KDE Connect: Enabling communication between all your devices
45 comments
·October 12, 2025marcu123
KDE Connects works amazingly for me. I get, once in a bluee moon, the random "Can't see the other device" bug. I have solved it with the basic dis/connect to the wifi both on my phone and computer. Also, check your Firewall on your computer. Some distros will not "Auto add" KDE Connect to the exception list of your Firewall. Some routers also put LAN and WLAN devices on different VLANS.
__jonas
This looks neat, from what it looks like it's essentially an Open Source version of Apple's continuity/airdrop/airplay stuff?
Seems like it even does the universal clipboard as well, I use that all the time with Apple devices, really cool to see an OSS alternative.
Kim_Bruning
This is a killer app. There have been times when I asked someone "why can't you just send me a screenshot on signal" or "Oh, can't you copy the URL to your desktop?"... only to realize that the poor fellow didn't have KDE connect (yet).
It's not perfect, but it does things I haven't found anywhere else, makes your phone and laptop and pc.
It might help that I'm actually running KDE everywhere, of course.
null
munchlax
> KDE everywhere
Not to be confused with Qt Everywhere
mid-kid
The branding does a major disservice to this application - it works like a charm on my windows and i3wm setups, having no trouble sharing a clipboard and files. There are very few features if any that only work on KDE.
Sometimes on windows it needs a click of the refresh button to get going after connecting to a network. The discovery is wonky on some platforms.
roshin
when it works it's amazing. but very often both my phone and laptop are connected to the same WiFi, yet kde connect can't see them. I can't figure out how to diagnose and solve that when it happens
jeroenhd
It should work on any network where mDNS works and where TCP connections can be established. There's not much going on that's more complicated than that when it comes to device discovery.
Many VPN configurations break mDNS and other broadcasts (i.e. Chromecast, file shares, that kind of thing), though. A lot of "how to get started with WireGuard/OpenVPN/etc." guides stop the moment HTTP(S) connections work, but there's more to a functional network than that.
I found that I could get KDE Connect working on my buggy VPN profile by manually specifying remote IP addresses for devices on the other end of the VPN in the settings.
pull_my_finger
I have the same issue, very frustrating. I thought it was a firewall issue, or Android's blocking LAN connections without a VPN, but at this point I'm pretty sure it's just some KDE Connect bug.
cromka
Maybe local DNS/DHCP resolution issue? I have this on my LAN with with other services and hosts: the Dnsmasq drops the ball every now and then and does not update the lease database, which results in hosts seemingly being offline.
I would try fixed IPs to see if this solves the issue for you.
ottah
Same, it's just too unreliable to be a tool for me. Which feels like the experience with everything that relies on automatic network discovery.
janwl
Mirrors my experience with AirDrop.
jcgl
It’s pretty dreadful on iOS, presumably due to OS constraints. I miss how amazing it was on Android.
zenitsukz
vpn sometimes
geokon
Very typical for my KDE experience. Things break and it's impossible to figure out what's gone wrong b/c there is no additional information/logs/diagnostics exposed to the user. Everything to do with Networking and Bluetooth is plagued by this (though to be fair things break a lot less than ~5 years ago)
cromka
Is there any update on whether Apple had already opened their iOS API in EU, which would allow to match the KDE Connect's Android functionality?
CaptainOfCoit
I remember getting excited about KDE Connect but then being completely disappointed that it basically non-functional on iOS...
As I remember it (tried it last year I think), the application needs to be in the foreground in order to do anything at all, because of Apple's (purposeful) limitations of doing things in the background.
So if you were hoping to be able to install this and sync stuff without effort and having to leave the app open all the time, Apple seems to be vehemently against anything like that, probably because they have their own solutions for this...
Edit: The GitHub repository actually goes through the Apple-induced problem:
> iOS is very much designed around foreground interactions. Therefore, background “daemon-style” applications don’t really exist under conventional means, so the behavior where KDE Connect iOS is unresponsive in the background is more or less intended. There are technically some special categories and "hacky" methods to try to get it to run in the background, but in general, there is no intended/by-design method of keeping a "daemon-style" app running forever in the background. For more information, see this post on the Apple Dev Forums
fsflover
It's probably not so easy, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44557348
damion6
I love KDE connect. After install I turn off things I don't want, but I have options. Works better than any similar app. Connects essentially and system. I pair it with tail scale or zero-tier depending on needs. Multiboot, all major os's mobile. PC, Mac all have ports. It's under rated
ayoisaiah
KDE Connect is great, but it sometimes doesn't work well enough on Apple Devices. I've been using LocalSend with better success when sharing to Android or Windows. But for Android to Linux/Windows and Vice versa, it's pretty much perfect.
KerbalNo15
Note that you can use it on GNOME with GSConnect. One of my favorite apps
karmakaze
I was wondering what "the network" here means:
> To achieve this, KDE Connect:
implements a secure communication protocol over the network, and allows any developer to create plugins on top of it.
Has a component that you install on your desktop.
Has a KDE Connect client app you run on your phone.
blooalien
> Has a component that you install on your desktop.
This is only if you use Windows (or MacOS, as there's also a KDE Connect compatible Mac app out there somewhere IIRC). If you're on KDE Desktop Linux, you're already good-to-go, as it's a pre-installed component of a typical KDE environment. :)
1oooqooq
not true for all distros. and this kind of thinking is really bad imo for network services.
creatonez
It has bluetooth support now as well
m463
it also talks about using a VPN and what ports to open in a firewall.
I don't know how it handles the harder part, the "device on internet" talks to "device in my house"
most phones and apps use this "harder part" to interpose their corporate server for more than TURN/STUN and continue to "collect all the data" or "insert a subscription"
Oxodao
Did you get this to work with wireguard though?
As long as my phone is connected to wireguard KDEConnect does NOT see any other computer, apparently because it wont forward ICMP broadcast according to the internet.
I would really like to have a solution to this issue but since its baked in WG i don't think this is possible
seszett
> the "device on internet" talks to "device in my house"
It doesn't handle it well other than with bluetooth or awkward port forwarding and manual entering of IPs.
I don't see it as a problem though, I don't think I have needed a single time over my many years of use to share my clipboard with, or control the media player or mouse and keyboard, of a device that was not in the same room or on the same network as me.
At least in my use case (as link between Android devices and both Linux/Win PCs) KDE Connect is a real killer app. It enabled seamless integration and saved me lots of hassle and time. It really should get more exposure.
I see reports that it doesn't work. These are mostly for distros where Plasma is either rather old or taking a backseat after other environment (usually Gnome). I'm having great results with the latest Plasma 6 on Slackware-current and also in a standard Windows 11 environment.