How to Turn PC On & Off with Android Phone

By Karrar Haider. in Desktop. Updated on August 7, 2022.

A lot of people have a habit of leaving their PC running all the time, and in many cases, move out without shutting it down. Well, the good news for such people is that they can set up their Android phone to work as a remote control for their PC. So, whenever you leave your PC running, you can simply turn it off, put it on sleep or start it back remotely using your smartphone.

If you want to take advantage of this convenience, then I can help. In this post, I’ll show you how you can shut down your PC remotely from anywhere and start it while you are near the local network.

Shutdown PC remotely over LAN

If you want to shut down a nearby PC that is connected to the same network as your smartphone, then all you need to do is install an app on your smartphone and its server on your PC. You can then send commands to shutdown, sleep or hibernate your PC from your smartphone.

There are many apps available for this purpose, but I recommend Shutdown Start Remote as it’s free (as long as you don’t mind some non-intrusive ads) and easier to use. Download the application on your Android phone and then download its server from the official website on your PC (link available in the app as well).

For the server to run, you must have Java Runtime Environment installed. If the server link isn’t opening on your PC, then go to the Java website and choose the right installer to download and install Java Runtime Environment.

Open up the Shutdown Start Remote server on your PC (no need to install it) and then open up the app on your Android phone. If both devices are connected to the same network, then you should see your PC name in the Shutdown Start Remote app interface. Tap on it to connect to your PC.

In the main interface, you can set a timer to shutdown, sleep, or hibernate your PC after a specific time. If you want to immediately complete the action, then tap on the Shutdown, Sleep, or Hibernate buttons at the bottom to immediately send the command to your PC.

Shutdown PC remotely from anywhere

The above is a nice and easy solution, but it is limited to devices connected to the same network. If you want to shut down your PC from anywhere, then that is possible as well. For this purpose, you will need to use a Windows tool called Airytec Switch Off.

The tool is a bit old now and was last updated in 2015, but it still works fine and securely does what you need.

Install Airytec Switch Off and launch the app. The tool works from the taskbar, so you should see its icon in the system tray. You need to enable remote access now.

Here is how to do it:

Right-click on the Airytec Switch Off icon and select Options from the list.

Move to the Remote tab and check the checkbox next to Enable web interface.
You should also check the checkbox next to Enable authentication option and provide a password. This is optional, but I’ll highly recommend doing this as anyone can control your PC if they get access to your external IP address. The password will protect you against an attack.
Click on the Apply button to confirm the changes.

Now click on "View / Update static address" link and copy and save the "Current Switch Off Url" somewhere you could easily access.

You can enter this URL in a browser on any device (like a smartphone) from anywhere and provide the password (if added) to open up Airytec web interface. Here you can tap on the shutdown command to turn off your PC remotely.

In case the URL isn’t working for you, disable your PC’s firewall and try again. You might also have to open port 8000 in your router if disabling firewall doesn’t help.

Starting PC using Android phone

Waking up your PC from your Android phone completely depends on your PC. Your PC’s motherboard and network card must have WOL (Wake-on-LAN) support, and it must be connected to the internet through an ethernet cable. This feature is still not very common in PCs and even a little wrong configuration or support issue could mean you can’t wake up your PC remotely my any means.

Overall, the chances are a minimum that WOL would be working perfectly fine on your PC. The best you can do is enter your PC’s BIOS settings (search online for how to do it for your manufacturer) and enable WOL option under power management category if available.

To start your PC using your Android phone, you’ll need the app Wake on Lan. Download this app on your smartphone and make sure both your PC and your smartphone are connected to the same network. Afterward, follow the below instructions:

Tap on the "+" icon at the bottom-right corner and select your PC from the next page.
Now tap on Add device to add it to the list of devices that you want to Wake on LAN.
All you need to do now is tap on your PC’s name and it will automatically wake up from sleep, hibernate, or shut down state.

If you want to wake up your PC from a shutdown state, then make sure that the PC is properly shut down using the Shutdown option from the power options. And of course, it should be connected to a power source all the time.

Conclusion

You should also know that Airytec also has an option to shut down a PC available on the local network. However, in my testing, it didn’t work really well and most of the time failed when I tried to do it from a different device. So sticking with Shutdown Start Remote is a better option for locally shutting down your PC.