Field tablet sync failures pushed us back to paper for 2 weeks

We rolled out new project management software on tablets back in March. The sync would drop whenever we hit a dead zone on site, which happened all the time around the steel frame on the 12th floor. Guys got tired of redoing punch lists, so the foreman pulled out the old paper checklists last Tuesday. It slowed things down but at least the data didn't vanish. Has anyone found a way to make offline mode actually reliable, or is this just normal for now?

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harper_foster26d ago

When you say the data "didn't vanish" on paper, do you actually mean the paper lists are surviving better than the tablets, or is it just that the foreman's less stressed about losing them? Because I've seen crews treat paper like it's sacred even when they drop half the pages in the mud. Real question though: did anyone try turning off the wifi on the tablets entirely and just using them as dumb digital checklists that you sync up later? Half the time these apps still try to reach the server in the background and that's what kills the local saves.