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How Syncing and Offline Mode Work

SmartLobby kiosks are now online-first: a sign-in is written to the server as it happens, and the device keeps a local copy so it can carry on working if the connection drops. Previously the device wrote locally first and synced afterwards.

For a working site nothing changes — you should not notice this at all. It matters in two situations: when the network goes down, and when you want to know whether it has.

Where a sign-in goes, online and offline When the connection is working, a sign-in is written straight to the server and appears immediately in the dashboard and Roll Call. When the connection is down, the sign-in is queued on the device and sent as soon as the connection returns; nothing is lost, but the dashboard cannot see it until then. CONNECTION WORKING Visitor signs in Server Dashboard & Roll Call on the kiosk written as it happens see it immediately CONNECTION DOWN Visitor signs in Queued on device Dashboard & Roll Call still works never dropped cannot see it yet When the connection returns, the queue is sent and everything appears During an outage a roll-call list taken from the dashboard can be incomplete — check the kiosk too.

When the connection is fine

Visitor sign-ins, sign-outs and searches go straight to the server, so the admin dashboard, the Roll Call page and other devices at the same location see them immediately rather than after a sync delay.

Devices check for configuration changes about every 2 minutes, so a settings change you make in the dashboard reaches your kiosks within roughly that window without anyone touching the tablet.

When the connection drops

The kiosk keeps working. Visitors can still sign in and out, and the device serves what it needs from its local copy.

While offline:

  • Sign-ins are never lost. They queue on the device and are sent as soon as the connection is back. If the same visitor signs in and then out while offline, only their final state is sent.
  • Visitors are still recognised by name from recently seen people, so returning visitors do not have to re-enter everything.
  • Profile photos show a placeholder. Photos are served from our servers rather than stored on the device, so during an outage every person shows a generic avatar. Recognition is by name.
  • A freshly taken photo is kept on the device until it has been safely sent, so a photo taken during an outage is not lost.

If the device has been unable to reach the server for 3 days, it raises a prominent "offline too long" alert so staff know to fix the connection. Queued sign-ins are still never dropped — the alert is there because a site running blind for that long is a problem in itself.

Knowing whether a device is online

The kiosk shows its own online/offline indicator, but the catch with any device-side indicator is that a tablet which has quietly lost its network cannot tell anyone — there is nobody standing in front of it at 3pm on a Tuesday.

That is why the admin dashboard shows it too, from the server's side: see Device Online / Offline Status. Both the Home page and Device Settings show each kiosk as Online, Offline or "No signal yet", with how long ago it was last heard from.

Other signs a device has dropped off:

  • Sign-ins stop appearing on the Roll Call page for that location while people are clearly arriving.
  • The device shows the "offline too long" alert.

This matters most for Roll Call and evacuation. If a device has been offline, the people it signed in are on the device and not yet on the server, so a roll-call list taken from the dashboard during an outage can be incomplete. Check the kiosk itself as well during a drill or a real evacuation.

Good to know

The device keeps its local copy deliberately bounded, so it does not grow forever on a tablet: closed visits are dropped after 6 days, and people not seen for 90 days are dropped from the local recognition cache. Everything remains on the server — this only affects what the device holds for offline use.

Updated On August 17, 2026