Scanning while offline

At a busy door, Wi-Fi or cellular coverage can drop. Offline Mode lets you keep scanning tickets without making guests wait, and every check-in is saved — nothing is lost.

Core principles

• When the scanner cannot deliver a check-in to the server, that check-in is stored locally on the device (on the browser, not a flimsy cache). Check-outs and manual lookups queue the same way — every door action survives an outage.
• The result screen shows the same green guest card as online — name, tier badge, party chips — marked with an amber Offline badge and a “queued locally” note.
• When connectivity returns, the system auto-syncs every queued item in correct time order.
• You do not need to press anything — just keep scanning.

Note

Each queued check-in carries an accurate timestamp from the moment it was scanned. When it syncs to the server, the ordering matches exactly when you scanned it — regardless of when the network recovers.

When does the scanner go offline?

Not every error pushes you into the offline queue. The system distinguishes two groups:

Error type	Examples	Handling
Transient server error	No response from server, server restarting or overloaded	Goes to the offline queue (amber)
Input / invalid-ticket error	Session expired, forbidden, invalid ticket	Shown immediately, never queued

Tip

Why: input errors are “stable” — if you stored them and retried, the result would be identical and you would loop forever. Skipping the queue for these errors lets you see the problem right away (expired ticket, expired login) and handle it on the spot.

Workflow for door staff

1. Keep scanning as usual

   When the network drops, keep using the camera or manual entry. You do not need to switch modes — the app detects the outage and queues locally.

2. Watch the result screen

   • Successful scan while offline: the normal green guest card with an amber Offline badge and a “queued locally” note. The guest may still enter.
   • If the error is an input or invalid-ticket error (expired ticket, wrong event…): a red error screen appears immediately, nothing is queued.

3. Reassure the guest and admit them

   Tell the guest: “Your ticket scanned successfully — it’s syncing.” The check-in is safely on the device and will be sent up when the network returns.

4. Network returns — sync is automatic

   When connectivity is restored, the app sends every queued item to the server in time order. You do not need to tap “sync” manually — even if the page slept through the reconnect (screen locked, tab switched), the scanner re-checks connectivity the moment it wakes and resumes.

5. Verify

   The camera view carries the connection status at its top corner (green when online, red when offline). A backlog of more than one pending scan adds an amber warning badge beside it — tap it for the pending count and a short sync explanation. One in-flight scan is the normal beat and stays quiet; when the badge disappears, the queue has drained.

When two scans collide (sync conflict)

A rare situation: the same ticket is scanned in two places at once while offline — for example two doors, or two devices both offline. When both devices reconnect and send their check-ins up, the system detects the overlap and resolves it automatically:

• The earlier check-in is recorded normally (the guest was admitted).
• The later check-in is flagged as a conflict and appears in the sync report, with both the server time and the device time so you can compare.

Conflicts and items that repeatedly fail to sync are also listed on the scanner itself, in the Sync issues sheet, where staff can retry or dismiss each item.

Tip

In short: nothing is lost, and no one is counted as checked in twice. The system always keeps the first check-in and only marks the later one as a conflict so you know a duplicate happened.

Note

Each queued check-in syncs independently — if one item conflicts or fails, the others still go through normally and do not affect each other.

What should I do when I see a conflict? Usually nothing. A conflict simply means that ticket was already scanned successfully at another door or on another device. If you suspect a guest entered twice, you can check the CMS dashboard — there each ticket shows only one official check-in.

Note

Replays are re-validated against the event’s live check-in window and schedule when they reach the server: a scan queued before the window closed but replayed after it is kept in the sync report as a blocked item rather than recorded as an admission, so the gates hold even during an outage.

Offline manual lookup

The “No Ticket” search works offline too. The device keeps a cached guest roster for the event (refreshed automatically while online), so you can search by name or email and check a guest in without any connection — the result card renders from the roster with the tier badge and party info, and the check-in queues like any other offline scan.

Related scan states

While offline you mainly see these two states. See the full table at Scan states.

• Queued locally (offline) (amber) — the scanner is offline, the check-in has been cached to sync later. Reassure the guest; the system will send it.
• Network error (red) — a transient network failure, the server could not be reached. Retry; if it keeps failing, subsequent scans fall back to the offline queue automatically.

Frequently asked questions

If the device loses power / the phone dies, do queued check-ins survive? Yes. They live on the device’s browser, which is independent of volatile memory. When you reopen the browser (same device, same profile), the queued items are still there and will sync once online.

A guest scanned fine but I do not see them in the CMS dashboard? Correct — while the scanner is offline, the dashboard only shows data that has reached the server. Once the network is back and Pending hits 0, the entries appear in the CMS.

Do I need to tap “Sync” manually? No. Syncing is fully automatic when connectivity returns. Just keep doing your job at the door.

Does a “session expired” error get queued? No. That is an input error and is shown immediately. You need to log in again before continuing.

I see a “sync conflict” — is that a problem? No. It just means that ticket was already scanned successfully at another door or on another device. The system kept the first check-in and marked the later one as a conflict for your awareness — no data is lost, and the guest is not counted twice.

Where to next

Scanning a guestThe full scanning flow and every result you can see.

Scanner loginSign in with credentials or a login QR code, then pick event and door.

Scan states referenceThe full reference of all 14 states with colors and actions.