Troubleshooting

Connection fails or times out

• Confirm the watch and the target server are reachable on the same network (or the server is reachable over the internet with the right port open).
• Double check Host and Port — the default port is 22, but many setups use a custom port.
• If using key auth, make sure the public key half is actually present in the target server’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.

“Permission denied (publickey)” when connecting with a key

The server doesn’t have your WearSSH public key installed. Go to SSH Keys, select the key, Send to Phone, then copy its contents into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the target server using the phone or another machine.

Key generation fails or the key size option is missing

Only RSA is exposed in the UI, at 2048/3072/4096 bits. If generation fails, check that a key with the same auto-generated name doesn’t already exist in the key list — names are not overwritten.

Server list on phone is empty or stale

Phone sync is triggered by watch-side changes (add/edit a server, send a key). Make an edit on the watch (e.g. toggle a favorite) to re-trigger a sync, and confirm the watch and phone are still paired in the Wear OS companion app.

Terminal output looks garbled or missing colors

This usually means the remote shell is emitting escape sequences WearSSH’s ANSI parser doesn’t yet recognize. Try a plainer command first (e.g. ls instead of a themed prompt) to confirm the base connection is healthy before trying the more complex one again.

Tile or complication doesn’t show up

Re-add it: long-press the watch face → Edit → Tiles (or Complications) → select WearSSH again. A watch software update can occasionally reset custom Tile/complication slots.