How do I configure WiFi for the Screenly 2 Player?

Viktor Petersson
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Note, the following guide relates to our V2 player, which the majority of our users are on. If you are still using the legacy V1 player, then you will need to complete any changes via the wizard website: https://wizard.screenly.io/

Also, please note that we no longer offer any support for V1 players, as these were announced End of Life in Q1 2018.

By default, Screenly 2 is configured to use DHCP over Ethernet. If you need to do something more complicated (such as configuring WiFi or setting a static IP configuration on your Ethernet interface), this guide is for you.

  1. Grab a USB stick
    • Important: The USB stick needs to be formatted as FAT32. exFAT is not supported.
  2. Log in to Screenly, navigate to the Screens menu and click the purple  "+ New Screen" button
  3. Click the "WiFi & Advanced Network Setup" button at the top of the page.
  4. Select "Start Setup" and enter in your SSID (Wireless network name) and Password.
  5. Only touch the other settings if you are instructed to by support, or if you are knowledgeable about networking and need some advanced configuration.
  6. Click "Generate configuration file", and a file named 'network.yaml' will be downloaded to your computer.
  7. Put the downloaded file onto your USB stick.
  8. Eject the USB stick from your PC.
  9. Boot up your new Screenly player and wait for the "Network interface has no IP address" error to appear.
  10. Next, insert the USB stick to a USB port on the device, and it should reboot and pick up the new WiFi configuration. If it doesn't reboot after 30 seconds, pull out the USB stick and put it in a different USB port.
  11. Once the player reboots and comes up you can remove the USB stick. 

All you need to do going forward to configure multiple devices is to use the same process and USB stick with the network.yaml file - (assuming that the configuration settings are the same for the new devices).

Troubleshooting

  • If the network configuration is not picked up, (i.e. the player does not reboot) simply try removing and re-inserting the USB stick again in a different USB port. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries.
  • Ensure that the file name on your USB drive is "network.yaml", if there is a number added like: "network (1).yaml" that will interfere with the player reading the file. Delete the " (1)" from the name of the file on your USB stick and try again.
  • If you are using a disk image that is older than the April 18, 2018 release, the USB configuration will not be picked up automatically when the USB is inserted.
  • 5Ghz connections are only supported on players using the Raspberry Pi 3B+.
  • Also see: What types of wireless networks and authentication do you support?

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