Support

Fractal Remote

Fastest way to get help: use the app. Settings → Troubleshooting → Feedback, with “Include the log and what I’m using” ticked, as it is to start. (On the website and in the computer app, choose “Problem” there.) 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

Bluetooth needs no computer, just an adapter on your unit, sold separately. A computer has less lag and more features.

• By Bluetooth, with no computer. From version 1.89.0, a Bluetooth MIDI adapter plugged into your unit’s MIDI jacks lets the app control it directly, and from version 1.90.0 Edit opens over it on an AM4, FM3, FM9 or Axe-Fx III, with no saving: save on the unit itself. An AM4 can also plug straight into your iPhone or iPad with a USB cable, and does the same. It is part of the full version, under Settings → My rig → Bluetooth. The Bluetooth page says what it does and on which units, and Report a Bluetooth problem, on the app’s Bluetooth page, sends us a report in one tap. Bluetooth is in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps only: a web browser connects through a computer.
• Through a computer. Your Fractal unit plugs into a Mac, Windows or Linux 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. Get the desktop app.

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

Press Send logs to developer while it is still fresh: Settings → Troubleshooting → Log in the app (Debug log on the website). It sends what happened, in order, which is the difference between a fix and a guess. To add a note of your own, use Feedback.

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. With an AM4 on a Pi 3 or Pi 4, give the Pi one setting for the AM4’s scene names: An AM4 on a Pi 3 or Pi 4 has the line to type.

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.

Siri and shortcuts

On an iPhone or iPad, Fractal Remote has its own Siri phrases, such as “Scene 3 in Fractal Remote”, “Next song in Fractal Remote” and “Tuner off in Fractal Remote”. Settings → Siri in the app lists every command, with how to use them in the Shortcuts app, on the Action button and with Back Tap, and how to turn them off. They come with the App Store version after 1.87.11: if Settings has no Siri row yet, the copy on your iPhone or iPad is older.

• Keep the Play screen open. Everything except Tuner off works only with Play on screen. Tuner off works from any screen, so your rig isn’t left muted.
• Between songs, not on a downbeat. Siri takes a moment to understand you. A change that can’t reach your unit within a second and a half isn’t sent at all, the same as a tap, and Play shows Not sent. Say it again.
• Locked? Siri asks you to unlock first, because the commands open the app.
• On Android there are no voice commands, but an automation app such as Tasker can open the app’s links: fractalremote://next, fractalremote://previous, fractalremote://scene/1 to fractalremote://scene/8 and fractalremote://tuner/off. They come with the Google Play version after 1.87.11, and Settings → Links for Tasker says how. There is no link for Tuner on, so a link on a web page can never mute your rig.

Inside the app

Settings → Troubleshooting → 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

Fractal Remote is supported only by its developer. Fractal Audio does not support this app, so please contact us, not Fractal Audio, about anything in it.

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.

To send one, with a note and screenshots if you like:

• In the phone app: Settings → Troubleshooting → Log, then Send logs to developer. Say what happened in the box beside the button, or leave it empty. To add up to five screenshots, tap Choose a screenshot and pick them from your photos, or copy one and tap Paste a screenshot. (Choose a screenshot comes with the store version after 1.87.11; until a phone has it, copy one and paste it.)
• To copy a screenshot on an iPhone or iPad: take a screenshot (if only a little picture shows in the corner, tap it), tap the check mark at the top right, then Copy and Delete. On older versions, tap Done at the top left instead. For one already in Photos: open it there, tap Share, then Copy Photo.
• On a Pixel: open the screenshot in Photos, go to Recent apps, hold the picture (or tap Select, then the picture) and choose Copy.
• On a Samsung: open it in Gallery, tap ⋮, then Copy to clipboard.
• On the website and in the computer app: Settings → Troubleshooting → Debug log has the same button, and Add a screenshot picks a picture file.

Troubleshooting → Feedback takes a longer message, and screenshots too. If you are signed in and give no email address, the reply goes to your account’s email.

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.