I can't get Remote Play to work once I leave the house...

Kawaii Koneko · November 17, 2017

Okay, so I have a PS4 and a Vita and am looking to use Remote Play for an upcoming trip. I will be gone from my house for 1-2 weeks. In the past, I have sucesfully used Remote Play. I would tether my Vita to my phone (Verizon LTE is amazing) and despite the fact that I only get around 3 Mbps up on my home internet, it worked pretty well. Sure, there would be times when things would get very garbled but I was able to play about 1/3 of The Last of Us this way (second playthrough) and it looked pretty good.

Well, recently, I haven't been able to get Remote Play to work. I haven't changed anything in my router's configuration but my Vita will just sit there and continuously look for the PS4. After 3 or so minutes, I just give up. I recently bought a 16 port TP-Link switch, model TL-SG1016DE with web mangement. Now I have my PS4 hooked directly to that instead of my router and I still can't get RP to work.

I also recently went out and picked up a US Cellular prepaid plan so I could get better upload speeds for RP. With this I am getting almost 6 Mbps up. For some stupid reason I can't get Verizon LTE at my house. This is still not ideal but a definite improvement over my home internet for upload speeds. I'm currently at the max I can get with a pair bonded connection. Next year they are scheduled to lay fiber so until then this is the best I can do.

Anyway, I tethered my PS4 to the hotspot and then connected my Vita to my home WiFi. So they are on completely different networks. When I do this, Remote Play works great. No problems at all. However, the second I take my Vita out of the house, I am no longer able to connect to the PS4. I've tried pairing it to smartphones and other public WiFi spots. It doesn't seem to matter which network my Vita is on, it won't work unless it is my home network. Of course, during this time, I have left the PS4 tethered to the US Cellular phone.

I don't get why I can use RP from home when on different networks but as soon as I leave the house, it no longer works. And no, I don't have the option enabled to stream directly from the PS4 so that isn't what is happening. Like I said, RP used to work just fine for me. This is only a recent thing, like the last month or so.

I only have a couple days before my trip so time is of the essence. I really need to get this working. I already am bringing my XBox One X with me so bringing the PS4 as well would be a bit much. I'm also bringing my PS TV which I also intend to use for Remote Play. But considering these are basically the same internally, I figure if the Vita won't work, neither will the PS TV.

Any help would greatly be appreciated!

lieder1987 · November 17, 2017

1 hour ago, Kawaii Koneko said:

Anyway, I tethered my PS4 to the hotspot and then connected my Vita to my home WiFi. So they are on completely different networks. When I do this, Remote Play works great. No problems at all. However, the second I take my Vita out of the house, I am no longer able to connect to the PS4. I've tried pairing it to smartphones and other public WiFi spots. It doesn't seem to matter which network my Vita is on, it won't work unless it is my home network. Of course, during this time, I have left the PS4 tethered to the US Cellular phone.

Are you 100% sure that the PS4 is not also connecting to the local connection? I didnt think remote play worked outside local network.

ono · November 17, 2017

It also sounds like you could be using a direct connection between your Vita and PS4 rather than the internet, which obviously won't work when the two are far apart. Turn off direct connect and reconfigure.

Kawaii Koneko · November 18, 2017

On 11/17/2017 at 3:36 PM, lieder1987 said:

Are you 100% sure that the PS4 is not also connecting to the local connection? I didnt think remote play worked outside local network.

Yes, I am 100% sure. Remote Play definitely works outside of a local connection. Not only was it a selling point of the system but I have personally done it numerous times.

On 11/17/2017 at 5:39 PM, ono said:

It also sounds like you could be using a direct connection between your Vita and PS4 rather than the internet, which obviously won't work when the two are far apart. Turn off direct connect and reconfigure.

Lol. I was 100% I didn't have it enabled but somehow it got re-enabled. I have no clue how because I always left it disabled intentionally. Anyway, it is definitely disabled now. I feel like a bit of an idiot because like I said, I thought it was disabled and that is a pretty basic thing. Anyway, I can connect via my WiFi just fine but once I am on separate networks, Remote Play just eventually says it couldn't find the PS4 and asks me to enter a code manually, which I do and it makes no difference.

I really need some help here. It's looking like I'm going to have to bring my PS4 in addition to the X and that is just getting to be a bit much. Plus, the $70 USD I paid for that pre-paid plan will be a complete waste if I don't use it.