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To access a Raspberry Pi remotely with Raspberry Pi Connect, use Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later, sign in with a Raspberry Pi ID, turn on Connect on the Pi, and link it to your account. Then open the Devices page in a browser and choose Remote shell or Screen sharing. Remote shell works across Raspberry Pi models; screen sharing requires a compatible Wayland desktop and is not available on Raspberry Pi OS Lite.
Check that your Raspberry Pi supports the access you need
Raspberry Pi Connect requires Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later. Desktop and Full installations include the full Connect package, but the service is initially off. Raspberry Pi OS Lite uses the smaller rpi-connect-lite package and supports remote shell, not screen sharing. See Raspberry Pi Connect documentation.
| Access method | Requirements | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Remote shell | Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later; supported across Raspberry Pi models, including older devices. Lite requires rpi-connect-lite. |
Command-line administration and lower-bandwidth connections. |
| Screen sharing | Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later, a Wayland session, and a supported desktop environment and compositor. Lite and X-window systems are not compatible; KDE’s kwin compositor is unsupported for this service. | Using the Pi’s graphical desktop remotely. |
Bookworm and later use Wayland by default, but a compatible desktop setup is still necessary. Raspberry Pi documentation names Wayfire and labwc as examples of supported compositors. For older-device support details, see Raspberry Pi’s remote-access announcement.
Turn on Connect and link the Pi to your account
On Raspberry Pi OS Desktop or Full
- Sign in to connect.raspberrypi.com with a Raspberry Pi ID, or start from the Pi and sign in when prompted.
- On the Pi, select the Raspberry Pi Connect icon in the system tray and choose Turn On Raspberry Pi Connect.
- If a browser opens, enter your Raspberry Pi ID credentials and follow the prompts to name the device and choose the account.
- Select Create device and sign in. The Connect system-tray icon turns blue when the Pi is signed in.
The Pi must be linked to the account to appear in its Devices list. Connect associates the link with the device’s serial number; moving the SD card to another Pi signs the user out on that device.
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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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Open the verification URL printed by the command on another device, sign in with your Raspberry Pi ID, and complete the linking prompts. On a full installation, use rpi-connect on to turn on the service. The command-line tools can also authenticate and link a device; see the official Connect setup instructions for the current CLI workflow.
Start a remote shell or screen-sharing session
- On a computer, tablet, or phone browser, sign in at connect.raspberrypi.com.
- Open the Devices tab and find the linked Pi.
- Choose Connect via beside that device.
- Select Remote shell for a terminal, or Screen sharing to use the graphical desktop.
For screen sharing, the Pi must be linked, powered on, and booted into Raspberry Pi OS. Connect can establish sessions when the browser and Pi are on the same network or different networks. It generally avoids the need to find an IP address or configure firewall port forwarding for external access. A direct local connection is typically faster and more responsive than an internet or relayed route. See Raspberry Pi’s connection instructions.
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End sessions and manage access safely
- Screen sharing: disconnect from the screen-sharing browser window.
- Remote shell: type
exitor close the browser window. - Disable an access method: use the Pi’s Connect menu or CLI to turn off remote shell or screen sharing separately.
Before disabling both methods remotely, make sure another way to reach the Pi—such as SSH—is available. Otherwise, you may need physical access to turn Connect back on.
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.
- Confirm the desktop environment and compositor are supported; kwin is not supported for this service.
Run rpi-connect doctor for checks covering compositor availability, screen-sharing services, communication with Connect’s WebSocket and API, authentication, and STUN/TURN connectivity. For recurring screen-sharing service failures, inspect systemctl --user status rpi-connect-wayvnc.service and the relevant user journal logs. The official troubleshooting documentation describes additional diagnostics.
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The Pi is unavailable on a restricted network
Connect does not normally require inbound port forwarding, but network policy can still block its traffic. Raspberry Pi’s documentation identifies HTTPS requests on port 443 to Connect API and WebSocket hosts, plus STUN/TURN requests on UDP port 3478. Check the current networking and firewall guidance for the host list rather than relying on a copied list that may become outdated.
Remote shell stops working after a login session ends
Connect runs as a user-level service and depends on an active session for the user who signed in. For unattended or headless use where remote shell must persist without another login session, Raspberry Pi recommends configuring user lingering. This is an optional setup detail, not a requirement for every Pi.
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What Connect does with connection traffic
Raspberry Pi describes Connect sessions as using WebRTC, with remote-shell and screen-sharing traffic encrypted with DTLS between the Pi and browser. If direct peer-to-peer connectivity fails, a relay may carry encrypted 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, not an independent security audit. See Raspberry Pi Connect’s security and connection documentation.
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