Keep an Eye on Your Home or Office Mac From Your Phone

You start a long job on your Mac, such as exporting a video, building a project, downloading something huge or letting an AI coding tool work through your code, and then you have to head out. On the way, the questions start: is it still running, has it stalled, how much battery does the laptop have left?

Phone remote access in WashBear lets you check on your Mac from your phone's browser and do a few small things remotely when needed. It's part of WashBear Pro; see Pricing.

#What you can see and do

The dashboard shows:

• your Mac's name, macOS version and uptime;
• CPU usage and its recent trend, plus memory use and memory pressure;
• network upload and download speeds, and free disk space;
• battery charge, charging state and estimated time remaining, plus CPU, GPU and disk temperatures when available;
• the 10 apps using the most CPU and the 10 using the most memory.

What you can do remotely:

• Release memory: the same as releasing memory from the status panel in the menu bar.
• Keep awake: choose 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or 4 hours. During that time your Mac won't sleep from inactivity; tap Allow sleep to end it early.
• Display: Turn off or Turn on the screen. Turning it on doesn't unlock your Mac; if it requires a password, it stays on the lock screen.
• Apps: tap an app in the rankings to Quit it (it can save first, or decline to quit), Pause for 15 min (it resumes automatically, or tap Resume), or Force quit it (your phone asks you to confirm, and unsaved work is lost).

The limits are just as clear. Phone remote access can't delete files, run cleanups, change settings or run commands, and it doesn't show your screen. WashBear itself and system processes that can't quit normally are protected.

#Before you start

• WashBear is running on your Mac (staying in the menu bar is enough), and the Mac is online and awake.
• Your phone uses Safari on iOS 16 or later, or a modern Android browser.
• There's no account to create and no app to install.

Once your Mac goes to sleep, your phone can't reach it. Before you leave:

• Desktop Mac: in System Settings > Energy, turn on "Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off". In some macOS versions this section is called Energy Saver.
• Laptop: plug it in, then in System Settings > Battery, click Options and turn on "Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off". Closing the lid usually still puts it to sleep.
• Just for now: before you go, tap Keep awake on your phone's dashboard and pick up to 4 hours.

#Step 1: Turn on remote access on your Mac

In WashBear, open Settings > Remote Access and turn on Phone remote access. The status next to the switch shows Connecting, Connected or Not connected. You can pair a phone once it shows Connected.

#Step 2: Pair your phone

1. Click Pair a new phone to show a QR code on your Mac. The code expires after 2 minutes; click New QR code if it does.
2. Scan the code with your phone's camera. On the page that opens, enter a name for the phone and tap Start pairing.
3. Your Mac shows Confirm pairing. Check that the 6-digit Verification code matches on both devices, then click Pair. If you don't recognize the request, click Decline.
4. When pairing finishes, tap Open dashboard on your phone. Choose Add to Home Screen from your browser's menu to open it like an app from then on.

One phone can pair with several Macs, say one at home and one at work, and switch between them at the top of the dashboard.

#Reading the dashboard

While the dashboard is on screen, it updates about every 2 seconds. When the page isn't in the foreground, your Mac stops sending data.

• Is the long job still running? Check CPU usage and the app rankings. If usage has stayed low, the job may have finished or may be waiting for you.
• Has something stalled? If memory pressure climbs or one app's usage looks wrong, try Release memory first, and quit that app only if that doesn't help.
• Is there enough battery? When the laptop is unplugged, keep an eye on the charge and the estimated time remaining.

If you'd rather not have app names appear on your phone, turn on Privacy mode on your Mac, and the rankings show "App 1", "App 2" and so on.

#Choose which actions are allowed

On your Mac, go to Settings > Remote Access > Allowed remote actions and turn each one on or off: Release memory, Keep awake, Turn display off or on, Quit apps, Pause apps and Force quit apps. Force quit apps is marked Risky and is off by default; the others are on.

These settings apply to all paired phones at once; you can't set them per phone. If a phone asks for an action you haven't allowed, it shows a message instead.

#Is it secure?

• End-to-end encryption: data and commands between your phone and your Mac are encrypted with the Noise protocol. The relay only forwards encrypted data. It can't read the dashboard or forge commands, and only handles connection information such as IP addresses, connection times and data volume.
• Three checks to pair: pairing needs the one-time secret in the QR code, a matching verification code and your approval with Pair on the Mac. After that, every connection is authenticated in both directions with the keys exchanged during pairing. Remote commands expire after 30 seconds.
• Summary readings only: your phone receives only summary readings and app names, never file names, paths or command lines.
• Remove a phone any time: in the device list under Settings > Remote Access on your Mac, click Remove. The phone disconnects immediately and has to pair again to reconnect. Remove this computer on the phone only clears the pairing stored on the phone; it doesn't remove the phone from your Mac's list. If you lose a phone, remove it on your Mac as soon as you can.

For the full guide, see Phone Remote Access.

#FAQ

#My phone says the computer is offline. What now?

Make sure your Mac isn't asleep or offline and that WashBear is still running. On your Mac, open Settings > Remote Access and check that it shows Connected. Once the Mac is back online with WashBear running, your phone reconnects automatically.

#Can I see my Mac's screen?

No. Phone remote access shows status readings and offers a few actions. It isn't a remote desktop.

#Does it work when my phone and Mac are on different networks?

Yes. Both connect through the relay, so all they need is an internet connection.

#What if I get a new phone?

Remove the old phone on your Mac, then scan a new QR code with the new one. And when you're at your desk, the same readings are available right in your menu bar.