1. Four Steps from Connection to Picture
The first thing to get working in a HarmonyOS central control deployment is seeing the screen. There is exactly one entry path for HarmonyOS screen mirroring, so do not improvise.
Step one, double-click the central control executable in the install directory, wait for it to start, and log in. Ignore mirroring until this is done, because mirroring depends on the central control service.
Step two, confirm the HarmonyOS device connection is up: the device appears in the list with service status reading Yes. A device without automation enabled can connect but will not produce a picture.
Step three, click group mirroring in the top toolbar and choose the new interface. The classic interface is the older one, and new features generally only exist in the new interface.
Step four, select devices inside the mirroring client, click start mirroring, and wait for thumbnails to appear.
2. Choosing a Mirroring Scene
Once inside, go to mirroring settings under system settings and confirm the scene. This setting decides which channel carries clicks and swipes.
| Scene | Gesture channel | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| USB plus automation service | Proxy | The default, used for all normal work |
| USB plus Bluetooth HID | Bluetooth HID | When an ESP32 board is bound and gestures leave through it |
| Custom | Manual | When gestures and connection method need separate tuning |
The classic symptom of a wrong scene is a normal picture with unresponsive clicks. So when you hit “picture but no response,” the first stop is this setting, not the device.
3. Master Control and Sync Actions
Each device in the grid is a thumbnail. To operate a phone from the computer, set it as master control by right-clicking the thumbnail.
Master control exists so its actions can be copied outward. Turn on sync actions in the sidebar, and your clicks and swipes in the master control picture repeat on every selected device.
Two conditions must both hold, and this is where sync stalls. The target devices must be selected, and the control, mouse, and keyboard switches above the master control title bar must be on as needed. Control is the overall switch, mouse governs pointer movement, keyboard governs typing. Leave mouse off and swipes will not sync at all.
Master control rendering can be changed under more in the sidebar. Floating suits working while watching, a separate window suits dual monitors, and page embedding docks it to the left or right.
One parameter is worth changing: sync random delay. When every device performs an identical action in the same millisecond it looks too uniform, and a little randomized delay reads more naturally.
4. Input and Image Transfer
Input has two modes, chosen in system settings. The system default uses proxy input, which handles Chinese, long text, and emoji. Follow-HID uses Bluetooth keyboard key codes, fine for English and shortcuts but awkward for Chinese, so always switch back for Chinese.
There is an input box above the master control area that sends text directly to the master device, convenient for fixing a caption or adding a comment.
Image and video transfer sits in the sidebar workbench, and also in the thumbnail right-click menu. Image transfer supports choosing a folder per device for batch upload, which pays off during batch publishing.
5. OCR and Multi-Device Replies
Central control version 3.1.0 and above include PP-OCRv6. The HarmonyOS OCR entry point is on the OCR page in system settings. Choose the engine, optionally enable releasing resources after recognition, then right-click a thumbnail and choose recognize screen text.
In HarmonyOS cluster control, OCR is less about replacing scripts and more about verification. After a batch publish or a batch operation finishes, recognizing the screen confirms the content actually landed, which beats trusting a script’s success code.
Canned replies cover customer service. Select several thumbnails, right-click, and multi-device replies let one action send different messages to different phones. None of this needs HarmonyOS automation scripts written. It is pure interface work.
6. Stutter and Common Failures
Stutter almost always originates in the chain. Work through it in this order.
Network first: bandwidth, packet loss, wireless interference. Prefer wired connections on a LAN, and mind router capacity in wireless setups.
Device side second: a phone under heavy load encodes and pushes its stream more slowly, and the picture follows.
PC third: pulling dozens of streams at once costs GPU and CPU, and save bandwidth on group switch stops streams for groups you have navigated away from, which frees a noticeable amount.
One more setting: thumbnail resolution. If the grid exists only so you can glance at status, there is no reason to pull it at full resolution. Dropping it usually makes the whole view smoother.
About EasyClick: A phone automation AI-agent platform covering Android no-root, iOS no-jailbreak (proxy / Bluetooth HID / OTG HID) and HarmonyOS Next, offering script development, Apple cluster control, local central control & mirroring, and cloud control systems. → Explore all products
Ready to build it for real?
Every approach in this article can be built with EasyClick capabilities on iEasyClick — full documentation, developer tools and automation products, free to try.