Raspberry Pi Connect lets you reach a Raspberry Pi from a browser without manually finding its network address or setting up port forwarding. Install or enable Connect on Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later, sign in with a Raspberry Pi ID, and link the Pi to your account. Then open the device in the Connect website and choose Remote shell or Screen sharing. Screen sharing needs a supported Wayland desktop; Raspberry Pi OS Lite provides shell access only.
What you need before setting up Connect
- A Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later.
- A Raspberry Pi ID account, used to sign in to Connect and link the device.
- A browser on the device you will connect from.
Desktop and Full Raspberry Pi OS installations include the full Connect package, but Connect is initially off. Raspberry Pi OS Lite uses the separate rpi-connect-lite package, which provides remote shell rather than screen sharing. Connect works across Raspberry Pi models for remote shell access; screen sharing has additional desktop and compositor requirements.
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Enable Connect and link the Raspberry Pi
On Raspberry Pi OS Desktop or Full
- Sign in to connect.raspberrypi.com with your Raspberry Pi ID. If you have not enabled Connect or are not signed in, the first-time setup flow can open a browser for authentication.
- On the Pi, select the Raspberry Pi Connect icon in the system tray and choose Turn On Raspberry Pi Connect.
- Follow the prompts to name the device and choose the account to link it to, then select Create device and sign in.
- Check the system-tray icon: it turns blue when you are signed in.
On Raspberry Pi OS Lite or from a terminal
On Lite, install the shell-only package and begin sign-in with:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install rpi-connect-lite
rpi-connect signin
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The command displays a verification URL. Open it on another device, sign in with your Raspberry Pi ID, and follow the prompts to link the Pi. On a full installation, you can turn the service on from a terminal with rpi-connect on; the CLI can also be used to authenticate and link the device.
Connect associates the account link with the Pi’s device serial number. If you move the SD card to a different Raspberry Pi, you will need to sign in on that device again.
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Open a remote shell or share the desktop
- In a browser, sign in at connect.raspberrypi.com and open the Devices tab.
- Find the linked Pi and select Connect via.
- Choose Remote shell for a terminal, or Screen sharing to interact with its desktop.
For screen sharing, the Pi must be linked to your account, powered on, and booted into Raspberry Pi OS. Remote shell is the more suitable option on a low-bandwidth connection because it sends terminal interaction rather than a desktop view.
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Screen sharing requires Wayland and a supported desktop environment. Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and later use Wayland by default, but that does not make every desktop setup compatible. Raspberry Pi documentation names Wayfire and labwc as supported compositor examples and says KDE’s kwin compositor is unsupported for this service.
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| Setup | Remote shell | Screen sharing |
|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later, supported Wayland desktop | Supported | Supported when the desktop and compositor are supported |
| Raspberry Pi OS Lite | Supported with rpi-connect-lite |
Not available |
| X-window session | Supported | Not available |
| Other Raspberry Pi models running Raspberry Pi OS | Supported across models | Depends on the OS, Wayland, and supported desktop setup |
Connect can work when the browser and Pi are on different networks, and it does not normally require you to find an IP address or change the firewall for external access. When both ends can communicate directly on the local network, that route is faster and more responsive than an internet or relayed connection.
End a session and manage access
- Screen sharing: disconnect from the screen-sharing browser window.
- Remote shell: run
exitor close the browser window. - Disable a method: use the Pi’s Connect menu or CLI to turn off remote shell or screen sharing separately.
If you are connected remotely, keep another way to reach the Pi, such as SSH, before disabling both Connect access methods. Otherwise, you may need physical access to restore remote access.
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Troubleshoot missing screen sharing or failed connections
Screen sharing is not available
- Confirm the Pi is not running Raspberry Pi OS Lite.
- Check that the desktop session uses Wayland rather than X.
- Verify that the desktop environment and compositor are supported.
- Run
rpi-connect doctorto check compositor availability, screen-sharing services, Connect API and WebSocket communication, authentication, and STUN/TURN connectivity.
If the screen-sharing service repeatedly fails, inspect its user service status with systemctl --user status rpi-connect-wayvnc.service and review the relevant user journal logs.
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Connect fails on a restricted network
Network policy can still block Connect even though port forwarding is normally unnecessary. Raspberry Pi’s networking guidance identifies HTTPS requests on port 443 to Connect API and WebSocket hosts, plus STUN/TURN requests over UDP port 3478. Check the current Connect networking requirements for the current host list rather than relying on a copied list that may become outdated.
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Remote shell stops working after a logout or restart
Connect runs as a user-level service and depends on an active session for the user signed in to the service. For a headless or unattended Pi that must remain reachable without another login session, Raspberry Pi’s documentation recommends enabling user lingering. This is an advanced setup consideration, not a prerequisite for an ordinary desktop installation.
How Connect handles network privacy
Raspberry Pi says Connect uses WebRTC and that remote-shell and screen-sharing traffic is encrypted with DTLS between the Pi and browser. If a direct peer-to-peer connection cannot be made, an encrypted relay may carry the traffic. Raspberry Pi also says its API temporarily holds connection-negotiation data, including IP addresses and ports, for no more than one minute. These are the vendor’s descriptions of the service, not an independent security audit.
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