Working offline and syncing
Properties don’t always have reliable signal, so the capture app is offline-first: day-to-day capture works with no connection, and data syncs automatically once you’re back online.
What it is
Once you’ve signed in for the first time, the app stores your work on the device as you go. Readings, photos, notes, module assessments and sign-off all work with no signal — nothing is lost if the app closes or the device loses power. When a connection returns, completed evidence syncs to the management portal in the background.
Before you start
Your first sign-in on a device needs a connection. After that, day-to-day capture is offline-capable.
How to do it
- Open your job as normal — no connection is required to view an already-synced job or to continue working on a draft.
- Work through the survey’s modules, add photos and readings, and save as you go. Everything is written to the device immediately.
- Where a lookup can’t run offline — weather, soil or EPC auto-fill — enter the value manually; it’s recorded as manually entered rather than blocked.
- When you’re ready to finalise, make sure you have a connection: sealing a record is a server-authoritative action, not a queued write. If you tap Finalise with no connection, your work stays safely on the device — reconnect and tap it again to seal.
- Once sealed, the record syncs to the portal’s Evidence area automatically.
How it integrates
- On-device calculations — psychrometrics, HHSRS scoring, condensation and ventilation checks — run on the device with no server round-trip, so they’re available offline too.
- Sealing is computed twice. The SHA-256 hash and chain link are computed on-device by the same logic the server uses, then re-verified by the server on upload — so a record is already tamper-evident before it syncs, and nothing is trusted blindly on arrival.
- Photos are hashed and fingerprinted locally with their EXIF timestamp, and uploaded when connectivity allows; the hash anchors each image to its record regardless of when the upload completes.
- Because capture doesn’t depend on the backend, an outage elsewhere in the platform never stops a surveyor collecting evidence on-site.
Common problems
- A photo shows as pending. It’s captured and hashed on the device but hasn’t uploaded yet — it will upload automatically once you have a connection; it is not lost.
- Finalise doesn’t seem to do anything. Check your connection — finalising needs one. Your entered data is unaffected either way.
- A lookup field is blank. Weather, soil and EPC auto-fill need a connection; enter the value directly and continue.