Most surveyors work in environments with intermittent internet signals - such as lift shafts or rural areas. Because of this, offline working is a must.

Pros and Cons of Working Offline

The main advantage of working offline is that you can continue collecting data. The main disadvantage is that you may end up working offline for a long period of time, and need to be sure your data is safe.

Advantages of Working Offline

Cost Savings

You can use a phone or tablet without a data plan and only upload data when you have a wireless connection, which can save you money in data transfer fees.

Working in Secure Areas

There are environments where it may be a requirement that you don't connect to the Internet, such as nuclear sites, defence sites, or prisons. In these cases, working offline is the only option.

Improved Battery Life

Your mobile device won't need to work as hard when working offline since it won't have to upload any power-hungry images. If you put your phone into Airplane Mode, it won't constantly search for an internet signal either, which will save battery, too!

Learn more about extending your battery life during a survey

Considerations

Here are some general considerations before working offline using your surveying app.

• Login and authenticate your user
  You won't be able to authenticate your user while offline. So, ensure you are logged in before going to the site. Also, if you have multiple companies, ensure you're logged into the right one.
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• Load your jobs
  Ensure you've loaded any jobs before you go on-site. Although don't worry too much if you forget this, you can always create a draft job.
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• Load any historical data
  If you need to reference any old historical data, for example, old jobs or floorplans, ensure you pre-load this data onto the mobile app and you can access it.

Learn more about offline working considerations

Precautions

Here are potential risks to working offline for an extended period.

• Dropping or losing your mobile device
  If you're expecting to work offline for an extended period, consider your survey report an 'unsaved document'. This means that if you drop or lose your mobile device.

• Insufficient storage space
  If you run out of storage space when working offline, it could prevent data from saving. So ensure you have sufficient space on your device before going to site to prevent any issues.

Summary‍

Our surveying app, Flow Mobile Surveying, is designed to work offline. However, you will need to ensure you have preloaded any data you'll need before going to the site. And make sure you don't work offline for too long without backing up your data. Otherwise, you could potentially run into some issues.