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How does the mobile app work offline?

Learn what stays available without signal, which actions are saved on your phone, and how to confirm that pending work has synced.

Clean Smarts keeps a downloaded copy of key work data on your phone. If you lose Wi-Fi or cellular service, you can keep using supported features and sync the saved work after you reconnect.

Applies to: Mobile app users working in basements, rural sites, and other low-signal areas. Offline clock in and clock out depend on company and location policy.

Before You Go Offline

  1. Sign in while you have internet access. Signing in with your email and password requires a connection.
  2. Open MORE > Sync, then tap Sync before going to a low-signal site. This refreshes the schedules, locations, checklists, and other server data stored on the phone.
  3. Stay signed in. Do not clear the app's storage or reinstall it while you have pending work.
  4. Allow the phone permissions your work requires, such as Precise Location, camera, and notifications.

The app can only show information that reached the phone during a previous sync. New assignments, checklist changes, messages, and location updates made while you are disconnected will not appear until the phone reconnects.

Check Whether the App Is Online

The dot on your profile picture at the top of HOME is:

  • Green when the app can reach Clean Smarts
  • Red when it cannot

For a written status, open MORE > My Profile and look at Connection Status. It shows Online or Offline.

Your phone can show Wi-Fi or cellular bars while Clean Smarts still shows Offline. This can happen when the network has no working internet connection or cannot reach the Clean Smarts server.

What You Can View Offline

Previously synced information can include:

  • Assigned locations, scheduled shifts, inspections, and work orders
  • Location and checklist information, including tasks and sublocations
  • Existing issue and supply lists
  • Previously downloaded users, message groups, and messages
  • Your current check-in and company settings

Some details are intentionally not downloaded. For example, an existing issue or inspection may appear in a list while its server-hosted photos, videos, or full details remain unavailable offline.

What You Can Save Offline

Supported work is saved on the phone first and uploaded after the app reconnects. Depending on your permissions, this includes:

  • Clocking in and out when offline punches are allowed
  • Completing checklist tasks, running task timers, and taking required task photos
  • Scanning barcode scan points
  • Creating or updating issues, including locally captured media
  • Completing inspections with scores, notes, signatures, and locally captured media
  • Creating a work order when your role includes that option

The app may show SAVED OFFLINE, Successfully saved data offline, or Changes saved offline. They will sync when you're back online. A confirmation like this—or the matching record on the pending-items screen—shows that the action was stored.

Photos and other media may upload separately from the main issue, inspection, checklist task, or work order. A record can finish syncing while one or more attachments are still uploading or waiting for a retry.

Offline Clock-In and Clock-Out Rules

Offline mode does not bypass timekeeping rules. Your phone must still satisfy any required location permission, precise GPS, geofence, shift-time, barcode, or NFC checks.

Your company sets Allow offline clock in/out under its timekeeping policies. A location can follow the company setting, allow offline punches, or block them.

If offline punches are blocked, the app shows:

  • Unable to check in offline due to company policy or location policy
  • Unable to check out offline due to company policy or location policy

These messages mean no offline punch was saved. Reconnect and complete the punch as soon as possible, then tell your supervisor if the missing time could affect payroll.

GPS and internet access are different. A phone can often calculate its location without internet, but Location Services, Precise Location, and the site's geofence rules still apply.

How Pending Work Syncs

When the phone reconnects, Clean Smarts automatically attempts to send queued records, checklist changes, and media. Keep the app open until the pending count clears, especially for time entries and other critical records.

If HOME shows You have number items to sync:

  1. Tap the banner.
  2. Review the categories on the Sync screen. Pending records can appear under Checkins, Inspections, Issues, Scan points, Task images, or Jobs.
  3. Tap Sync all items.
  4. Wait for the banner to disappear.

You can also open a category, tap the menu on an individual record, and choose Update item to retry it.

Warning: Remove item deletes the phone's unsynced copy and cannot be undone. Do not remove a check-in, inspection, issue, photo, or work order unless you are certain it is no longer needed.

MORE > Sync has a different purpose: it refreshes the server data downloaded to your phone when schedules or other information look stale. Use the You have items to sync banner and Sync all items to manage queued work.

What Still Needs Internet

Do not rely on offline mode for:

  • Signing in after you have logged out
  • Receiving changes made after your last successful sync
  • Sending messages or creating message groups
  • Creating supply requests or loading full supply-request details
  • Opening server-hosted photos, videos, files, or details that were not already downloaded
  • Receiving live alerts and updates from other users

Previously downloaded content may still be visible. If an action fails without an offline-save confirmation or a pending item, do not assume it was queued.

Troubleshooting

The app says Offline even though my phone has signal

  1. Open MORE > My Profile and check Connection Status.
  2. Try another network: switch between Wi-Fi and cellular data.
  3. Complete any Wi-Fi sign-in page, then reopen Clean Smarts.
  4. Update Clean Smarts from the app store if the status keeps switching between Online and Offline.

My pending items are not disappearing

  1. Confirm Connection Status says Online.
  2. Keep the app open, tap the You have items to sync banner, and choose Sync all items.
  3. Open a category to look for a failed item and its last sync attempt.
  4. Use Update item to retry one record. Do not use Remove item as a troubleshooting step.
  5. For an incomplete inspection-media upload, use the upload status and Retry option when shown.

The app will not let me start another check-in

When you reconnect, Clean Smarts may require earlier offline work to sync before starting a new check-in. If you see You have unsynced time stored offline, return to HOME, open the pending-items banner, and sync first.

I am not sure whether a punch saved

  • A company-policy or location-policy error means the punch did not save.
  • A pending Checkins item means the phone has a punch waiting to upload.
  • After syncing, ask a manager to verify the time entry in web Time Detail before anyone creates a replacement.

Avoid repeating a punch while it is still pending. That can make the time record harder to review.

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