Common questions
Both your Mac and your iPhone need to be on the same Wi-Fi network. Check that your Mac is awake and that the app is running on it — the library is only available while the Mac app is open. Also make sure your iPhone is not on a guest network, which is isolated from the main network by design.
This is expected. Both Raza Photos and Raza Songs work entirely on your local home network — there is no cloud and no relay, and remote access is optional and off by default. Unless you have turned on optional remote access through Tailscale, there is nothing to connect to when you leave your home Wi-Fi. Your library is still safe on your Mac; it will reappear the moment you get back on your home network.
Try quitting and reopening the app on the Mac. Bonjour discovery occasionally needs a nudge after the Mac wakes from sleep. If the problem persists, check that your router does not have AP isolation or multicast filtering enabled — these block Bonjour from working across devices.
Yes. Every Mac running the app on the same network advertises its library independently. On iPhone and iPad, all available libraries appear merged into a single unified view.
Apple requires apps to ask your permission before they can listen for Bonjour announcements or connect to devices on your local network. This is a privacy protection — it prevents apps from silently scanning your network in the background. When the app asks for local network access, it is asking for exactly the permission it needs to find your Mac, and nothing more.
Modern routers broadcast on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously but keep them on the same network segment. Devices on different bands can still find each other via Bonjour — band is a radio frequency choice, not a network boundary. The exception is if your router has "band steering" or "AP isolation" enabled, which some routers do incorrectly — if discovery fails, checking those settings is a good first step.
Yes. If your Mac is connected via Ethernet and your iPhone is on Wi-Fi, Bonjour still works — they are on the same local network regardless of how they connect to the router. A wired Mac will actually serve your library faster since it has a more stable, higher-bandwidth connection to the router.
Guest networks are a separate network segment from your main network. Bonjour announcements from your Mac do not cross that boundary — they stay within the main network. A device on the guest network simply never hears the announcement, so it never knows the library exists. This is not a setting — it is a structural property of how your router separates the networks.
Yes. The Bonjour announcement is sent by the app running on your Mac. If the Mac is asleep or the app is not running, there is nothing to announce and nothing to connect to. You can configure your Mac to not sleep when charging, or simply start the app when you know you want to browse from your phone.
Typically within one to two seconds of opening the app on your iPhone or iPad. Bonjour announcements are sent frequently and the iOS side begins listening immediately on launch. On a well-functioning home network, the library appears almost instantly.
The MOV companion file is probably missing. This happens when you export from Apple Photos without using File → Export Unmodified Originals. A standard export gives only the still image; the motion clip stays behind. Re-export using Unmodified Originals and import the folder again — the pairing will happen automatically.
Raza Photos plays videos using Apple's native framework, so it supports the same formats your iPhone records — MOV, MP4, HEVC, H.264, and ProRes. It does not support MKV, AVI, WMV, or other formats associated with downloaded movies. If a video from your camera roll won't play, please get in touch.
HDR requires a compatible display — iPhone 12 or later, MacBook Pro with Liquid Retina XDR, or Pro Display XDR. On a standard display the SDR version of the photo is shown, which is correct behaviour. If you are on a supported display and HDR still looks flat, please send us a note.
Raza Songs plays audio using Apple's native framework, so it supports MP3, MP4, M4A, and M4B files. If a track in your library won't play, please get in touch so we can look into the specific format.
The Mac server may be set to read-only mode, or your iPhone may have its own read-only setting enabled. Check Settings on the Mac first — there is an option to block remote edits. If the Mac allows edits, check the Settings screen on your iPhone as well.
Changes are held in the library database until you explicitly save them. To write changes back to the original file, use the Save action in the app. Raza Photos and Raza Songs only touch the metadata sections of the file — your image pixels or audio data are never re-encoded.
Didn't find what you were looking for? Send an email to razaphotos@outlook.com or razamusic@outlook.com — bug reports, feature requests, and questions are all welcome.