Offline ticket scanning
Offline ticket scanning means the gate keeps working when the network does not, which is the situation at a surprising number of venues.
Offline ticket scanning is checking tickets with the valid codes already held on the device, so no connection is needed at the moment of the scan. Results are stored locally and synchronised once a connection returns. The trade-off is that devices cannot see each other's scans while they are apart.
Why venues lose signal exactly when it matters
Thick stone walls, metal roofs and basements block mobile signal, and a parish hall built in the nineteenth century has all three. Then two hundred people arrive, each with a phone hunting for the same mast, and whatever signal there was becomes unusable.
Venue wifi is not the answer people hope for either. It is often a single consumer router meant for the office, and it reaches the bar but not the entrance. Planning for no connection at all is more reliable than planning for a good one.
What offline can and cannot catch
Offline it can tell a real code from an invented one, and it can catch the same code presented twice at the same device. What it cannot do while disconnected is see a scan made on another device across the room at that same moment.
In practice this matters less than it sounds. Duplicates are rare, and the sync afterwards shows exactly which codes were scanned twice, so you have the evidence even if you did not have the warning.
Offline with Passavo
The scanning app loads the valid codes before the doors open and keeps checking without a connection. Scans are stored on the device and sent up as soon as there is signal again, without anyone needing to remember to do it.
When several devices reconnect, their scans are merged into one attendance list, and anything scanned twice is flagged. Opening the app on the venue wifi for a moment before doors is all the preparation it needs.
Also searched for as
- scanning without internet
- offline check-in
- no-signal scanning
- offline door scanning
Common questions
What do we have to do before we lose signal?
Open the app on the event once while you still have a connection. From that point it holds what it needs and will keep working on its own.
Do offline scans get lost if a phone runs out of battery?
Scans are written to the device as they happen, so they are still there when it is charged and opened again, and they sync then.