> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://anki.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Anki must be able to connect to a local port

When Anki 2.1 starts up, it listens on a port on localhost for requests from the user interface. If you have a proxy server configured on your machine, please go into your proxy settings and make sure that "bypass proxy server for local addresses" is enabled - otherwise Anki's user interface will have its local communication redirected through the proxy, which will prevent Anki from functioning.

More info: [https://superuser.com/a/261434](https://superuser.com/a/261434)

This problem may also occur if you have a firewall running on your machine that blocks local connections, or are using a VPN that is incorrectly redirecting local traffic.