Enabling a host

Installing the client does not make a machine reachable by others. To become a host, it has to be explicitly given control permission in the portal.

This gate is deliberate: by default a machine with FortSwift installed can reach out to others, but cannot be reached.

Prerequisites

1. The machine has the client installed and has signed in once with your team's account — the first sign-in registers the device into My devices (「我的设备」) in the portal;
2. The operating-system permissions are in place:
   • macOS: Screen Recording and Accessibility (see get started), and the app must be restarted afterwards;
   • Windows: an interactive logged-in session is required;
   • Android: cannot act as a host.

Steps

1. Sign in to the portal and open My devices (「我的设备」);
2. Find the machine and look at the Control permission (「控制权限」) column;
3. Click Enable control permission (「启用控制权限」);
4. In the dialog, enter your account code (the 6-digit code from your authenticator) and confirm;
5. You are done when you see "control permission issued, takes effect on the host within about 60 seconds".

Once enabled, that column shows Enabled v4 (「已启用 v4」).

This is not the same as a grant

Enabling control permission says "this machine may be connected to". Who may connect to it is decided separately by a device grant. You need both before anything connects.

There is a button with the same name in the client

The Enable control permission button in the client's Trust Center belongs to the controller governance path and is not the same thing. To make a machine reachable, use the one in My devices in the portal.

Connecting afterwards

Once enabled, everyone who wants to reach it requests their own device grant, an owner or administrator approves it with the account code, and it works once the grant is in effect.

Machines that stay online

If the machine needs to be reachable long-term (the unattended workstation in the office, say):

• Do not let it sleep or drop off the network — asleep means unreachable;
• Windows needs an interactive logged-in session to stay live;
• On macOS, Screen Recording and Accessibility must be valid within the current login session;
• The client reconnects on its own after a network drop, but there is nothing to be done about a machine that loses power.

Disabling

When you no longer want a machine reachable, disable it in the portal. Any device grants already issued for it should be revoked as well.

WARNING

For button placement, column names and the exact confirmation flow, the app itself is authoritative.

Next

• Device grants — let specific people reach it
• Remote sessions — what you can do once connected
• Troubleshooting — enabled but still cannot connect