Support
Need help? Email support@portholt.com. Tell us your iOS version, your device model and what you were trying to do. Please don’t send passwords or private keys.
Trial and unlock
How does the trial work?
Everything works for 14 days, free. When the trial ends, the terminal, Files, network tools and live status stop until you unlock Portholt once. Your hosts, SSH keys and Settings are never locked, trial or not.
Is it a subscription?
No. You pay once and keep it. The unlock works on every iPhone and iPad signed in with the same Apple Account, and with Family Sharing your family can use it too.
I paid, but Portholt is locked
Open any locked feature and tap Restore Purchase. Make sure you are signed in to the App Store with the Apple Account you used to buy it. The same button restores a trial you started on another device.
Refunds
Apple handles all payments, so refunds are requested from Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Our promise
Pay once and Portholt is yours. Features you bought never move behind a subscription. No account, no ads, no data collected.
Hosts
What does live status check?
While Hosts is on screen, Portholt opens a TCP connection to each host’s SSH port every 30 seconds and shows the time it took. A host behind a jump host cannot be checked from your device and shows “via” its jump host instead. Its widgets check a few times an hour. With host-down notifications on (Settings › Notifications), iOS also wakes Portholt now and then to make the same check, at most every 15 minutes or so and when iOS allows, so a notice can arrive while the app is closed.
How do I add hosts from my computer?
Tap the plus button and choose Import SSH Config, then paste your ~/.ssh/config or pick the file. Each named Host block becomes a host; patterns such as Host * only give defaults. Nothing leaves your device.
How do I remove a host?
Touch and hold it in Hosts and choose Delete, or open it and choose Delete Host. This also removes its saved password and trusted host key from your device.
Terminal and sessions
My programs stop when the connection drops
Open the host’s settings and set Keep sessions running to Automatic. Portholt then reattaches to the same tmux, zellij, screen, shpool, abduco or dtach session every time, whichever the server has, so htop, builds and editors keep running when the iPhone locks or the connection drops. Portholt never installs anything on the server.
Does Portholt work with Mosh or Eternal Terminal?
Yes. In the host’s settings, choose Mosh-compatible or Eternal Terminal under Connect with. Portholt signs in over SSH, starts mosh-server or etterminal, then carries the terminal over it, so the session keeps going through a change of network and comes back the moment you return. With Mosh, what you type shows straight away on a slow connection (Predictive echo), and UDP ports 60000–61000 must be open. With Eternal Terminal, etserver must be running (port 2022), and its own tunnels keep going through a drop too. If the server doesn’t have one, Portholt says how to install it and offers SSH instead.
Can I open two shells on one host?
Yes. Touch and hold the host and choose New Session. Sessions of one host share one connection, so there is no second login or host key check.
Where is the Escape key?
On the key bar above the keyboard. Settings › Keyboard chooses which keys it shows, its style, and what shows when a hardware keyboard is attached.
Keys and sign-in
How do I sign in with a key instead of a password?
Make a key in Settings › SSH keys, or import one you already use. Copy the public key into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on each server. The private key stays in your device’s Keychain.
Which keys can I import?
ed25519 and RSA keys in OpenSSH format, with or without a passphrase, and SSH certificates for them. Portholt can also make a Secure Enclave key, which never leaves this device.
What is a Secure Enclave key?
A key made inside your iPhone or iPad’s security chip. It cannot be copied off the device, not even by Portholt. You can ask for Face ID or Touch ID on every sign-in. The Simulator has no Secure Enclave, so that option is missing there.
“Trust this host?”
The first time you connect to a server, Portholt shows its key fingerprint. Compare it with the one the server reports before trusting it. Portholt saves it and warns you if it ever changes.
The host key changed
The server is presenting a different identity from the one you trusted. If you reinstalled or rebuilt the server, open Settings › Trusted host keys, swipe the server and tap Forget, then connect again. If you didn’t change anything, don’t connect until you have checked with whoever runs the server.
Files
Where are my server’s files?
Open a host and choose Files to browse over SFTP, upload and download. Text files open in Portholt’s code editor and save back to the server. The same folders appear in the Files app under Portholt (Settings › Files app), so other apps can open and save them.
Files says it couldn’t reach the host
Files uses the same address, port, key and password as the terminal. Check the host connects in a session first.
Tunnels and jump hosts
How do I reach a server behind another server?
In the host’s settings, choose a Jump host. Portholt connects through it, as ssh -J does.
How do port forwards work?
Open a host and choose Tunnels. A tunnel listens on this device only (localhost), never on your network. It opens when a session to that host connects and closes with it. iOS pauses Portholt soon after it leaves the screen, so keep it open; on iPad, Split View beside Safari works well.
Network tools
Portholt can’t reach devices on my Wi-Fi
Portholt needs Local Network access. Turn it on in Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network › Portholt, then try again.
Traceroute or ping shows timeouts
Many routers and firewalls don’t answer these probes. A timeout at one hop usually doesn’t mean the connection is broken, as long as later hops respond.
Which hosts can I port scan?
Only hosts you own or have permission to test. Scanning other people’s networks may break their terms of service or the law.
Wake-on-LAN
How do I wake a host?
Open the host, add its MAC address under Wake-on-LAN, and tap Wake when it shows as down. Sending a broadcast straight from an iPhone needs a networking permission Portholt has to request from Apple and does not have yet, so send the packet through an always-on host you have saved, or enter the host’s own IP or a router that forwards the packet.
Sync and backup
What syncs through iCloud?
Hosts, groups, trusted host keys, snippets and terminal settings, between the iPhones and iPads on your Apple Account. It is on by default; turn it off in Settings › iCloud sync. Passwords and your SSH key stay on each device unless you also turn on iCloud Keychain in the same screen. Imported keys and Secure Enclave keys never sync.
Can I back up or move my setup?
Settings › Backup exports a .portholt file with your hosts, groups, tunnels, jump hosts, Wake-on-LAN settings, snippets, settings, trusted host keys and public keys. Private keys and passwords are never included. Add a passphrase and the file is encrypted with AES-256; Portholt cannot recover a forgotten passphrase. Import it on another device and Portholt shows what will change before it does.
Does Portholt back up on its own?
Yes. When hosts or snippets change, at most once a day, it saves a backup in Files › On My iPhone › Portholt › Backups and keeps the last five, plus one before every import. These are not encrypted and hold no passwords or private keys. Turn them off in Settings › Backup.
Shortcuts and widgets
What can Shortcuts do?
Run Command on Host runs a command or snippet over SSH and returns what it printed; connect to the host once in Portholt and trust its key first. Open Host opens its terminal. Check Host says whether the host answers on its SSH port, and how quickly.
Which widgets are there?
Host shows one host, big. Hosts shows a group or all of them, on the Home Screen and the Lock Screen. Both check a few times an hour with a plain connection to the SSH port, no sign-in, and say when they last checked.
Privacy
Portholt collects no data. Read the privacy policy.