Working without signal, and Site Mode

Building sites are not known for their signal. Rectify is built to keep working when the bars drop: everything you’ve already loaded stays on your phone, and Site Mode lets you keep logging new work and upload it when you’re back online.

When the signal drops

Rectify keeps the projects and snags you’ve loaded on your phone, along with the photos you’ve opened. If you open the app with no signal, they’re there straight away.

When Rectify can’t check for changes, a line across the top of the app says so: Offline · Updated and the time your projects were last brought up to date. Tap Retry to try again. Once you have signal, the line goes away by itself. While it’s showing, what you see is what Rectify had at that time: changes other people have made since won’t appear until you’re back online.

A photo you haven’t opened before shows a placeholder instead, and fills in once you have signal.

Activity, Reports and Search come live from the server, so without signal they show Needs a Connection, with Try Again. Your projects and snags are still on the Projects tab.

Site Mode

Without signal, saving a change normally fails, and Rectify tells you nothing was saved. Site Mode changes that. With it on, new work is saved on your phone instead, and uploaded when you choose.

What it saves:

• New projects, with a cover photo.
• New snags, in a new project or one you already have, with their photos, assignees, due date and Extra.
• Responses to snags already on the server: a note, photos and a status change.

Owners and members can save all three. Assignees can save responses, which is what they do on site.

Turning it on. Go to Settings › Site Mode. It stays on until you turn it off, even if you close the app. You’ll also be offered it in two places:

• When something fails to save for lack of signal, the No Signal message offers Save in Site Mode. That turns Site Mode on and keeps what you’d typed, photos included.
• The Offline line at the top of the app has a Site Mode button beside Retry.

While Site Mode is on

A blue line across the top of the app says Site Mode and how much is saved, for example Site Mode · 1 project, 4 snags saved. With nothing saved yet it says Site Mode is on.

Anything saved on your phone is marked Not uploaded. On a snag, that badge takes the place of its status, since a new snag always starts as Open. A snag that isn’t uploaded yet says Saved on this phone, not uploaded yet at the top. A project that’s already uploaded but holds new snags says how many on its card on the Projects screen, for example 3 not uploaded.

A response that’s waiting appears at the top of the snag’s updates, marked Not uploaded. If it changes the status, it says which status it will move to. The snag’s own status doesn’t change until the response is uploaded.

Changing something before it’s uploaded. You can edit or delete anything saved on your phone, just as you would once it’s uploaded. For a waiting response, use Edit Draft or Delete Draft from its menu.

Some things still need signal, even in Site Mode: changing the status of a snag from its menu, editing or deleting a snag that’s already uploaded, and asking for an extension. You also can’t invite someone new while saving to your phone, but you can assign anyone who’s already on the team.

Uploading

Nothing uploads by itself. When you have signal, tap Upload on the blue line, or turn Site Mode off in Settings. Either way you’ll see what’s Ready to upload, then:

• Upload Now sends everything. You can leave the app: the upload carries on, with its progress on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, where you can also cancel it.
• Not Now leaves everything on your phone for later.

When it’s done you’ll see All uploaded. Anyone you assigned is told, just as if you’d logged the snag with signal, and the work is dated from when it uploaded.

Turning Site Mode off doesn’t upload anything or lose anything. If you’re still without signal, your work stays on your phone and the blue line says how much is not uploaded until you send it.

If something doesn’t upload

The signal drops part-way. You’ll see Signal dropped part-way. Everything that went is uploaded; the rest stays on your phone. Upload again when you have signal: nothing is sent twice.

A response’s status change no longer fits. If someone else changed the snag’s status while you were offline, so your change would now move it backwards (for example, a manager closed it and your response says Resolved), your note and photos are still sent, without the status change. You’ll see Uploaded, with changes, with a line saying which snag and why.

Something is refused. For example, a new project when your plan’s project limit has been reached, or a response to a snag you’ve since been unassigned from. It stays on your phone, marked Couldn’t upload, with the reason. Edit it and upload again, or delete it. A response to a snag that’s no longer available to you is listed on the upload screen, where you can delete it.

Signing out

Signing out deletes everything from your phone, including anything not yet uploaded. If you have work waiting, Rectify asks first: Delete drafts and sign out? Upload it before you sign out if you want to keep it.