Why can't Fing scan the phone's hotspot network?

Guru_Meditation_No42

Is there a good reason why the Fing Android app can't scan the network when the phone is acting as an access point instead of a wireless client?  It just says "Not connected to WiFi", even though the phone's hotspot has several WiFi clients connected to it.  I regularly use my phone's hotspot to do initial setup of IoT devices, and I'd like to use Fing to figure out what IP address they get so I can connect to and configure them.  I've had to resort to using  nmap under termux to find them, or connect a second phone to the hotspot and running Fing from that, but that seems like an unnecessary hassle.

(Of course, it would be easiest if the phone would just list its connected clients itself, but I haven't been able to figure out how under Android 11 on a Pixel 5.  All the google hits for this issue talk about a "Connected Users" section in settings that is missing both on this phone and on an Android 10 Motorola phone. Any tips in this regard would be appreciated as well.)

Robin

Hi, 

Fing app can only scan that network on which the Fing App is installed. If your device is connected to wifi then it will run the scan and look for devices connected to that network. If you are using mobile data or a dongle then it can scan only that network and look for devices connected to that network. Also, if your devices are connected via wired connection, then Fing App will not be able to detect the device but the router/modem it is connected to will show multiple IP addresses in Fing App. That means, the router/modem has reserved some IP addresses for some specific usage and that usage can be for ethernet connected devices.  

For device acting as Hotspot, Fing app might not work and show network connection as "Not Connected".

If your phone is connected with ethernet(Wired) connection, Fing might not be able to work. Fing App works on TCP/IP model and there are L2 & L3 protocols, while physical transmission of wireless packets goes below that level at L1. 
See "Data link layer" and "Physical layer" in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_layer. 
 
Scanning of devices in the user's network(wifi) requires the devices to have joined the network to recognize by the App. Devices listed in the fence do not have that requirement, and we can only monitor their wireless presence through the data they send over the air.