Offline use and syncing

Capture keeps working with no signal, and your work uploads to your company's cloud account once you're back online.

MC Inventory is local-first. It's built to keep working in a basement, a stairwell, or anywhere the signal drops, and to upload your work to your company's cloud account once you're back online. You don't manage sync by hand, it just runs.

Capture works offline

A dead spot on-site never stops you. Creating jobs, scanning rooms, dictating and photographing items, and recording damage all write to a database on your device first. You can build a whole inventory with no connection at all.

Tip: You don't need to wait for a signal to start a job. Capture now, and it uploads itself later.

Uploading to the cloud

When your device is back online, it uploads your local changes to your company's cloud account in the background. Nothing leaves the phone's upload queue until the server confirms it. If the server refuses a change, the change stays queued on the phone instead of being lost. Because uploading depends on internet connectivity, it happens whenever a connection is available, not at a fixed time.

  • Your work is backed up in the cloud, so a lost or replaced phone doesn't lose the inventory.
  • When you open the app signed in, it restores jobs that are on the server but not on this phone. An admin gets all of the company's jobs; anyone else gets the jobs they created.
  • A job that's already on your phone is never refreshed from the server. If a crew member edits that job on their phone, the edit doesn't come down to yours.

Note: Because uploading depends on connectivity, expect a short delay between capturing something offline and it reaching your company's cloud account. If it's been a while, see Sync and offline issues.

Your company's data is separate

The app is multi-tenant: every row of data is scoped to your company. You only ever see your own company's jobs and items, and other companies never see yours. That separation is enforced on the server, not just in the app.

Signing out keeps your work on the phone

When you sign out, everything stays on the phone, and any work that hasn't uploaded yet uploads at the next sign-in. Only deleting your account erases this device's data. See Manage your account and Privacy and your data.

Important: That's how version 2.4 and later work. On version 2.3 and earlier, signing out erases this phone's copy of your data, and work saved on the phone may not have reached the cloud. Don't sign out or delete the app until you've updated. Your version is under Settings › About.

What to expect (and what not to)

  • Do capture freely offline. Nothing is lost.
  • Do expect your changes to reach the cloud once your device is back online.
  • Do sign out when you need to on version 2.4 or later, even with unsent changes. They stay on the phone and upload at the next sign-in.
  • Don't expect a teammate's phone to pick up your edits to a job it already has. A job that's already on a phone is never refreshed from the server.