Device Preview - Troubleshooting

Last updated on Mar 9, 2023

Unable to preview or inspect your web page on devices? Check these tips to troubleshoot issues with Device Preview in Dreamweaver.

Effective from November 16, 2021, the functionality to preview pages across multiple devices has been discontinued across all Dreamweaver versions. We encourage you to explore the Real-time preview feature to preview the pages on multiple browsers. You may use this workaround for Device Preview on your devices.

Check these first...

Check if you've met the below prerequisites for Device Preview. If you're still facing any issues, see advanced troubleshooting tips.

Are your devices and Dreamweaver connected to the Internet and are on the same network?

Device Preview does not work if your computer, on which Dreamweaver is running, and your devices are connected to different networks. For example, if your device is using the network connection provided by your mobile service providers and Dreamweaver is running on your home network, Device Preview will not work.

Ensure that all your devices and your desktop computer are on the same network.

Have you enabled JavaScript and cookies in your device browser?

Device Preview requires JavaScript and cookies to be enabled in your devices' browser settings. Go to the browser settings screen on your devices, search for JavaScript and cookies, and enable them.

Are you using the same Adobe ID in Dreamweaver and on devices?

The Device Preview service requires you to log in to your devices using your Adobe ID. This Adobe ID must be the same as the one that you used for purchasing or trying Dreamweaver membership. In case you have another Adobe ID, your login is technically authenticated on your device, but you will be unable to preview the page unless you sign in with the ID used in Dreamweaver.

To check which Adobe ID you are currently using for Dreamweaver, click Help > Sign Out <your Adobe ID>.

Have you opened a vaild document to preview?

Technically, you can preview any document that is rendered in Live view of Dreamweaver on your devices. So, you can preview documents such as HTML and PHP on your devices. When you try to preview other files, such as CSS, XML, LESS, and JS, an error is displayed on your devices indicating that a valid document must be opened in Dreamweaver for preview.

Do you have the required access to the Device Preview service?

If you are using an enterprise account for Dreamweaver, you may not have access to the Device Preview service. Contact your system administrator to ensure that you have the required permissions to use the service.

Advanced troubleshooting

Couldn't launch the Device Preview service

Dreamweaver runs a local HTTP, node server for the Device Preview service on a random port assigned by the node. Device Preview will not work if one or both of the following is blocked by your system administrator:

The random port assigned by the node server
The IP address of the localhost, 127.0.0.1

Perform the following steps to address this issue:

Relaunch Dreamweaver. In case Dreamweaver was unable to create the node server instance, restarting Dreamweaver will address the issue.

If this doesn't help, proceed to step 2 and 3.
Assign a specific port for the Device Preview services from the node server. You need to add this port number in a NodePort.json file along with the key for device preview. The process for doing so is described here.

Creating a NodePort.json file

Create a file, NodePort.json, and specify the port number in the file in the following format:

Note:

Ensure that this port number is not blocked by your system administrator.
```
{
“previewport” : <portnumber>
}
```
For example, if 8010 is the port number that you want to use:
```
{
“previewport” : 8010
}
```
Note:

If you have already created a NodePort.json file with a key value pair in it, use comma to separate the new key value pair or specify the new key value pair in a separate line.
Save the NodePort.json file in the following path:
- Win: %appdata%\Adobe\Dreamweaver CC 2015\en_US\Configuration
- Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver CC 2015/en_US/Configuration
Relaunch Dreamweaver.

Firewall settings blocking connections to Dreamweaver

Devices cannot connect to Dreamweaver if the firewall settings on your desktop computer or in your enterprise firewall block connections from external devices.

Configure the firewall settings on your computer to allow connections from external devices. If you are using an office computer, contact your system administrator for any assistance.

If your firewall is configured to prompt when external devices try to connect, then you will prompted to allow access to the Dreamweaver node server. For example, if you have configured Windows firewall, a prompt appears with the Allow Access option. Choose the appropriate network (Public or Private), and then click Allow Access.

Note: To check which network your computer is on, open the Windows Firewall settings from the Control Panel and check the settings.
Assign a specific port for the Device Preview services from the node server. You need to add this port number in a NodePort.json file along with the key for device preview. The process for doing so is described here.

Proxy server settings blocking connections to external devices

Device Preview may not work if the IP address of the computer on which Dreamweaver is running is not in the white list of the proxy server.

Contact your system administrator to add your computer to the white list in the proxy server settings.

JavaScript and cookies are not enabled in your device browsers

Device Preview requires JavaScript and cookies to be enabled in your devices' browser settings. Go to the browser settings screen on your devices, search for JavaScript and cookies, and enable them. Then, rescan the QR code to preview your web page on the device.

Preview isn't working; I am redirected to this article

You are redirected to this article in the following scenarios:

Devices cannot connect to Dreamweaver.
- Your device and Dreamweaver are on different networks.
  Device Preview does not work if your computer, on which Dreamweaver is running, and your devices are connected to different networks. For example, if your device is using the network connection provided by your mobile service providers and Dreamweaver is running on your home network, Device Preview will not work.
  
  Ensure that all your devices and your desktop computer are on the same network and then try previewing your web page.
- Firewall settings on your computer are preventing incoming connections from devices.

You are accessing an invalid or an old URL (the short adobe.ly URL) from your devices. Rescan the QR code to preview the page on your devices.

You are accessing the web page through Internet Explorer 11 on an Windows 8.1 Pro OS. Ensure that the version of Internet Explorer is 11.0.9600.17690 or later, or use a different browser to preview.

An internal error occurred. Try previewing your web page after sometime or restart Dreamweaver.

Workaround to use Device Preview in Dreamweaver

To see the page layout on your devices, you may use this workaround. Follow the steps:

Setup a testing server using the link how to set up a testing server.
Save and push your files to the testing server. Enable the Standard toolbar ( Window > toolbars > Standard) to find the URL for the webpage on the testing server.
Capture the URL from the Dreamweaver application and paste that into your mobile browser. The URL is in this format- http://localhost/Devicepreview/index.html. Replace localhost with the IP address of your computer. Example-http://xx.xxx.xxx.xxx/Devicepreview/index.html where xx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address for the computer.
Use the above URL (with the IP address) on any device which is connected to the same internet connection as the computer and you should be able to view the webpage on the device.

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