Remote access

Direct or relay?

Direct is used whenever it works: your phone talks straight to your computer and nothing of ours is in the path. Relay is the fallback for connections that cannot be reached directly, such as providers that share one internet address between many homes. In the app, Settings → Remote access shows Secure direct connection or Secure relay. The relay is a pass-through only: it cannot read your photos, your library or your login, and it stores nothing. It is a little slower than a direct connection, so large backups are best left for Wi-Fi.

What Pluto does for you

• Tries to open one door in your router, and removes it again when you switch remote access off or quit Pluto.
• Checks that the door is open and tells you honestly when it cannot confirm it from the internet, instead of guessing.
• Keeps your phone up to date when your home internet address changes, so you do not need to re-pair or type anything in.
• Adjusts the firewall on your computer with your permission, and tells you in plain words when something is in the way.

How it is secured

• Encrypted end to end. The connection is HTTPS. Because the certificate is generated by your own computer rather than bought from a certificate authority, the app records its fingerprint when you pair and refuses anything else afterwards, so a machine impersonating your computer is rejected even if it answers on the same address.
• Only your paired phones get in. The door from the internet serves nothing but the phone's own requests. It has no login page, no web gallery and no way to pair a new phone: anyone else who finds it gets an empty page. New phones can only be added from your home Wi-Fi.
• Per-device keys. Each paired phone has its own key. You can see paired devices, and revoke any of them, under Admin → Mobile Companion on the desktop or Settings → Paired devices in the app.
• Our servers never see your photos. To let your phone find your computer after your internet address changes, your computer leaves an encrypted note with our license server saying where it is. The note is locked with a key only your phone has, so we cannot read it, and it is deleted when you switch remote access off. Your photos, names and library are never stored by us. If the relay is used, it only carries scrambled traffic that ends at your computer, and your phone will not talk to anything that cannot prove it is your computer.

If it does not work

The remote-access panel on the desktop tells you which part is stuck, in plain words. After fixing anything below, press Check again.

“The outside check was inconclusive”

Pluto asks one of our servers to knock on your door from the internet as an independent check. Sometimes that check cannot complete, which does not mean your door is shut. Turn Wi-Fi off on your phone and open Pluto Companion: if Settings → Remote access says Secure direct connection, everything is working and there is nothing to fix.

“Your router does not offer automatic port opening”

Pluto relies on a router feature called UPnP (some routers call it NAT-PMP). Most home routers have it, but some internet-provider boxes ship with it switched off. Open your router's settings, look for UPnP, often under Advanced or NAT: turn it on, then press Check again.

“Your internet provider shares one address between customers”

That is carrier-grade NAT: your provider puts several homes behind one public address, so nothing outside can reach your computer directly, however your router is set up. You do not need to do anything: Pluto automatically uses our relay instead, and the phone shows Secure relay rather than Secure direct connection. It works the same way, just slightly slower.

“Windows treats this network as Public”

Windows blocks incoming connections on networks it calls Public, and home Wi-Fi is sometimes labelled that way. If this really is your own home network, press This is my home network in the panel and Windows will switch it to Private.

“Your Mac is set to block all incoming connections”

In System Settings, open Network → Firewall → Options and turn off Block all incoming connections.

“The firewall needs your permission”

Press Allow through the firewall and enter your password (or choose Yes on Windows). On Linux, if no window appears, the panel shows a single command to run in a terminal instead.

It worked, then stopped

Check the computer is awake and Pluto Photos is open. Pluto re-checks your connection every few minutes and whenever your network changes, so a changed home internet address corrects itself. If you move to a new router, open the phone app once on the home Wi-Fi.

The app says it cannot verify your computer's certificate

The desktop's certificate has changed since you paired: most often because the app's data was reset or Pluto was reinstalled. Pair again from the QR code on your home Wi-Fi.

Still stuck?

Email support@plutophotos.com with what the remote-access panel says and which step it stops at, and a person who works on the app will answer.