Skip to content

Accounts and TV pairing

Last updated: 2026-11-03

WyreDeck uses a Mullvad-style anonymous 16-digit account number rather than an email address, phone number, person name, or password. Linking an account is optional for single-TV local use and is used only when you want to pair devices, use account-linked capabilities, or submit in-app issue reports.

How the 16-digit account number works

WyreDeck uses a numbered account by deliberate privacy design: linking a TV or checking your account's entitlement status should never require an email address, person name, phone number, or password, or attach your living-room setup to a personal identity profile.

A WyreDeck account is a randomly generated 16-digit number (15 cryptographically random digits plus 1 Luhn check digit so the app and website can catch typing mistakes before sending a request). That number is the entire account identity and serves as a bearer credential: anyone who has the number can attempt to pair a device to the account.

  • No personal identity fields: WyreDeck does not attach your name, email address, phone number, or password to the account record.
  • One-way fingerprint at rest: WyreDeck's account service stores a keyed one-way cryptographic fingerprint (HMAC-SHA-256) of the account number rather than a readable copy of the digits. Keeping the plaintext number out of the durable account table is a privacy property for credential lookup so the account record never contains a readable copy of your credential. Client-supplied device names (up to 128 UTF-8 bytes, normally the device model label) and separate encrypted private-test access requests are distinct from anonymous account identity and are never joined to the account number.
  • No account recovery: Because the service stores neither the plaintext number nor any personal identity record that could verify an ownership claim, a lost account number cannot be recovered. If you lose the number, a new account cannot inherit the old account's tier, remaining paid time, or paired devices.

Save your account number immediately

Store your 16-digit account number in a password manager or another secure, private place you control before leaving the creation screen. Never email it to yourself, paste it into an issue report or support message, or include it in a screenshot.

Public account creation remains disabled during the private test, and submitting an optional private-test access request is a separate contact queue that does not create an account or link an email address to an account number. Check the Get started page and Account number help for current private-test availability.

When an account is optional vs. used

Workflow Account needed? Notes
Local Install Only (Free tier) No Connect your own Xtream or M3U provider, browse Live TV, Movies, Series, and XMLTV guide data, and use basic device-local profiles and favorites without contacting the WyreDeck account service.
Direct TMDB BYOK metadata No Bringing your own personal TMDB v3 API key is approved for both Free and Premium tiers and does not require an account or Premium, while per-client support for the direct BYOK path is still being completed.
TV and device pairing Yes Links a TV or client device to your anonymous account and issues a scoped device credential.
LAN Backbone account enrollment Yes Enrolls a self-operated LAN Backbone appliance into your account's device budget so the Full Backbone edition can verify account-scoped capabilities.
Planned Premium capabilities Yes Planned Premium capabilities are resolved from your account's effective tier and server-reported capabilities.
In-app issue reports Yes Submitting a report from Help > Report an issue requires a paired device linked to an account.

Linking an account never sends your IPTV provider credentials, playlist URLs, imported catalogs, watch history, favorites, or resume positions to WyreDeck's account service.

Pair a TV with your account

TV pairing lets you link an Android TV or Google TV device from a phone or computer browser without typing a 16-digit number on the TV remote.

1. Start pairing on the TV

  1. Open WyreDeck on your TV and go to Settings > Account > Pair with phone.
  2. The TV starts a short-lived pairing session and displays a QR code along with an 8-character pairing code (displayed as XXXX-XXXX for readability).
  3. Behind the scenes, the TV holds a private, single-session poll credential that is never shown on screen or encoded in the QR code.

2. Approve on your phone or computer

  1. Scan the QR code with your phone camera, or open wyredeck.com/pair/ in your browser and enter the 8-character pairing code shown on the TV.
  2. Enter your 16-digit WyreDeck account number.
  3. Confirm that the code matches your TV screen and approve the request.

The QR code contains only the short pairing code, never your account number. Always verify that you are entering your 16-digit account number on https://wyredeck.com/pair/.

3. Device token registration on the TV

  1. Once you approve the request on the web page, the TV retrieves the approved pairing result once over an encrypted connection.
  2. The TV generates its own cryptographic public/private identity key pair and registers the device with the account service.
  3. The account service issues a scoped device token for that TV. The TV encrypts and stores the account number and device token at rest using Android Keystore AES-GCM encryption, and ongoing service check-ins authenticate with the scoped device token rather than transmitting your 16-digit account number.

Why pairing codes expire or fail

  • Short lifetime: A pairing code expires after about 5 minutes (and expired sessions are cleared by the background cleanup process within about 10 to 16 minutes). If you wait too long before approving or returning to the TV, generate a fresh code on the TV.
  • Single-use delivery: As soon as the TV retrieves the approved pairing result once, the encrypted account number is cleared immediately and the code cannot be used a second time.
  • Daily pairing limit or pairing disabled: Starting new pairing sessions is rate-limited per IP per fixed 24-hour window (anchored to the first pairing session started in that window) and can be paused by a service-wide switch.
  • Device slot limit reached: If your account has already reached its active device limit, final device registration is refused until a device slot is freed.

Device slot limits, credential lifetimes, and managing devices

The account service reports and enforces the current device limit for your account's effective tier:

  • Service-reported limit: The initial configuration for both Free and Premium tiers is 5 devices, and clients treat the server-reported limit as authoritative rather than assuming a fixed number.
  • Shared budget across TVs and appliances: Every paired client device and every account-enrolled LAN Backbone appliance consumes 1 slot from the same account-wide device limit. An enrolled LAN Backbone appliance counts as 1 of the 5 device slots on a Premium account (and 1 of the account's device slots on Free) rather than having a separate appliance quota.
  • Phone approval (/pair/) vs. website account view (/account/): Approving a 5-minute pairing code on wyredeck.com/pair/ is a stateless phone approval flow and never consumes a registered device slot. Optional private-test access requests are separate from accounts, and wyredeck.com/account/ remains intentionally dark until short-lived browser sessions are enabled so a browser tab never consumes one of your hardware device slots.

Three independent lifetimes: device credentials, paid time, and local sign-out

WyreDeck keeps device authentication, subscription paid time, and TV sign-out separate:

  1. Device credential lifetime: A paired TV or LAN Backbone appliance credential does not expire on a timer or from inactivity, so an unplugged or weekend-only living-room TV stays linked between sessions. A device token remains valid until that device is unlinked from the account or all devices on the account are revoked.
  2. Premium paid-time expiry: When Premium paid time expires, your account transitions non-destructively to the Free tier. Paid-time expiry never unpairs your TVs or invalidates their device credentials, so your devices remain linked on the Free tier without re-pairing.
  3. Local TV disconnect vs. server device removal & account-number compromise: Disconnecting an account on a TV (Settings > Account) clears the stored credentials and cached entitlement state on that TV immediately—even when the TV is offline—and attempts a bounded server request to release that TV's device slot when online. If a TV is disconnected while offline or factory-reset, its remaining server slot can be removed from another linked device (or by support if all signed-in devices are lost). Removing a single device revokes only that device's credential; if your 16-digit account number itself is ever exposed, stop using it and contact support (without sending the 16-digit number) so support can revoke all devices on the compromised account and transfer any remaining paid time to a replacement account number. See Accounts and paired devices for current status.

Zero-PII Premium checkout (when billing is enabled)

During the private test, Premium is not for sale. When paid plans are enabled, a paired device can start a short-lived, single-use checkout session with a 30-minute window. The payment processor receives only an opaque checkout token and never sees your 16-digit account number or internal account reference.