Sync Issues
Your control screen and the display stay in step automatically. When they don’t, the fix is nearly always a refresh — and refreshing is safe.
The First Thing to Try
Section titled “The First Thing to Try”Refresh the display screen.
It reconnects and picks up the game’s current state. You don’t lose progress, you don’t restart the game, and it takes a few seconds.
This is safe at any point, including mid-session with a room watching. There is no downside to trying it first.
Why It’s Safe
Section titled “Why It’s Safe”Game state lives with the game, not with a screen. The display is a window onto the game — closing it, reopening it, or refreshing it doesn’t change anything about the game itself.
The same is true of your control screen. Refreshing it doesn’t lose the session.
What Causes It
Section titled “What Causes It”Connection Loss
Section titled “Connection Loss”The most common cause. A device that loses internet stops receiving updates. It keeps showing whatever it last received, which is why a frozen display looks like a working display.
Check the projector machine’s connection specifically — it’s often on different wifi than your laptop, or a machine nobody has touched in weeks.
Sleep and Screen Lock
Section titled “Sleep and Screen Lock”A projector machine that goes to sleep stops updating. Disable sleep and screensaver on it before class.
This is worth doing once, permanently, on whatever machine drives your projector.
Background Tab Throttling
Section titled “Background Tab Throttling”Browsers slow down tabs that aren’t visible. If the display tab is behind other windows, updates can lag badly.
Keep it fullscreen and in the foreground. On the projector machine, don’t use that machine for anything else during class.
Extensions
Section titled “Extensions”Ad blockers and privacy extensions sometimes block the connection that carries updates. If sync is unreliable on one machine but fine on another, test the problem machine in a private window.
Diagnosing Quickly
Section titled “Diagnosing Quickly”Click something on your control screen and watch the projector.
Display doesn’t change: the display screen has lost connection. Refresh it.
Display changes but slowly, every time: connection quality. See Internet Connection.
Nothing happens anywhere, including your own screen: your control device has lost connection, not the display.
During a Live Session
Section titled “During a Live Session”Don’t debug in front of the room. In order:
- Refresh the display
- If that fails, close the display tab and reopen it from the control screen
- If that fails, open the display on a different device — a spare laptop or even a phone held to the projector input
The game is unaffected by all of this.
What Doesn’t Sync
Section titled “What Doesn’t Sync”Content edits made while a game is running. The editor and the control screen are separate. Editing questions mid-session produces unpredictable display behaviour. Finish, then edit.
If the display is showing content you just changed, that’s not a sync bug — that’s the editor being used during a live game.
Prevention
Section titled “Prevention”- Wired connection for the projector machine where possible
- Sleep and screensaver disabled on it
- Display fullscreen and foreground
- Test the click-and-watch check before class starts
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”- Real-Time Synchronization — how sync works normally
- Internet Connection — connectivity requirements
- The Dual-Screen Experience — the control/display split