Offline mode

Members keep reading when the connection drops. The app saves what it loads on the phone, shows that saved copy when your site can’t be reached, and goes back to live content the moment the site answers again.

Before you start

Nothing to install. Offline mode is part of every app on every plan, and it is on by default from your next build. Apps built before it existed get it when you build again.

Update the plugin for cheaper refreshes

With Memberside plugin 2.99.0 or later on your site, a screen that has not changed since the member last loaded it comes back as a few hundred bytes instead of the whole screen. Older plugin versions still work; they send the full answer every time. See Plugin releases for how updates reach your site.

Turn it on or off

1. Open Settings in the builder header.
2. Open the General tab.
3. Switch Offline mode on or off.
4. Press Save.
5. Build the app.

Like everything compiled into the app, the change reaches a phone with the next build. Switching it off also deletes anything an earlier build saved, the first time the new build opens.

Settings

Setting	What it does	Default
Offline mode (Settings → General)	Saves what members load and shows it when your site can’t be reached	On

There is nothing to configure per screen. Every native screen takes part.

What is saved

Every screen’s content, as it was the last time the member opened it, and the images on it. That covers the feed, the directory, profiles, notifications, groups, forums, events, courses, products and every other native screen.

The News Feed, Directory, Profile and Notifications screens show the saved copy immediately when they open, then replace it with live content a moment later. Online, every other screen loads exactly as it did before.

The app keeps up to 25 MB of content and 150 MB of images on each phone. Each time it opens, it drops the oldest saved content over those limits. A single answer over 2 MB, or an image over 5 MB, is not kept.

What is not saved

• Anything a member sends. Posting, commenting, reacting, sending a message, editing a profile and paying all need a connection. Offline, they fail as they always have, with the screen’s own error.
• Sign-in, registration and passwords. These are never written to the phone.
• Checkout and in-app purchases.
• Web screens. A screen that shows a page from your site in a web view shows nothing offline.
• Anything not opened before. A profile, a search or a further page of a list that the member never loaded has no saved copy, and shows the screen’s usual error.

What your members see

When the app can’t reach your site, a strip appears under the clock:

• You’re offline · showing what you last loaded 2h ago when the phone has no connection.
• Can’t reach the site right now · showing what you last loaded 2h ago when the phone is online but your site does not answer, or answers with a server error (502, 503 or 504).

The time is the age of the oldest saved content on screen. The strip has a Retry button. The app also checks every 15 seconds, and whenever the member returns to it. When your site answers, the strip reads Back online for two seconds, and the feed, directory and notifications reload.

The strip pushes the app down rather than covering it, so nothing underneath is hidden.

To see it before you build, set the preview toolbar’s connection menu to Offline. See Preview your app.

Check it on a phone

1. Install the new build.
2. Sign in and open the feed, the directory and a profile.
3. Switch on airplane mode.
4. Close the app and open it again.
5. Confirm the strip reads You’re offline and the screens you opened still show their content.
6. Switch off airplane mode.
7. Tap Retry, and confirm the strip reads Back online and goes away.

A screen you did not open in step 2 shows its usual error in step 5. That is expected: there is no saved copy of it yet.

Privacy

Saved content stays in the app’s private storage on the phone. It is never shared with another app or another member.

• Signing out deletes everything the app saved.
• A change of role or membership level deletes the saved content, so a member who loses access does not keep reading a copy from before.
• Requesting account deletion in the app deletes it straight away.

Saved content never leaves the phone, so it is not data your app collects for the purposes of Apple’s App Privacy answers or Google Play’s Data safety form.

If your community should not keep any member content on phones, switch Offline mode off.

When it doesn’t work

Symptom	Cause	Fix
No strip appears with the phone offline	The app was built before Offline mode existed, or with it switched off	Check Settings → General → Offline mode, then build
A screen shows an error offline	The member never opened that screen, or that page of it, while online	Open it once online
A web screen is blank offline	Web screens are not saved	Use the native screen for that feature where there is one
The strip says Can’t reach the site while other apps work	Your site is down or answering with a server error	Check your site; the app recovers on its own
Old content shows after a role change	The member’s app has not talked to the site since the change	It clears on the next answer from the site; pull to refresh
The preview has no Offline option	Offline mode is switched off	Switch it on in Settings → General