When the app can't reach the office

Two problems that look alike

"The app can't connect" can mean two quite different things, and the screen shows you which one it is. If you've lost signal, that's normal and you don't need to do anything. Anything else is an error, and you'll see a screen with two buttons.

No signal: the offline strip

When the phone has no usable connection, a strip appears at the bottom of the list:

You're offline. Viewing cached data.

At the same time, the refresh button at the top right changes to an offline symbol. If you tap it, you get an alert headed Offline that says "You're currently offline. Please check your internet connection." instead of a refresh that never finishes.

Nothing has gone wrong and nothing is lost. The app has stopped trying to refresh, because it would fail. It's showing you the jobs from the last time it refreshed successfully.

What still works

• Reading the board. Every job the phone had when it last connected is still there, on all three tabs.
• Opening a job. The whole job screen (the request, the customer, the site, the notes and the list of files) comes from what's already on the phone.
• Searching. The search box works on the jobs you already have, so if someone reads you a reference over the phone, you can still find the job.
• Ringing the customer, and getting directions to the site. Both use the phone's own apps, which don't need WorkOrders.

What doesn't

Anything that changes a job: claiming it, marking it ongoing, completing it, or adding a photo. If you try, you get No connection: "You're offline. Check your connection and try again." Nothing is saved up to send later, and the app never shows a job as moved when it hasn't. What you typed stays on the screen, so when you're back in range, just press the button again.

Make sure new technicians know this. If you complete a job at the bottom of a driveway with no signal, it isn't completed until you press the button again somewhere with signal. The screen tells you this at the time.

Coming back into range

You don't have to do anything. When the connection comes back, the app refreshes straight away and the strip disappears. If you don't want to wait, pull the list down.

While the app is open on your screen, it also refreshes about once a minute. If it's WorkOrders that can't be reached, not your signal, the app waits a bit longer between each try. So after a long outage, the list may take a little longer than you expect to update. Pulling the list down always refreshes straight away.

The error screen, and its two buttons

When something goes wrong that isn't a connection problem, the list is replaced by a screen with a warning symbol, the error message, and two buttons. Read the message before you press either one. If the server gave a specific reason, that's what you'll see.

"Try again"

Press this first. It's almost always the right one. It loads the list again. A brief server problem, or an update going out at our end, will usually clear on the second try.

"Sign out and set up again"

This one does more than it looks. It removes your sign-in from the phone, so you'll need a new code from the office to get back in. See signing in on your phone.

Press it when the message is about your sign-in rather than a job. The usual message is "Your session has expired. Please set up your account again." Also press it if Try again has failed several times while other apps on your phone are working fine. You'll also see this if someone has signed in as you on another phone, because signing in on a second phone signs the first one out.

Signing out never loses any work. Everything you've already sent is saved on the job. Only the phone forgets.

When to ring the office

Ring the office when the message is about something they can sort out, like a job that has moved on, a job that isn't yours, or a code that won't work. Those are all covered in other articles in this section, and signing out won't fix any of them. Start with taking a job and updating a job from the van.