Setup guide
Up and flying in four steps.
Coming from the app? Good. Either way, this page takes you from nothing to a live G1000 in about two minutes — and you only ever do it once.
What you need before we start:
- A Windows 10/11 PC with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 or 2020 installed — Steam or Microsoft Store, either works, also both sims side by side. You can leave the simulator closed for now
- An Android tablet or an iPad, with the FSG G1000 PFD or MFD app
- Both on the same network — ideally the PC on a cable
01Install FSG SimBridge on your PC
FSG SimBridge is the companion program that connects the simulator to your tablet: it brings the G1000 to your apps and feeds your button presses back into the sim. Download it on the PC that runs the simulator and run the installer — there is nothing to configure.
Free · Windows 10/11 · about 97 MB · all versions
02Install the app on your tablet
Get FSG G1000 PFD — or FSG G1000 MFD if it is the map you are after — from Google Play on Android, or from the App Store on iPad. They are separate apps: buy only the display your panel needs, or run both on two devices from the same bridge.
Android 7 or later · iPad with iPadOS 15 or later. There is no iPhone version: the bezel needs a tablet-sized screen.
03Connect the app to your PC
Open the app. It scans your network and lists your PC by name as soon as the bridge is running — usually within seconds. Tap your PC to connect. The choice is remembered; from now on the app connects by itself.
Nothing showing up? The app rescans every ten seconds or so — give it a moment first. If it still finds nothing, it is almost always one of two things, and they need different fixes.
Your PC and tablet are on different subnets — a mesh system, a second
router, or a separate network for guests or smart-home devices. Two steps here,
and both are needed. First, tap “Enter the address manually” and type the
PC's local IP address, for example 192.168.0.17: automatic discovery
does not travel between subnets. Second, widen the bridge's firewall rule, which
by default accepts only your PC's own subnet — press
Win+R, run wf.msc, open Inbound Rules,
find FSG SimBridge, then Properties → Scope and set
Remote IP address to Any IP address.
Your router keeps wireless devices apart — usually called AP isolation, client isolation, or a guest network. Nothing on the PC will fix this, and typing the address by hand will not help either: the traffic is stopped at the router. Turn that setting off, or put both the PC and the tablet on the main network instead of the guest one.
To read the PC's address: press Win+R, run cmd,
type ipconfig and look for “IPv4 Address”. If several are listed, you
want the one that starts with 192.168 or 10. — the others
usually belong to virtual adapters.
04First flight — show it where the PFD is
Start Microsoft Flight Simulator and load a flight in a G1000 aircraft — the Cessna 172 is perfect. The app shows a live checklist of what it is waiting for (bridge, simulator, aircraft — and on MSFS 2024 the FSG-Bridge package), so you always know whether it's waiting on you.
The first time you fly a given aircraft, the app asks you to show it where the PFD is:
- Switch to the PC — the simulator window should be in the foreground.
- In the cockpit, hold right Alt and left-click the centre of the PFD screen (the screen itself, not the buttons around it).
- If nothing pops out, click once more — the simulator often ignores the first click. The panel window appears about a second later.
That's it. The bridge remembers the spot for this aircraft, hides the popped-out window off your desktop, and the G1000 lights up on your tablet. From now on it is automatic: load a flight and the panel appears on the tablet, usually within half a minute. Each new aircraft type asks for its own right Alt + click.
The bridge on your PC
FSG SimBridge has no window. It runs quietly in the background and shows itself as one small icon in the notification area, next to the clock. That icon is the whole interface — everything you need is one right-click away.
Right-click the icon and you get five things:
- Show Console — opens a window with the bridge's own running log, useful when something is off and you want to see what it says. Nothing to do here on a normal day.
- Check for Updates — see below. You should never need it.
- The app can't find my PC… — shows this PC's address on your network, ready to type into the app by hand when automatic discovery does not work.
- Get help — opens the support page, with Discord and the e-mail address.
- Exit — stops the bridge. The tablet goes back to its waiting screen until the bridge runs again.
When an update is waiting, an Install update… item appears at the top of the menu.
It starts by itself
The bridge starts with Windows every time you sign in and waits for the simulator in the background. Nothing to launch, nothing to remember — that is the whole idea.
Prefer to start it by hand? Open Task Manager, go to Startup apps and switch FSG SimBridge to Disabled. From then on you start it yourself from the Start menu before you fly — the app on the tablet can do nothing until the bridge is running.
Updates look after themselves
The bridge checks for new versions on its own and swaps itself over only when nobody is watching a panel and the simulator is disconnected — an update can never cut into a flight. Do not download the installer again to update; Check for Updates in the icon menu asks the question right now, if you are curious.
The avionics module (MSFS 2024 only)
On Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 the bridge drops a small FSG-Bridge package into the simulator's Community folder — that is what lets the app turn the avionics knobs (FMS, map range, NAV/COM tuning, volumes). You never manage it: if the simulator was not installed yet, or a repair wipes the Community folder, the bridge puts the package back by itself.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 works without any module — its cockpit already exposes everything the knobs need, so on 2020 the bridge deliberately installs nothing into the Community folder. No FSG-Bridge folder there is not a fault.
Removing it
Open Settings → Apps, find FSG SimBridge and remove it the normal Windows way. It takes the FSG-Bridge package out of the MSFS 2024 Community folder on the way out, so the simulator is left exactly as it was.
Your saved PFD positions stay on the PC. Install the bridge again later and every aircraft you have already shown it stays calibrated.
Make your network work for you
The G1000 picture is easy on your network, but Wi-Fi shares airtime, not megabits — and the simulator itself downloads scenery over the same network while you fly. If the picture ever freezes or goes blurry, work down this list:
- Plug the PC into Ethernet. This is the real fix — it takes the simulator's scenery downloads off the air entirely.
- Keep the tablet on a different Wi-Fi band than the PC (e.g. tablet on 5 GHz, PC on 2.4 GHz — or better yet, PC on cable and tablet anywhere).
- Limit the simulator's bandwidth in its data options and enable the rolling cache.
When the link degrades anyway, the bridge is built to soften the picture rather than let it fall behind — you will see a “weak link” notice in the app's status bar, and what you see stays current, which is what matters on a flight instrument. Fixing the network is still on you, though — start with the cable.
Troubleshooting
The app can't find my PC
- Is the bridge running on the PC? Look for its icon next to the clock (under the ˄ arrow on Windows 11). If it is not there, start FSG SimBridge from the Start menu and watch the app — it rescans every ten seconds or so and will pick it up.
- Are both devices on the same network? A guest Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot on the tablet counts as a different network.
- On an iPad: was the local network permission declined the first time? Then the app searches for ever and finds nothing. Switch it on in Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network and open the app again.
- Did you ever answer No to a Windows permission window about the bridge? Then the firewall is in the way. See “I said No to a permission window” below — the bridge detects this on every start and offers to fix it.
- Not sure it's the firewall? Open http://localhost:5750 in a browser on the PC. That page always works locally — and if the firewall is blocking the bridge, it says so right there.
- Some routers isolate wireless clients from each other (“AP isolation”/“client isolation”). Either disable that, or use “Enter the address manually” with the PC's IP.
I said “No” to a permission window
There are two windows you can say No to, and they break the same thing in different ways:
- the admin window (UAC) during the install — the bridge never got its firewall rule;
- the Windows Firewall prompt the first time the bridge ran — Windows then silently adds blocking rules for the bridge. Blocking rules win over allowing ones, so the tablet cannot reach this PC even when everything looks correctly installed.
The fix is the same either way: restart the bridge (right-click its icon next to the clock → Exit, start it again from the Start menu). On every start the bridge inspects the firewall; when something is blocking it, it shows a warning on the PC and asks for permission to repair — answer Yes this time and it cleans up after the declined prompt by itself.
Said No to the repair prompt as well? The bridge stops asking — a permission window at every sign-in would be worse than the problem. The warning window stays, with a Fix firewall button: press it whenever you are ready and Windows asks for administrator rights once more. If that still does not help, the window then shows the exact command to run as administrator, ready to select and copy. Reinstalling the bridge and answering Yes works too.
You can also see the state for yourself: open http://localhost:5750 in a browser on the PC. If the firewall is blocking the bridge, the warning is printed right on that page.
The app says “Waiting for the simulator”
The bridge is fine — it just can't see the simulator. Start Microsoft Flight Simulator (2024 or 2020, whichever you fly) and load into a flight; the app connects as soon as the simulator answers.
I have Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 — does it work? The app asked for MSFS 2024
It works: FSG G1000 supports both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024, from Steam or the Microsoft Store alike. On MSFS 2020 everything — buttons and knobs — runs through the simulator's own cockpit controls, so the bridge does not even need its avionics module there.
If the app still says it needs MSFS 2024, you are looking at an older version: that message comes from app versions before 0.9.4 and older bridges. Update the app from the store and let the bridge update itself (or grab the latest installer above) — nothing else to change.
“Aircraft with G1000 loaded” stays on waiting, or the app says “This aircraft has no G1000”
The app works only with the Garmin G1000. Load an aircraft that flies the stock G1000 NXi — Cessna 172 G1000, Bonanza G36, DA62, DA42, DA40 NG or the Cirrus SR22T are all verified. In an airliner or a steam-gauge aircraft the app tells you so and waits for a G1000 aircraft; that's by design.
“FSG-Bridge package in Community folder” says “module not responding yet”
This concerns MSFS 2024 only — on MSFS 2020 there is no module and the app does not wait for one.
The simulator loads packages only at startup. If the bridge was installed while the simulator was running, restart it once.
Still not responding? The package may have been removed — repairing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 through the Xbox app is known to wipe the Community folder without asking. You do not have to reinstall anything: the bridge notices within a minute and puts the package back by itself. Then restart the simulator once, because it only loads packages while starting up.
Everything works, except the FMS knob, map range or volumes
The buttons travel one path, the avionics knobs another. On MSFS 2024 the knobs need the FSG-Bridge package in the simulator's Community folder — see the point above: restart the simulator, and give the bridge a minute to put the package back if it went missing.
On MSFS 2020 no package is involved — the knobs use the simulator's own cockpit controls. Make sure the bridge and the app are up to date (0.9.4 or newer), and that the aircraft flies the stock G1000.
The picture freezes or goes blurry in flight
Classic Wi-Fi congestion — it typically starts right when the flight begins, because that is when the simulator starts downloading scenery. Go through the network section: PC on cable first. If a “weak link” notice shows in the app, the bridge is already compensating; fix the network and it recovers on its own.
The panel window keeps appearing on my PC screen
A brief flash while the panel is created is normal. The bridge needs the simulator in the foreground to create the panel, briefly takes over the mouse to do it, then hides the window again. If the window stays visible, restart the bridge — it re-adopts the panel and tucks it away.
The panel pops out in the wrong place, or a wrong window opens
The remembered click spot no longer matches — usually after changing the cockpit camera view. The app will ask you to show it the PFD again: one right Alt + click on the centre of the PFD screen, and the new spot replaces the old one.
The MFD app says the bridge cannot serve it
The FSG SimBridge on your PC is older than the app. It updates itself within a few hours; to hurry it along, right-click its icon next to the clock and choose Check for Updates. The app reconnects once the bridge restarts.
The installer refuses to replace an existing installation
You are running the installer over a copy that is already on the PC — something you almost never need to do, because the bridge updates itself. If you do, two things have to be true first:
- Close the bridge. Right-click its icon next to the clock and choose Exit.
- Close any Explorer window showing the bridge's own folder. An open folder alone is enough to block the installer, even with the bridge already closed — including the folder the installer's own Open Install Directory button opens for you.
Then run the installer again and it goes through.