After you have:
1) installed the PC version of Foobar2000 on your Windows PC
2) installed the Foobar2000 Control Server (foo_controlserver) plugin in Foobar2000
3) downloaded and installed the Foobar2000 Copilot app to your Windows Phone from the Microsoft App Store, you can then do your server setup in Foobar2000 Copilot to connect with Foobar2000.
STEP 1: Turn on Wi-Fi on your phone, if it isn't already on
Foobar2000 Copilot on startup will look for your Wi-Fi connection and will timeout in about 45 seconds if it doesn't see it. You will see the 'Waiting for Wi-Fi…' message cycle on the 'now playing' screen. Note nothing in the user interface blocks while Foobar2000 Copilot waits for your Wi-Fi.
You can bring up your phone's Wi-Fi settings and connect to your network at any time (you do not have to wait for the timeout) by selecting the 'Wi-Fi settings' menu option under the page menus on either the 'now playing' screen or the 'connections' server setup screen. Just tap the ellipsis '…' to see that menu option under either screen.
Even easier, if you see either the 'Waiting for Wi-Fi... >>' or 'Wi-Fi not detected. Is it turned ON? >>;' messages displayed at the bottom of the 'now playing' screen, just tapping on the message text will take you to your phone's Wi-Fi settings screen.
When done turning on your Wi-Fi and connecting to your network, tapping on the dedicated Windows back button will return you to Foobar2000 Copilot. On re-entering Foobar2000 Copilot, it will then automatically try to connect again.
STEP 2: Get IP Address and Port Number for your Foobar2000 server PC
Startup Foobar2000 on your PC
Make sure the foo_controlserver component is installed in Foobar2000. If it isn't installed, see : foo_controlserver plug-in install.
Make sure your Foobar2000 server PC is connected to your local area network.
Then in Foobar2000, bring up the foo_controlserver preferences page -- File>Preferences>Tools>Control Server.
Then use the IP address and Server Port listed on that page to setup the server definition in Foobar2000 Copilot -- see the next step.
STEP 3: Input Foobar2000 Server Definitions (on Windows Phone)
The very first time you startup Foobar2000 Copilot on your phone, it will see that you have yet to specify any servers to connect to, displaying the message 'No foobar servers defined>>'. Tapping on that message will take you to the 'connections' screen.
You can also jump to this screen at any time from the 'now playing' screen by selecting the 'foobar2000 connections' menu option from the menu displayed when you click on the ellipsis '…' on that screen.
On the connections screen, click on the '+' bottom menu button to add a new server definition.
Enter the IP address and port number for your Foobar2000 server PC (from step 2 above). You also need to give it a descriptive label so you can easily identify the server, i.e. something like 'office' or 'living room'.
Note if you are already connected to your local network via Wi-Fi on your phone, Foobar2000 Copilot will prefill the base IP address of your local area address -- just fill in the last digits of your Foobar2000 Server PC.
You can add more server definitions here if you have multiple Foobar2000 server PCs.
These definitions will persist between your sessions, so you will not have to re-enter them each time you startup Foobar2000 Copilot.
STEP 4: Connecting to your Foobar2000 server
Foobar2000 Copilot Connections screen:
To connect Foobar2000 Copilot to a PC Foobar2000 server, select the server from your server list by tapping anywhere on its line -- the line will highlight in your phone's selection color.
Make sure your Foobar2000 server is in fact up and running, then tap on the 'connect' button located on the bottom left side of the screen.
You will see the 'Connecting...' message appear at the top of the screen as Foobar2000 Copilot tries to connect to your Foobar2000 server. Usually it takes just an instance to connect, but Foobar2000 Copilot will try up to 45 seconds to connect before it times out on the try.
On successful connection, you will see ">>" appear on the left side of the server line and see a connected message appear at the top of the screen. If the connection attempt fails, you will see the message 'Wi-Fi is ON but no foobar connection' appear.
Note nothing in the user interface blocks during these connection attempts.
You can tap the 'connect' button again to re-try at any point.
Also should you realize you selected the wrong server from the list, select the server you do want and tap 'connect' again. You can do this in the middle of Foobar2000 Copilot already trying to connect. You do not have to wait for the 45 second timeout before trying a different connect.
Also if you need to correct the saved IP address you can do so while in the middle of the connection attempt.
If you are having issues connecting to Foobar2000, see Troubleshooting for a list of things to check.
Note if your router is using dynamic IP's (very likely), unless you reserve IP's on your router for your Foobar2000 Server PC, your router may periodically assign different addresses to your server PC, and so a server definition you had previously saved and which use to work, may break. See Troubleshooting for more details.
Auto-connect checkbox
Check the 'auto-connect' option on the Connections page if you want Foobar2000 Copilot to auto-connect on startup with the last server you had successfully connected to. This will quickly allow you to automatically connect to your server on startup without even having to go to the connections screen and make selections.
If you do not check this option, Foobar2000 Copilot on startup will display 'Select server>>' on the 'now playing' screen, waiting for you to specify which server you want to connect to. Tapping on that message, will bring up the 'connections' screen, allowing you to select from your server list and then initiate a connect, using the 'connect' button.
So it's recommended you keep 'auto connect' checked, because even if Foobar2000 Copilot comes up attempting to connect to a server you didn't want, you can at any point go to the Connections screen and specify the server you do want.
Even if Foobar2000 Copilot is in the middle of doing its 're-tries' to connect to a server, you can just tap on another server in the list and then tap on the 'connect' button, and Foobar2000 Copilot will automatically switch mid stream to connecting to that server, so you do not even have to wait for it to time out.
You can also be connected to one server and switch to a different server at any time. To connect to a different server, just select if from your servers list, and then click on the 'connect' button. You will be prompted for confirmation that you want to disconnect from one server and connect to another one. You can be connected to only one server at a time.
Connections Page Menu Options
