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How offline mode works

Barns don't have good Wi-Fi. OmniBurrow is built for that: after your first sync, the installed Mobile App keeps a complete copy of your rabbitry on your device, so you can work whether or not you have a signal. This page explains what that means and why your data is safe.

:::info Mobile-first True offline mode is a Mobile App capability — your phone holds the local database. The Web App works over a live connection. Both read and write the same account; they just reach it differently. :::

Your data lives on your device first​

The Mobile App stores everything — rabbits, litters, weights, health events, finances — in a fast on-device database. When you add a weight or log a litter in the barn:

  1. It's saved to your phone immediately, with no network needed.
  2. The change is added to an outbox — a queue of things waiting to reach the server.
  3. The next time you have a connection, the app drains the outbox and sends your changes up, and pulls down anything new from the server.

Because the write happens locally first, the app never makes you wait on a signal, and you don't lose work if you walk out of Wi-Fi range mid-task.

What "sync" actually does​

Sync runs in two directions:

  • Push: your queued local changes go up to the server.
  • Pull: changes made elsewhere (the Web App, or another device) come down to your phone.

It runs automatically when you have a connection, and can also run in the background so your devices stay close to up-to-date without you opening the app. If two devices each change something while offline, see Conflicts below.

What works offline, and what needs signal​

Once you have signed in and the first sync has finished, most record keeping works without a signal: rabbit and litter records, weights, health events and treatments, selling a rabbit or a kit (queued), tasks, Barn Scan, line views, pedigree PDFs, cage cards, program CSV import, and even predicting offspring: the pairing and COI calculations run on the phone.

These need a connection, by nature:

  • Signing in and the first sync. The phone needs something to copy before it can work alone.
  • Pedigree import from a PDF or photo, which uploads the document.
  • Merging duplicate rabbits, which re-points records across your whole account.
  • The marketplace and your storefront, the Willow assistant, and analytics dashboards.
  • Export, restore, and deletion, maintenance tools, and email preferences.
  • Multi-account transfers, which need both accounts online at once.
  • Sale receipt emails, which send when the sale reaches the server.
  • Genotype updates from new litters. Genotypes are worked out on the server. A litter you record offline sharpens its parents' genotypes after it syncs; until then, predictions use the genotypes already on the phone.

If your account access lapses, the phone keeps working on its copy but stops syncing in both directions; your edits wait on the device and upload once access is restored. The row-by-row list is the Feature Matrix.

See it for yourself​

A two-minute check that shows the whole cycle. Use a test rabbit if you prefer.

  1. With a connection, open the mobile app and let it finish syncing.
  2. Turn on airplane mode.
  3. Open a rabbit and log a weight (or a health event). It saves at once and shows on the rabbit's record.
  4. Open Sync Diagnostics: the change is listed as waiting to upload.
  5. Turn airplane mode off. The queue drains on its own within a few seconds.
  6. Open the same rabbit in the web app: the weight is there.

Conflicts (when two devices disagree)​

If the same record is edited in two places before they sync, OmniBurrow detects the collision rather than silently overwriting one side. Most fields merge automatically using a "last-write-wins" rule; sensitive fields are protected and surfaced to you to resolve. When that happens you'll get a notification and the record waits for your decision.

This is important enough to have its own guide: Conflict Resolution.

What you should know as a user​

  • Don't worry about losing barn data. It's saved on your device the instant you tap save.
  • Give it a moment to catch up. After you're back on Wi-Fi, sync runs automatically; a brand new record may take a few seconds to appear on your other devices.
  • If something looks out of date on the Web App, the phone may not have synced yet — open the app with a connection to let the outbox drain.
  • A flagged conflict isn't lost data: it's OmniBurrow asking which version you want to keep.

To see exactly what is still waiting to upload — how many changes are queued, what they are, and when the last sync ran — open Sync Diagnostics on the phone. An empty queue there means everything you did in the barn is on the server.

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