Basic troubleshooting steps

General checklist

If you can't get Synergy to work at all:

• Install Synergy on all of your computers.
• Check you have the latest version (if your installation is out of date, Synergy will tell you).
• Ensure that you're sharing the correct computer's keyboard and mouse.
• Make sure that both of your computers are on the same network (see also: ping test).
• Check that the computers in your layout editor are adjacent (the edges must touch).
• If you're running VPN software, try turning it off to see if that helps.
• If you have an anti-virus and port manager installed, check if Synergy has been allowed.
• On Linux, disable Wayland (until Wayland adds Synergy support).

If you got Synergy to work, but it's not working properly:

• Restart the core process of Synergy (you can setup a hotkey for this).
• Restart all of your computers (not just the one that's problematic).
• Try undoing any settings you changed (or reset your settings).
• If you changed your network or peripheral hardware, try the old hardware again.
• Restore your operating system updates to a previous version.

Check out the help article: Known bugs and gotchas

Synergy 3

Ensure there are multiple computers

On the Screen layout, multiple computers should show up. If you see only one, then your computers are having problems seeing each other. Take a look at the General checklist at the top of this page.

You can also try manually adding a computer, in case the auto-discovery feature didn't work. Go to Manage computers, and click Manually add computer.

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Share the keyboard and mouse

On the Screen layout, click the 3-dots menu, then click Use this keyboard and mouse. This computer's keyboard and mouse will then be shared with the other computers.

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Manual reset

Sometimes the configuration files are misconfigured or haven't updated, performing a manual reset can help:

1. Open Synergy
2. Go to Local settings
3. Reset options
4. Reset this computer
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each computer

Synergy 1

Add the client computers

Click the Configure Server button on the server computer and add the client computers in to the grid on the Server Configuration screen and place the computers so that the sides are directly connected along the edge of another computer.

You only need to add a client computer once, even if you have multiple monitors, because Synergy will treat all screens on one computer as "one big screen".

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Check the client names match

In the Server Configuration screen, double-click on each computer to change the Screen name. This needs to match the client name that you gave.

The names entered should not contain spaces (neither in the middle, beginning, the end of the name). Please also check that you are only using UTF-8 characters (see below).

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Always click Apply

After making any change on the server or the client, always click Apply. This will restart the core process and apply any changes to settings that you've made.