create-react-native-app: Expo is not loading my app

does your URL look something like this: Your URL is: exp://192.168.1.73:19000 as opposed to this: exp://9h-hcy.bacon.tickle_me_elmo.exp.direct:80 if so then try running: exp start --tunnel and check to make sure you have a pretty solid wifi connection 💙🌝

What you need to do is: Go to cmd and type “ipconfig” and see which network is using the ip shown in your expo app. if it’s not your router IP address then what you need to do is to go and disable the network which expo is using: Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network Connections and here disable the network that expo is using. (it should be a LAN network connection) try to run “npm start” again, it should be working now. If my solution is not clear feel free to ask me.

use this command on cmd :- npx expo start --tunnel

So I had this problem on my iPhone and I was getting worked up about it and then I used a friend’s iPhone and everything worked. Turns out it had something to do with the Expo-app’s permissions. When you first download Expo Go, it asks for some permission roughly about allowing your device to connect with other devices in the network. Looks like I overlooked the permission the first time and clicked “No”. Clicking “Allow” instead fixed it. I deleted and redownloaded Expo to see the permission again because I didn’t want to search through settings to find it. Hope this helps.

My issue was a VPN that was placed on my network through one of my other apps I installed. I’m not sure why, but it seems to be affecting the connection with expo.

PROBLEM

git clone https://github.com/thinkocapo/rag-tag-react-native.git
npm install
exp start

The first few times I run exp start it gives a URL like: exp://9h-hcy.bacon.tickle_me_elmo.exp.direct:80 but then it randomly switches to: Your URL is: exp://192.168.1.73:19000 and when I scan the QR it errors on my mobile device. It also says in my expo CLI log:

[13:15:29] Switched to a LAN URL because the tunnel appears to be down. Only devices in the same network can access the app. Restart with `exp start --tunnel` to try reconnecting.

SOLUTION - Failed

re-start with exp start --tunnel it still shows a URL like exp://192.168.1.73:19000, QR scan still fails.

SOLUTION - That is not sustainable for development:

Delete the entire project directory, and re-do git clone... npm install expo start, it then works on first try: [13:23:13] Your URL is: exp://dz-dca.thinkocapo.rag-tag-react-native.exp.direct:80 and sure enought I do ctrl+c to kill the app, I restart it and its Your URL is: exp://192.168.88.12:19000 again. Weird!

SOLUTION Update

I think my mobile is on WifiFloor2 and my laptop is on WifiFloor3. I also used exp start -m tunnel and it’s working now…maybe get both my devices on same Wifi, but how to get it to ignore and not care which wifi you’re on? Do exp start --help to see all the CLI options

Wifi Note

I’m at a co-working space. I’m not using a VPN. Wifi connection is fine, loading pages no issue, full strength.

Any ideas @EvanBacon ?

opened a topic on https://forums.expo.io/t/why-does-expo-url-change-when-i-re-run-exp-start/11715 and will keep ya’ll posted. I’ll keep researching.

I had this issue when running Docker.

The URL given in the command line may not be the correct one. For me, it was using docker’s IP instead of my actual networks local ip. I’ve worked around it for now by entering my local address followed by port 19000 in safari. EG: exp://192.168.1.151:19000

because you need to be on the same wifi network and the network cannot be behind a nat. if it is then you can’t access other computers on the network