Offline check-ins

No signal? You can still check in. CageCheck keeps your check-in on your phone and sends it by itself when you're back online with CageCheck open. It counts from when you made it, not from when it arrives.

Before you lose signal

Offline check-ins work on a phone where you already use CageCheck. Open CageCheck there with a connection now and then while you're locked: each time, it keeps what it needs to check in without one (your lock, whether your next check-in needs a photo, and a code for that photo). They work best in the installed app: see Install the app and turn on notifications.

Check in with no signal

Open CageCheck as usual. With no connection, you see You're offline, Riley: your time locked, when your next check-in is due, and Check in. CageCheck keeps trying to reconnect (Try again checks straight away), and the whole app comes back as soon as it can.

1. Tap Check in.
2. If the check-in needs a photo, the Photo check-in card says Required. Tap 📷 Take photo, take it with the in-app camera, then tap Use photo.
3. Pick a mood and add a note if you like (up to 500 characters).
4. Tap ✓ Still locked: save it to send.

Saved on this phone shows the time it counts from: tap Done. If your check-in was already due, the form tells you this one will be marked late.

If the signal drops while CageCheck is open

A bar says "No connection. Check-ins still work": tap check in in it. If you were already checking in, the check-in page offers 📲 Save it to send when online instead, and keeps the photo you just took with the in-app camera.

Waiting to send

Saved check-ins are listed under Waiting to send on Home, with the time each was taken. To take one back, tap Delete, then Delete again.

They're sent by themselves, oldest first, as soon as CageCheck is open with a connection again (if you closed the app, just open it). You'll see, for example, "Your check-in from 9:02 AM was sent." If one is still waiting while you're online, tap Send now.

• Photo check-ins off: up to 6 check-ins can wait.
• Photo check-ins on: one at a time, because whether the next one needs a photo is only known online.
• Each check-in must reach CageCheck within 48 hours of being taken. One still on your phone after that is deleted, and Home tells you.

Keep CageCheck on your phone until they're sent. Signing out doesn't delete them: they're sent when you sign back in on that phone. If your phone can't store a check-in (in some private browsing modes), CageCheck says so: keep the app open until it's sent, or it's lost.

It counts from when you made it

When it arrives, your check-in is added at the time you made it (for a photo check-in, the time you took the photo):

• It's on time if you made it before it was due, however late it arrives. Made after it was due, it's Late.
• Your next check-in is due one interval after it, as usual.
• If a missed check-in was counted while it waited, but you'd checked in in time, the miss is taken off: "The missed check-in it covers no longer counts."
• It shows 📶 Taken offline on Home and in your History.
• In Trick or Treat, it counts for the day you made it. If the Ghost came for that day meanwhile, you get your lantern and room back.

The time comes from your phone's clock, which CageCheck corrects if it's wrong. If the clock is changed while a check-in waits, CageCheck uses the later time, and your keyholder sees that. Keep your phone's clock set automatically.

Photos taken offline

Every check-in photo gets a one-time code, so an old photo can't be passed off as new. With no signal your phone can't ask for one, so while photo check-ins are on, CageCheck gives your phone a code in advance whenever it's open with a connection. That code works for one photo, lasts 48 hours, and is renewed by itself while you're online.

• Use the in-app camera: photos from your library can't be used offline.
• When it's sent, the photo is stamped as usual, with the time you took it and OFFLINE.
• If you've been offline so long that the code has run out, a check-in that needs a photo has to wait until you're back online.

What needs a connection

• Any check-in, if your keyholder doesn't accept check-ins taken offline. CageCheck tells you so instead of offering Check in.
• Video check-ins, and proving a dare.
• Locking back up after a timed release.
• Everything else in the app, like messages, the feed and requests to your keyholder.

If one can't be added

A check-in that waited isn't added when it's no longer needed or can't count: for example, you've checked in since (online or on another phone), your lock ended or a timed release started before it arrived, your keyholder doesn't accept check-ins taken offline, a photo it needs is missing or its code had run out, or your phone's clock is more than a day out. Home says why, for example "Your check-in from 9:02 AM wasn't added: you've checked in since this one was taken, so it isn't needed." Tap Dismiss to clear it.

For keyholders

Check-ins taken offline are accepted unless you switch them off. When one arrives:

• You're told, for example "Riley checked in (taken offline)", with "Taken at 9:02 AM, sent 2 hours later (no signal)." If it covers a missed check-in you heard about, the alert adds "The missed check-in it covers no longer counts."
• Under Check-ins this lock on their page, it's listed at the time it was taken, marked 📶 Offline · sent 2 hours later. ⚠ Clock changed means their phone's clock was changed while it waited, so CageCheck used the later time.
• A photo taken offline says when it was taken and sent. Review it as usual: see Review check-in photos.

Family members who are told about Riley's check-ins (Sam, for example) see the same.

To stop accepting them, open their page and switch off Check-ins taken offline, under Minimum check-ins (after Photo check-ins while they aren't locked). It then says "Not accepted: Riley has to be online to check in." They're told, and check-ins already waiting on their phone won't be added. Switching it off needs the Check-in schedule power (see Powers for keyholders). You can switch it back on any time, and they're told again.