Connect your iPhone
Pair the PreviewMonitor iPhone app with your Mac or PC — auto-discovery, the Local Network permission, the QR code, the pairing code, and manual IP entry.
Open the PreviewMonitor app with Premiere Pro running and the device enabled, and your computer appears by itself under Devices on this network. Tap it. The first time, the host shows a 6-digit code that you type on the phone; after that it connects straight through.
If it does not appear, work down this page — QR code first, manual IP second.
Before you start
Three things have to be true:
- The plugin is installed (Windows / macOS) and the host app has been restarted since.
- The device is ticked in Premiere Pro or After Effects.
- The iPhone and the computer are on the same Wi-Fi network. Not a guest network, not a VPN, not cellular.
The setup wizard
The app ships a four-step wizard that walks the whole thing, ending on a live screen that reacts the moment your computer appears on the network. Reach it from:
- Show me how to set up on the first-launch screen,
- How to connect in the list, once you have connected to something before.
Its progress row reads App → Plugin → Enable → Connect. "App" is already ticked — you are holding it.
You can leave the wizard at any point; nothing depends on finishing it.
The Local Network permission
iOS requires explicit permission before an app can look for devices on your network. PreviewMonitor does not ask at launch. Nothing in the app touches the network until you ask it to.
The request is deferred to the wizard's Connect step, which opens on a primer screen headed Allow network discovery that explains what the permission is for before iOS asks:
- Only detects computers on your Wi-Fi that run the PreviewMonitor plugin.
- Everything stays on your local network — nothing is sent anywhere else.
- Used for discovery and streaming only. No tracking, no other use.
Tapping Enable network discovery is the first network touch the app makes; the iOS permission dialog appears directly on top of this explanation.
Tap Enable network discovery, then Allow in the iOS dialog. The screen becomes Waiting for your Mac or PC… with a pulsing dot.
If you tap Don't Allow, the app cannot search at all. It says so honestly — the screen becomes Allow Local Network access with an Open Settings button — rather than spinning forever. Turn the permission back on in Settings → PreviewMonitor → Local Network and return to the app; the search resumes by itself.
iOS gives no way for an app to re-ask, and the app's own Reset App command cannot clear it either. If the permission ever gets into a state you cannot fix from Settings, deleting and reinstalling the app is the only reset.
Auto-discovery
Discovery is Bonjour/mDNS. Once permission is granted, the app's home screen lists every host it can see under Devices on this network — each row carries the host app's badge (Pr or Ae), the machine name, the host app, and its IP address. The badge is full colour while the host is online and desaturates when it is not.
The machine name is on the first line; the host app and IP address sit under it. Tapping the row starts the connection.
Under it, Last connected holds computers you have paired with before that Bonjour cannot currently see — asleep, on another network, or running without the plugin. Tapping one of those probes the address first and tells you what it found rather than spinning; swipe left to forget it.
Pull down on the list to force a fresh browse.
On Windows, discovery does not need Apple's Bonjour for Windows. The plugin advertises through the native Windows DNS-SD API. Nothing extra to install.
Two hosts, two devices
Premiere Pro and After Effects on the same machine advertise as two separate devices — same computer name, different host badge. They have different control ports, separate pairings, and separate trusted-device lists. You connect to one at a time. See Two hosts on one machine.
The QR code
If the computer never appears, pair by QR code. This path does not depend on discovery working at all.
Open the Setup window on the computer
In Premiere Pro: Preferences → Playback, then the gear button in the Settings column of the PreviewMonitor row.
The window that opens is titled PreviewMonitor and says "Scan the QR code with the PreviewMonitor iOS app to connect."
The QR code carries the host's identity and its plugin version — not a password. It is safe to leave on screen.
Scan it from the phone
On the home screen, tap Connect a Device ("Scan the QR code, or connect by IP"). Point the camera at the QR code.
The app asks for camera access the first time. It is used for nothing else.
The 6-digit pairing code
The first time a given iPhone connects to a given host, the host puts up a small window titled PreviewMonitor — Pair iPhone showing a 6-digit code and the name of the phone that is asking:
Enter this code on <your iPhone>:
The code is generated fresh for this one attempt — it is not a fixed number stored anywhere, and it is not shown in the Setup window.
At the same moment the phone shows a code-entry screen. Type the six digits.
- The window closes by itself the moment pairing completes.
- Cancel on the host rejects the attempt.
- The phone gives up after 30 seconds if the host never answers either way.
You do this once per phone, per host. After that the phone holds a session token and reconnects with no prompt at all. Because Premiere Pro and After Effects keep separate trusted lists, pairing with one does not pair you with the other — expect a second code the first time you connect to the second host.
To revoke a phone, use Forget on its row in the Setup window's trusted list. The next connection from that phone gets a fresh code. Full model: Trusted devices.
If no code appears on the computer at all, the plugin is not loaded — most often because the device is not ticked in Playback preferences. No plugin, no code. See I cannot find the code.
Manual IP entry
The last resort, and the one that works on networks where mDNS is filtered.
You need the host's IP address. Read it from the Setup window: expand Advanced, and the NETWORK card shows IP, every interface, and the ports in use.
On macOS the IP address is only available through Advanced → NETWORK, which is collapsed by default. The caption under the QR code that should also show it is not currently drawn.
On the phone, open the QR scanner and tap Connect via IP address instead at the bottom. The Connect via IP sheet asks for two things:
- Mac or PC IP address — a dotted-quad IPv4 address, for example
192.168.1.42. - Connecting to — Premiere or After Effects. This picks the control port (47100 or 47110), so getting it wrong means nothing answers.
Tap Connect. The app knocks on the address before committing, so a mistyped octet comes back as an error under the field with your typing intact, rather than a silent failure a few seconds later.
"Discoverable on network"
The Setup window's Discoverable on network checkbox controls only the mDNS advertisement. It is on by default.
| With it off | |
|---|---|
| The computer stops appearing under Devices on this network | Yes |
| QR-code pairing still works | Yes |
| Manual IP entry still works | Yes |
| Already-paired phones still connect | Yes |
| Streaming is affected | No |
Turning it off hides the machine from the browse list. It does not disable, secure, or stop anything else — the control port stays open and the stream is unaffected.
On Windows the toggle does not take effect immediately. It is saved, but the advertisement only stops the next time the plugin's transport restarts — in practice, after Premiere Pro is relaunched. On macOS it applies straight away.
Next
Your first stream, or I cannot find my device if you are still stuck.
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