Support

Fractal Remote

Fastest way to get help: use the app. Settings → Feedback → “Something is broken”. That sends what your app was doing at the time, which is almost always the thing that explains it — and it saves you describing it.

How this works, in one paragraph

Your Fractal unit plugs into a computer with a USB cable. That computer runs a small program that talks to the unit, and your phone tells the computer what to do, through the account you are signed in to on both. The phone doesn’t talk to the unit directly, which is why there is a computer in the middle.

Common things

My phone says there is no computer

1. Is the computer app actually running? On a Mac it lives in the menu bar and on Windows in the system tray, not as a window. On Linux it is an ordinary window.
2. Are the phone and the computer signed in to the same account? Settings → Account on the phone shows which one it is.
3. Is the computer awake and online? A laptop with its lid closed is usually asleep. The phone and the computer do not need to be on the same wifi.
4. On Windows, did you allow it through the firewall the first time? If you clicked no, a phone on the same wifi cannot reach it directly. Over the internet it still works.

The computer cannot find my unit

• Something else has the USB port. Only one program can hold it at a time — quit Fractal-Bot, Axe-Edit or FM3-Edit and try again. This is the single most common cause.
• Try the cable. A charge-only USB cable carries no data and looks identical to one that does.
• Turn the unit off and on with the app running.

Something worked and then stopped mid-song

Send a bug report from the app while it is still fresh — Settings → Feedback. The log attached to it records what happened in order, which is the difference between a fix and a guess.

I want a Raspberry Pi on my pedalboard

A Raspberry Pi can be the computer: a small one that sits by your unit with no screen, so there is no laptop at the gig. Set up a Raspberry Pi, step by step says which Pi to get, what to buy, and every step, from a Mac, a Windows PC, a Linux computer, or a TV and keyboard plugged into the Pi.

I want to use it away from home

It works anywhere both the phone and the computer have internet, signed in to the same account.

Inside the app

Settings → Fixes is a longer guide to what to try, and it works with the computer switched off — which is exactly when you want it.

Reaching a person

Email justinnewbold@gmail.com. It is one person who builds this, so a reply may take a day or two, but every message is read.

Please say which unit you have (FM3, FM9, Axe-Fx III, AM4, VP4), whether your computer is a Mac, a PC or Linux, and what the app said. If you can send a bug report from inside the app first, that carries all of it already.

Deleting your account or data

In the phone app: Settings → your account → Delete account. It deletes the account and everything stored under it, straight away. You can also email the address above. See the privacy page for what is held in the first place.