpad with your iPhone or iPad

With a keyboard attached to your iPhone or iPad, such as a Magic Keyboard, what you type goes to your Mac as soon as its picture shows, Esc and shortcuts included. You don’t need the Keyboard button. It brings up your device’s keyboard bar, and from there the on-screen keyboard. While Vitral’s settings, the Apps list or the tour is open, your keys stay with it, so Esc closes the settings or skips the tour.

Over the picture, two fingers on the trackpad scroll the window under the pointer, and so does a mouse’s scroll wheel.

In Terminal, iTerm2 and other terminal apps on your Mac, Control-[ types the same as Esc.

Your Mac isn’t listed

• Check that Vitral is running on your Mac. Its icon is in the menu bar.
• If your Mac restarted, Vitral opens only once someone logs in to it. To have Vitral open by itself then, choose Launch at Login in the Vitral menu, or turn it on in Vitral’s Settings › General.
• Your Mac may be asleep. Wake it, open its lid if needed, then tap it again. Stay Awake for Your Devices can help keep an idle Mac reachable while Vitral runs, but does not make every sleeping Mac wake remotely.
• Put your Mac and your iPhone or iPad on the same Wi-Fi network. Guest networks, and many office and hotel networks, keep devices apart. There, use a USB cable or Direct Wireless Connection.
• Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac with a USB cable. Your Mac then shows as Wired.
• Check that Local Network is on for Vitral on both, as below.

Local Network is off

If Vitral on your iPhone or iPad asks you to allow Local Network, open Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network and turn on Vitral.

On a Mac with macOS 15 or later, also open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network and turn on Vitral.

Pairing your iPhone or iPad

Each iPhone or iPad pairs with your Mac once. After that, only the devices you paired can connect, and every connection is encrypted.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, tap your Mac. Its row says Not paired.
2. Your Mac opens a window with a code. Point your iPhone or iPad at it, or tap Enter Code Instead and type the 12 digits.

Over a USB cable, your Mac shows as Wired. Tap it, and the device pairs by itself, with no code, while your Mac is unlocked.

If it doesn’t work:

• Your Mac didn’t show a code. Choose Pair iPhone or iPad… in the Vitral menu on your Mac, then tap your Mac again. After you click Cancel in that window, or after five wrong codes, your Mac waits 10 minutes before it opens the window for that device by itself again.
• Your iPhone or iPad asks you to unlock your Mac. Your Mac pairs a device only while it’s unlocked.
• Your iPhone or iPad says Update Vitral beside your Mac. The two apps may be incompatible. Use matching Vitral builds from your test invitation. The Mac automatic update check is disabled.
• The Vitral menu on your Mac says An iPhone or iPad Needs Vitral Updated. An iPhone or iPad with an older Vitral tried to connect. Update Vitral on it.
• Your iPhone or iPad says your Mac removed it. It was removed in Vitral’s Settings › Devices on your Mac. Tap your Mac to pair it again.

Vitral’s Settings › Devices on your Mac lists the devices you paired. Remove one you no longer use, or have lost. Leave Require pairing on: with it off, any device on your network, and any app on your Mac, can see and control your Mac without pairing.

Direct Wireless Connection

Direct Wireless Connection lets an iPhone or iPad near your Mac connect without a shared Wi-Fi network, the way AirDrop does.

• Turn it on in the Vitral menu on your Mac, or in Vitral’s settings under General.
• If nothing is listed on your iPhone or iPad, tap Search Nearby. Your Mac then shows as Direct. An iPhone or iPad you already paired lists your Mac as Remote instead, with no Search Nearby: it looks for your Mac nearby by itself only if Direct Wireless Connection was on the last time the two connected on the same network or over a USB cable (a connection through a VPN doesn’t count). If it wasn’t, connect them once over a USB cable while it’s on, then unplug.
• Leave it off when your devices share a network. While it’s on, the Wi-Fi on your Mac keeps stepping away from its network, and streams over Wi-Fi can stutter.
• While it’s on, anyone nearby with Vitral can find your Mac. Only devices you paired can connect, unless you turn off Require pairing.

Connect away from home

1. Pair your iPhone or iPad with the unlocked Mac locally first.
2. On the Mac, open Remote Access and enable it. For a connection without your own VPN, also turn on Reach from anywhere (Lumozz relay). Both remote access and relay access start off.
3. Connect locally once while those settings are on, so the paired device learns the remote route.
4. Keep the Mac awake, online and running Vitral. Away from home, tap your saved Mac. If you use your own VPN instead, make sure it is running on both devices.

Ready · Relay means the Mac is registered with the relay. It does not prove that a usable streaming session can start. If it fails, check that the Mac is awake and its permissions are allowed, reconnect locally once, and try again. Pairing is never done through the relay.

Stay Awake for Your Devices helps keep an idle Mac reachable. A closed laptop lid or macOS sleep can still make it unavailable. Sleep Mac requests system sleep; other macOS activity can wake it again. It is not a promise of uninterrupted sleep. If the Mac restarted, someone must log in before Vitral can run.

Local Wi-Fi, USB and direct wireless use is free. Optional hosted Vitral Remote is planned at €19.99 per year; public subscriptions are not available yet.

The optional relay forwards encrypted content and processes connection metadata. Read the privacy policy before enabling it. If the relay is unavailable, use a local connection or a configured VPN route.

A window on your Mac changed size

When you change the text size with Aa on your iPhone or iPad, Vitral resizes the window you’re using on your Mac to fit your device, unless Virtual Display is on, and keeps it at that size while you use it. When you switch to another window or to the Desktop, disconnect, or quit Vitral, the window goes back to the size and place it had. With more than one device connected, it goes back when the last one disconnects.

• If you moved the window on your Mac meanwhile, it keeps its new place and gets its size back.
• A window that’s full screen when you stop stays as it is. When it leaves full screen it keeps the size Vitral gave it; resize it yourself.
• If Vitral for Mac stopped without quitting, for example after Force Quit, resize the window yourself.

Copy and paste between your Mac and your iPhone or iPad

While Share Clipboard is on, text you copy on your Mac while your iPhone or iPad is connected is ready to paste on the device. To paste on your Mac what you copied on your iPhone or iPad, come back to Vitral and tap Paste, on the note by Vitral’s bar or in the settings panel, then press ⌘V on your Mac. Vitral never reads your iPhone or iPad’s clipboard by itself.

• Both apps have the switch: Share clipboard with devices in Vitral’s Settings › General on your Mac, and Share Clipboard in the settings panel on your iPhone or iPad.
• Only text goes, up to 256 KB at a time, and only what you copy while a device is connected. Copies a password manager marks as concealed stay on your Mac, and so does text that came to your Mac from another of your devices through Universal Clipboard.
• Text from your Mac stays on your iPhone or iPad’s clipboard for 10 minutes.
• If nothing arrives, update Vitral on both: an older Vitral on either side doesn’t share the clipboard.
• If what you copy on your Mac doesn’t arrive, look under Share clipboard with devices in Vitral’s Settings › General on your Mac. When macOS asks before apps read the clipboard, Vitral says so there and takes you to where you allow it: Paste from Other Apps, in System Settings › Privacy & Security.

The picture stutters or lags

• Pick a lower Quality in the settings panel on your iPhone or iPad, or in the Vitral menu on your Mac. Away from home, Vitral streams at a quality of its own, which the Vitral menu doesn’t change: lower it in the settings panel on your iPhone or iPad, tap the quality it suggests when the connection can’t keep up, or set it in Vitral’s Settings › Streaming under Away from home.
• Use a USB cable, or 5 GHz Wi-Fi.
• Turn off Direct Wireless Connection if you don’t need it.

The picture is small on your iPhone

Held upright, your iPhone shows the picture at the top, with buttons, keys and a trackpad below it. To make the picture of a window larger, tap Settings under the picture, turn on Larger Picture under This iPhone, and close Settings. While a window is on screen, its picture then takes the place of the window thumbnails and reaches down to where the keyboard comes up.

• Switch windows with Apps: tap an open app again for its next window. The Menus button lists the windows too, in the Window menu of most apps.
• Closing, minimizing and full screen, which you reach by holding a thumbnail, go with the thumbnails: use the app’s own menus behind the Menus button instead.
• Until you set a window’s text size with Aa, it keeps its own shape. Then your Mac makes it as tall as the picture. With Virtual Display on, your Mac does that by itself.
• The Desktop keeps the usual layout, with the thumbnails: your Mac’s screen keeps its shape, so a taller picture would only add black below it.
• On iPhone Duo, Larger Picture isn’t there: the cover display keeps its layout. With Display Zoom on, some iPhones have no room for a larger picture, and it isn’t there either.

Sending a log

Share a short description and app versions first. Do not send a raw log unless it is needed. On your Mac, choose Show Log… in the Vitral menu, or open the Vitral folder in Library/Logs in your home folder. The log lists your window names, device names and network addresses, never what you copy, so read it and remove personal details before you send it. Never send your password, pairing code, clipboard contents or personal screenshots.