# Common setup issues > Fixes for a screen that will not start up, a pairing code that will not work, content that never arrives, and a display that looks wrong. Almost every problem during setup is one of a handful of things. Find the one that matches what you are seeing. ## The screen shows nothing at all > [!TIP] > On a Screenly Player, the small indicator lights tell you whether the problem is power, storage, or network, which saves guessing. 1. Check the display is set to the right input. An HDMI socket showing nothing looks exactly like a device that has failed to start. 2. Give it longer. The first start-up does more work than later ones, and on a Raspberry Pi it can take a few minutes. 3. Check the cable at both ends, and that the device has power. 4. Check the device can reach the internet. It cannot show a pairing code without one. 5. On a Raspberry Pi, re-seat the SD card and check the image copied across completely. A half-written card is a common cause. > [!CAUTION] > Re-copying the SD card wipes the device, including any content it had downloaded and its connection to your workspace. You will need to connect it again with a new pairing code, and the old screen will stay in your list until you remove it. ## The pairing code will not work Pairing codes last 30 days. If a device has been sitting unpaired for longer than that, connect it to the internet and wait for it to show a fresh code. Inside that window, a refused code is a sign of something else. 1. Check the code character by character. A pairing code is eight lowercase characters, and it leaves out anything easy to misread: no `i`, `l`, `m`, `n`, `o`, `v` or `w`, and no `0` or `1`. If you think you see one of those, look again. 2. Check you are in the right workspace. You can belong to several, and a screen joins whichever one you are currently looking at. 3. Check your screen licenses. If you have used them all, the code is refused for that reason instead, and the dashboard tells you so. ## The screen connected but never comes online The screen shows up in your list but never reports back. This is nearly always the internet connection. Things to check, in order: 1. Is it actually on the network? Wi-Fi credentials are the most common culprit. 2. Is it on a guest network with a sign-in page, the kind that shows a "click here to accept" page in a browser? A screen cannot click through one of those, so put it on a network that does not use one. 3. Is the network restricted? Many offices only allow approved traffic out. This is the most common cause in larger organizations, and it is a quick fix for whoever runs your network. > [!IMPORTANT] > If you need to hand this to your IT team, everything they need is in [network details for your IT team](/docs/get-started/requirements/what-you-need/). The short version: screens only make outgoing connections, and nothing needs to be opened up.
Technical detail, if you are the one fixing the network Screens need outbound HTTPS on port 443 and a WebSocket connection on the same port. No inbound ports, no static IP, no public address. Two less obvious causes. Captive portals let a device associate with the network but never reach the internet. And a device whose clock is badly wrong cannot complete a TLS handshake, so allow outbound NTP on UDP 123. If your network uses an allowlist, [contact support](https://support.screenly.io/) for the hostnames to permit.
## The screen is online but shows nothing new The screen looks healthy but your content has not appeared. First, check whether it says out of sync. If it does, it is still downloading, and video takes longer than images. Wait and watch for it to change. If it says in sync but is showing the wrong thing, the playlist is not reaching it. Nine times out of ten this is a label that does not match: 1. Open the playlist and look at the labels on its **Screens** tab. 2. Open the screen and look at its labels. 3. Check that at least one label appears in both, spelled exactly the same way. "Warehouse" and "warehouse" are not the same label. Also check the playlist's schedule. A playlist set to weekday office hours will not play on a Sunday, and that looks exactly like a broken assignment. > [!NOTE] > If another playlist is set to priority and its schedule is currently running, it takes over the screen and hides everything else. That is what priority is for, and it is easy to forget you turned it on. ## The content looks wrong on screen ### Black bars down the sides or across the top Your content is a different shape from the display. Either re-export it to match, or change the screen's scaling setting. ### Sideways or upside down Set the screen's orientation to match how the display is actually mounted. ### Blurry The content is a lower resolution than the display. For 4K you need both a device capable of it and a Business plan or higher. See [What you need](/docs/get-started/requirements/what-you-need/) for which devices reach 4K. ### Edges cut off The display is zooming in slightly, a setting usually called picture size, screen fit, or overscan. This is on the display itself, so check there before changing anything in Screenly. ## Still stuck [Contact support](https://support.screenly.io/). You can collect the device's logs from the dashboard without visiting it, and sending those along usually turns a long back-and-forth into a single reply.