Does Trail work offline?

Yes, sites can still complete tasks with poor or no wifi

Tilly James avatar
Written by Tilly James
Updated over a week ago

Trail has been designed to allow you to complete key actions and continue with your day even without an internet connection.


How does it work?

  • Your device will display a message when you're offline

  • Any actions you take will be stored in the memory of your device's web browser.

  • Your device will show you how many changes it has stored in its memory.

  • When you reconnect, these changes will sync with the Trail servers. As changes are saved, you'll see the number of unsaved changes reduce.


What can I do offline?

  • View the Trail (list of tasks) for that day

  • Complete or flag a subtask

  • Enter data into a Trail Record Log

  • Leave a comment (text only)

  • Delete a comment you've made (as long as the task is open)

  • Mark a task as done

  • Snooze a task to tomorrow


What can't I do offline?

  • Access any of admin areas of the app: Activity Feed, Task Planner, Sites, Users Insights or Settings

  • Switch between areas of the app

  • Access a previous day that isn't saved to your device's memory

  • Add an ad-hoc task

  • Access the Search and History function

  • Change the filter applied to a Trail

  • Open a Typeform Form

  • Open an attachment on a task

  • Add an attachment to a comment (e.g. a photo)

  • Take a photo in Trail from the camera button

  • Add or delete an additional checklist item

  • Translate Trail content using Google Translate


Completing mandatory fields:

  • If a task is completed offline and a mandatory subtask or field in a record table is missed, the task will initially be marked as done.

  • When your device reconnects, this task will be automatically re-opened.


How long can I stay offline before reconnecting?

  • You'll need to be connected to the internet when you first load that day's Trail.

  • You'll need to reconnect at least once a day.

  • For the best experience, it's recommended to reconnect, even briefly, every few hours, we'll prompt you on every time slot boundary (usually a few times a day).

  • Trail is a live system for distributing information. Remaining offline for longer than a few hours risks showing out-of-date information.

  • To reconnect you just need to establish an internet connection. There are no manual steps beyond this and the amount of data required to save changes is very small.


Troubleshooting

What should I do if my changes won't save?

  • If your changes aren't syncing, check your internet connection

  • If you're definitely connected to the internet refresh the page using your browser's refresh button


What should I do if I'm online, but can't connect to Trail?


What devices are supported?

  • Devices running the latest versions of Google Chrome and Safari are fully supported.

  • Devices running the most recent version of Firefox, Microsoft Edge and other similar browsers may work offline but are not officially supported by Trail.

  • Devices running Internet Explorer are not supported.

  • If your device is not supported you will be presented with an error message when offline and will be unable to complete most actions.

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