Your device is paired. Here is what normal looks like.
Confirm it is working
Open Screens in your dashboard. The device should show as online, and as in sync once it has downloaded what you assigned it.
Out of sync means it is still downloading rather than that something is wrong. Video takes longer than images, and the screen keeps playing whatever it had before until it has everything.
To see what is actually on the display, request a screenshot from the screen’s page. The screenshot is captured from the device’s own display output, so it shows exactly what is on the screen.
Remote screenshots can be turned off per device with Privacy Mode, for screens showing sensitive information. If screenshots are unavailable on a device, check whether Privacy Mode is on.
What happens when the connection drops
The device keeps playing. Content and schedules are both cached locally, so files you uploaded continue to play and scheduled changes still happen on time through the outage.
What cannot survive is anything that has to fetch something. A web page, or an app pulling a remote API, is skipped while it cannot reach its source and returns once the connection is back.
Losing internet is not the same as losing your whole network. A screen showing something from your own building, such as an internal dashboard, keeps working through an internet outage, because that content never had to leave the building.
What you never have to do
Worth stating, because it is what the operating system buys you.
There is nothing to patch on the device, nothing to log into, no antivirus to install, no reboot schedule to maintain, and no imaging process to keep current. Updates apply themselves and undo themselves if they fail.
If a device stops behaving, remote reboot and diagnostics come first, and a site visit is the last resort rather than the first.
How updates happen
ScreenlyOS updates itself. Every night between 3am and 5am local time the device checks for a new version and installs it, and the only requirement is that it can reach the internet.
You never have to replace a device when we release something, and there is no update to schedule or approve.
The one place it matters is a new install. A device flashed from an older image will catch up on its own, but starting from the latest image skips that first round and gets the screen playing sooner.
If something looks wrong
If the display shows nothing at all, check it is on the right input before anything else. An HDMI input showing nothing looks exactly like a device that failed to start.
If the device never came online, it is almost always network access. ScreenlyOS only makes outbound connections, so the fix is usually allowing its outbound destinations rather than opening anything inbound.
If a Raspberry Pi never gets past first boot, suspect the SD card. Re-write it with a known good card.
Network details for your IT team
Outbound HTTPS on port 443 for content and API traffic, a WebSocket connection on the same port for live updates, and outbound NTP on UDP 123 for time. No inbound ports, no static IP, and no public address.
Accurate time matters more than it looks. Scheduling runs against each screen’s own local time, and a device whose clock is far out will reject otherwise valid certificates and fail to connect.
For restricted networks, ScreenlyOS supports 802.1X on wired and wireless, static IP from the on-screen setup wizard, and mutual TLS client certificates for reaching internal services. If your network uses an allowlist, contact support for the hostnames to permit.
Next
Building playlists, scheduling them, and organizing screens with labels work the same way for every Screenly screen, and are covered in the Screenly docs.