Getting help

Questions that come up most

The WiFi Analyzer says there are no networks

Almost always one of three things, and the app's diagnostics panel will tell you which. Location permission must be granted — Android hides scan results without it. The phone's location toggle must also be switched on, which is separate from the permission and is the usual culprit: Android returns an empty list rather than an error when it is off. And Android throttles rescans to about four every two minutes, so a rapid re-scan may return the previous list or nothing at all.

Most devices in the LAN scan have no MAC address or vendor

Since Android 10, apps can no longer read the ARP table, which is how a scanner used to learn every device's MAC. There is no workaround available to a normal app. The app gets a MAC only from devices that volunteer one — chiefly Windows machines and Samba servers answering a NetBIOS query — and looks the vendor up from the 56,000 prefixes bundled with the app. Older network tools you may have used showed a MAC for every device because they predate that restriction or run with root.

A device shows as "Unknown device"

It answered a ping but told the app nothing else: no Bonjour or UPnP advertisement, no NetBIOS name, no reverse DNS record and no MAC. Many IoT gadgets and phones behave this way deliberately. Opening its details runs a short port scan, which sometimes gives it away — a device listening on 9100 is a printer whether it says so or not.

Deep scan finds nothing on mobile data

Expected. Bonjour, UPnP and WS-Discovery are multicast protocols that only work across a local network, and the multicast lock the app takes applies to WiFi. On a cellular connection there is no local network to discover.

Server Watcher stopped checking

Check whether your phone's battery optimisation is restricting the app; several manufacturers are far more aggressive than stock Android and will stop a foreground service regardless of what it declares. Exempting iPingTools from battery optimisation in Android Settings usually fixes it.

Ping works but traceroute shows stars

A hop showing * is a router that chose not to send back the expiry message, which is a configuration choice on their side, not a fault in the app. It is very common in carrier networks. The hops after it will usually still answer.

Reporting something that looks wrong

The most useful reports name the tool, the address you gave it, what you expected and what appeared instead. For LAN scanning, saying what a misidentified device actually is is enough to get its signature added — the classification rules are plain data tables with tests behind them.

Using the app responsibly

The scanning tools are meant for networks you own, administer, or have permission to test. Scanning someone else's network without permission is unlawful in many jurisdictions, and being a diagnostic tool is not a defence.