tauri-apps/tauri · error

No external IP detected.

Error message

No external IP detected.

What it means

Panic during `tauri ios dev` / `tauri android dev` setup. local_ip_address::list_afinet_netifas() enumerates interfaces and the code keeps IPv4 addresses that are not loopback (plus IPv6 addresses ending in ::2); when the filtered list is empty it panics with 'No external IP detected.' because it needs a LAN IP for the device to reach the dev server.

Source

Thrown at crates/tauri-cli/src/mobile/mod.rs:195

  pub target_device: Option<TargetDevice>,
}

fn local_ip_address(force: bool) -> &'static IpAddr {
  static LOCAL_IP: OnceLock<IpAddr> = OnceLock::new();
  LOCAL_IP.get_or_init(|| {
    let prompt_for_ip = || {
      let addresses: Vec<IpAddr> = local_ip_address::list_afinet_netifas()
        .expect("failed to list networks")
        .into_iter()
        .map(|(_, ipaddr)| ipaddr)
        .filter(|ipaddr| match ipaddr {
          IpAddr::V4(i) => i != &Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST,
          IpAddr::V6(i) => i.to_string().ends_with("::2"),

        })
        .collect();
      match addresses.as_slice() {
        [] => panic!("No external IP detected."),
        [ipaddr] => *ipaddr,
        _ => {
          let selected = dialoguer::Select::with_theme(&dialoguer::theme::ColorfulTheme::default())
            .with_prompt(
              "Failed to detect external IP, What IP should we use to access your development server?",
            )
            .items(&addresses)
            .default(0)
            .interact()
            .expect("failed to select external IP");
          *addresses.get(selected).unwrap()
        }
      }
    };

    let ip = if force {
      prompt_for_ip()
    } else {

View on GitHub (pinned to 52e4b6e71d)

Solutions

1. Bring up any interface with a real address (connect to Wi-Fi/Ethernet/hotspot) and re-run `tauri <platform> dev`
2. If multiple candidates appear, pick the right one from the interactive prompt; if detection keeps failing, give the machine a stable LAN IP
3. For containerized builds, run with a bridged network (e.g. docker --network) so a non-loopback address exists

Example fix

# before
npx tauri android dev  # panic: No external IP detected.

# after
sudo ip link set wlan0 up && nmcli device connect wlan0  # any real IP
npx tauri android dev   # prompt now lists candidate IPs

# check a usable interface exists before launching mobile dev
ip -4 addr show scope global | grep -q inet || { echo 'no non-loopback IPv4; enable Wi-Fi/Ethernet first'; exit 1; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running mobile dev on a machine whose only interfaces are loopback: disconnected Wi-Fi/Ethernet, disabled network interfaces, containers/VMs with no bridged adapter, or firewall/VPN tools that hide or zero out addresses.

Common situations: Laptops in airplane mode; CI docker containers doing Android builds; corporate VPNs replacing physical interface addresses; cloud builders with only internal addressing.

Related errors

• failed to read missing addr file {}: {e}
• {} project directory {} doesn't exist. Please run `tauri {}
• Couldn't bind to {port} on {ip}
• iOS platform not installed
• Target not found

AI-assisted analysis of tauri-apps/tauri@52e4b6e71d (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/80d11dad2456686d. Report an issue: GitHub.