Phone Remote Access

Away from your desk, you can still check on your Mac from your phone: is the long task still running, is memory running low, how much battery is left? You can also release memory, keep the Mac awake or quit a stuck app remotely. Phone remote access is part of WashBear Pro; see Pricing.

#Requirements

• 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;
• no account and no app installation are needed.

#Turn on remote access

On your Mac, 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.

#Pair a 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 to create another.
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 the phone. Choose Add to Home Screen in your browser's menu to open it like an app later.

One phone can pair with several Macs and switch between them at the top of the dashboard.

#What the dashboard shows

The dashboard shows your Mac's name, macOS version and uptime, along with CPU usage and its recent trend, memory use and pressure, network upload and download speeds, free disk space, and battery charge and charging state. CPU, GPU and disk temperatures appear when available. Below, the 10 apps using the most CPU and the most memory are listed.

While the dashboard is on screen, it updates about every 2 seconds. When the page is not in the foreground, your Mac stops sending data. If you turn on Privacy mode on your Mac, app names in the rankings appear as "App 1", "App 2" and so on.

#Remote actions

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

WashBear itself and system processes that can't quit normally are protected. Phone remote access cannot delete files, run cleanups, change settings or run commands.

#Choose allowed actions

In Settings → Remote Access → Allowed remote actions, turn each action 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. If a phone requests an action you haven't allowed, it shows a message instead.

#Remove a phone

In the device list under Settings → Remote Access, click Remove. The phone disconnects immediately and must be paired again to reconnect. Remove this computer on the phone only clears the pairing stored on the phone; it does not remove the phone from your Mac's list. If you lose a phone, remove it on your Mac as soon as possible.

#Security and privacy

• Data and commands between your phone and your Mac are end-to-end encrypted with the Noise protocol. The relay at remote.washbear.app only forwards encrypted data. It cannot read the dashboard or forge commands, and only handles connection information such as IP addresses, connection times and data volume.
• Pairing requires the one-time secret in the QR code, a matching verification code and your confirmation on the Mac. After that, every connection is authenticated in both directions with the keys exchanged during pairing. Remote commands expire after 30 seconds.
• Only summary readings and app names are sent to the phone, never file names, paths or command lines.

For details, see the Privacy Policy.