Forza Telemetry Not Moving? NO SIGNAL Explained

# Forza Telemetry Not Moving? A NO SIGNAL Checklist

NO SIGNAL is a specific statement, not a general one: it means the app has received not a single usable packet. That narrows the causes down to two families — the network, or the game's own settings. Everything else that looks like "not working" is something else entirely, and this page separates the two so you do not go changing settings that were already correct.

What NO SIGNAL actually means

The app binds a UDP port on your phone or tablet — 6666 by default — and the game sends telemetry there. A packet only counts as "connected" if its format matches one the app recognises; anything else is dropped silently, with no error raised.

If no valid packet arrives for about 1.5 seconds, the app shows NO SIGNAL. Nothing arrived. That is all it means.

The two causes, and why the network comes first

Every NO SIGNAL comes from one of two things:

• A. A network problem — the packets are being sent to somewhere the app is not, or the app has no usable address at all.
• B. A game setting problem — the game is not sending the data the app can accept.

Changing a setting takes ten seconds; reconnecting Wi-Fi feels like more work. The network still comes first: if the network is wrong, no setting can fix it, and you will end up changing correct settings while looking for an answer that was never there.

Cause A: the network

A1. Are both devices on the same local network?

The game sends to an address on your local network. If the phone is on mobile data, on another router, or on a repeater with its own subnet, the packets have nowhere to land — whatever address is typed into the game.

Your step: put the phone on the same Wi-Fi as the console, then drive.

A2. The IP must be the receiving device's address

The most common mistake by a wide margin: the game wants the address of the device receiving data — your phone or tablet — not the console and not the router.

The app shows its own local address. Compare it digit by digit. Addresses come from the router and change: if the phone has reconnected to Wi-Fi since setup, the game may still hold the old one.

Your step: read the IP from the app, type it into Data Out IP, drive again.

A3. Do both sides use the same port?

The game's Data Out IP Port must equal the port the app listens on — 6666 by default. If either side changed, the app is listening on one port while the game sends to another, and nothing arrives.

Your step: keep the app at 6666 and set the game to 6666. If you must change it, change both sides in the same session.

A4. Can the app find a local address at all?

The app only accepts a private IPv4 address from a physical network adapter. Mobile data, airplane mode and a full-tunnel VPN can leave it with none — which is why the connection guide may show a red banner about not detecting a local IP.

Your step: connect to Wi-Fi, and if a VPN is running, turn it off before reading the address the app shows.

Cause B: the game's settings

B1. Is Data Out on — and have you actually started driving?

Data Out is off by default. In game: Settings → HUD and Gameplay → Telemetry → Data Out = On.

The game begins sending when you start driving, so a session has to exist: sitting in the front end before an event produces no data at all. (Pausing mid-session is a different situation — see the next section.)

Your step: turn Data Out on, start an event, drive. If the dashboard comes alive on track, the settings were the whole problem.

B2. Forza Motorsport only: the format must be Car Dash

This applies to Forza Motorsport 7 and Forza Motorsport (2023). The Horizon titles have no such option.

The output format must be Car Dash. With Sled selected, the game transmits in a format the app does not accept, so the packets are discarded and a connection is never reported — even though the game believes it is broadcasting.

Your step: set the format to Car Dash and drive again. This is the single most common Cause B.

Three things that are not faults

Read this before changing anything else. All three look like breakage and none of them are.

1. Pausing, menus and replays: readings drop back to defaults

Pause a race, or step into a menu, and the game reports the session as not running — speed 0, gear N, lap time --:--.---. The app is still connected; the values have simply fallen back to their defaults.

This is not NO SIGNAL. NO SIGNAL means no data at all; here data is arriving and saying "nothing is happening right now". Return to driving and every reading comes back.

Your step: drive. If the numbers return with the car in motion, nothing was broken.

2. Some readouts are always the same value

A theme draws the fields it asks for, and some are not part of the game's telemetry output at all — there is no value to send.

When that happens the app shows a typical default value rather than an empty box. You may recognise: oil, coolant and engine temperature around 90; tyre pressure around 2.2; brake temperature around 30; track temperature 25; rain intensity 0.

The test that settles it: same field, same value, in every game and every theme means the game does not provide it. Some values do vary by title — tyre wear exists only in Forza Motorsport (2023), so the other three read 0.

These are design decisions, not readings, and not a fault. Treat them as context.

3. Coming back from the background

Lock the screen or switch apps, come back, and the dashboard may be briefly silent: the operating system can suspend the network connection while the app is in the background. The app detects the silence and re-opens the connection, usually within a second or two.

Your step: wait a moment. If it does not recover, close the dashboard and start it again.

What you do not need to change

Two things people reach for that usually do not help:

• Firewall and port forwarding. The game sends directly to the receiving device on the same network, with no NAT traversal. It only matters if the app runs in an emulator on the game's own PC, or if you use the app's forwarding feature to pass data to another program.
• Region. Mainland and international builds differ in the service domain for accounts, the theme market and downloads. The connection itself is pure LAN.

Your step: leave the router alone unless you are in one of those two exceptions.

Games that will not work at all

The app reads Forza telemetry only. Other racing titles — Gran Turismo, F1, Assetto Corsa — do not connect through any setting: there is no handler for their data, so their packets are discarded.

Your step: confirm the game is one of the four supported Forza titles. If it is, and Cause A and Cause B are both clear, the connection is working.

Get TachoDash

TachoDash is available on the App Store and on Google Play. First-time setup is covered step by step in the FH5 and FH6 guide, with the Motorsport format detail in its own page.

TachoDash is an unofficial fan-made project, not affiliated with Playground Games or Microsoft.