Capturing offline
Capture works without a connection. A museum basement, a car on a back road, a house with the internet down. Save as normal, and the app holds the capture on your device until it can send it.
What you’ll see
Instead of the usual confirmation you’ll get Saved offline. We’ll sync it when you’re back online. The capture is written to your device and queued. There’s nothing to do next, and nothing to remember to press later.
When the connection returns the queue is sent on its own. Your records then update the way they would have at the time.
Why records look unchanged until it syncs
Attendance, hours, and averages are worked out from what has reached your account. A capture still sitting in the queue hasn’t arrived yet, so a day recorded offline this morning may not appear in Records until the sync goes through. Nothing has been lost in the meantime.
Sending the same thing twice
You can’t, by design. Each queued capture carries its own identifier, and the server uses it to recognise a capture it has already stored. If a sync is interrupted halfway and retries, the retry is matched to the original rather than filed as a second copy. A flaky connection costs you nothing but time.
“Captures need attention”
Occasionally a queued capture can’t be filed once it reaches the server, usually because the thing it belonged to has changed underneath it. A subject deleted while you were offline is the common one. The app says how many are affected and why, and holds them on the device rather than discarding them quietly.
You can clear unsynced captures deliberately from the same screen. That one is permanent, so it’s worth reading the reason first.
What needs a connection
Generating a PDF, exporting your data, and account changes like billing all happen on our servers, so they need you online. Recording the year is the part built to work regardless, because that’s the part with a deadline of today.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose a capture if I close the app before it syncs? No. An offline capture is written to your device and queued there, so closing the app, locking the phone or losing the connection entirely does not discard it. It sends itself when you are back online.
Can a retry save the same capture twice? No. Each queued capture carries its own identifier and the server matches a retry to the original rather than filing a second copy, so an interrupted sync costs you time and nothing else.
Can I export a PDF while offline? No. Documents are built on our servers, so exports, data downloads and billing all need a connection. Recording the year is the part built to work without one.
Where to go next
Exporting records covers the parts that do need a connection.