Watch on your phone
Streamyfin is the app we recommend for Android and iPhone. It is faster than the official Jellyfin app, it lets you request new titles without leaving it, and it can download episodes so you can watch with no signal at all.
This guide assumes you already have a username and password. If not, start with Getting Started — it takes five minutes.
Install the app
Streamyfin is free and available in both official stores. Install it the same way you install anything else — there is no side-loading and nothing unusual to accept.
Use the official Jellyfin app instead — search for it in the same store. Every step below works identically; only the icons are laid out differently. Everything except in-app requests behaves the same.
Connect it to the server
On first launch the app asks for a server address. This is the single step people get wrong, so copy rather than type it:
Long-press the field and choose Paste. Include the https:// part. Do not add a
slash, a port number or anything after .net.
Within a second or two you should see the login screen. If instead you get "cannot connect", jump to the problems section at the bottom — it is nearly always one of three things.
Enter the username and password you use in the browser. Capital letters matter. Phone keyboards like to capitalise the first letter automatically — check that your username has not been silently changed.
The app stays logged in. You will not have to type any of this again unless you uninstall it or sign out deliberately.
Watching, subtitles and audio
Tap a poster, tap play. While the video is running, tap once anywhere to bring up the controls.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Speech-bubble icon | Subtitle track — pick a language or turn them off. |
| Speaker icon | Audio track, where the file has more than one (original versus dubbed). |
| Gear icon | Quality. Lower it if the picture keeps pausing; raise it on good Wi-Fi. |
| Cast icon | Send the video to a Chromecast or a smart TV on the same Wi-Fi. |
| Double-tap left or right | Skip backwards or forwards ten seconds. |
In the app's settings you can set a lower quality for mobile networks than for Wi-Fi. A two-hour film at full quality can easily be several gigabytes; at 720p it is a fraction of that and looks perfectly fine on a phone screen.
Download for offline viewing
This is the reason to use the app rather than the browser. Downloaded files play with no internet at all — on a plane, on the train, in the mountains.
- Open the film or the episode you want, but do not press play.
- Tap the download icon (a downward arrow) on the details screen.
- Choose a quality. Lower means a much smaller file — worth it for a phone screen.
- Wait for it to finish. Do this on Wi-Fi, and keep the app open while it works.
- Find it later under Downloads in the app's menu.
Downloads sit on your phone's storage until you remove them, and a season of a series will fill a phone quickly. Swipe an item in the Downloads list to delete it.
Request titles from inside the app
Streamyfin has the request system built in, so you never have to open a second website.
- Tap the magnifying glass in the bottom menu.
- Switch the toggle at the top from Library to Discover.
- Search for anything at all — including things the server has never had.
- Tap the title, then Request. That is it; you are done.
The server then finds it, downloads it and adds it to the library by itself, usually within a few hours. There is a longer explanation, including how to follow the progress, in the requests guide.
How requests work in detailIf it will not connect
In order of how often each one turns out to be the culprit:
Connections through VPNs and proxies are blocked at the server. Many phones run one without the owner realising — ad-blocking apps, "privacy" apps and some antivirus suites all install themselves as a VPN. Check for the VPN key icon in your status bar and turn it off.
jellyfin.karafa.net, not jellyfin.karafa.sk or
jellyyfin. Delete the field completely and paste it again from
the copy button above.
Confirm it works by signing in at jellyfin.karafa.net in the phone's browser. If
that fails too, the problem is the account, not the app — email us for a reset.
Check the status page. If it shows red, nothing you do on the phone will help — wait, and it will come back.