Opening apps while offline

[wyotim]

Has the behavior for opening apps while offline changed?

We have some offline-capable apps for employees in fairly remote areas. They have been unable to open these apps without a data connection of some kind.

I did some testing on a PC this morning and it seems that the only way to open these apps without a data connection is to have previously opened PowerApps with a data connection and never fully close out of it. That is to say, use the right-click to make the Exit button appear in the upper left hand corner and use that to exit an app but never close PowerApps itself. Using this method, the list of apps shows all the apps we have made. If PowerApps is closed and reopened while no data connection is present, the list of apps is blank. 

Testing on an iOS device in airplane mode, as long as I had the most recently updated version of the app on the device, it would give an error the first try but opened the app as expected the second time. If I did not have the most recently updated version of the app it would not work at all.

Is there a way to open an app on PC while completely offline other than leaving a previously connected PowerApps session up?

[wyotim · Accepted solution]

At the risk of beating this topic into the ground, I accidentally launched a PowerApp while offline on my iPhone yesterday and it worked. I thought I would see if anyone here could verify what I found. 

This app was created under PowerApps Release 3.18082.42. I tested two others that were created under the same release but neither of those are offline-capable so I wasn't expecting them to work. One would give the same error message I usually get and the other would just hang at the initial launch screen. 

I then tried them on my Windows 10 PC to no avail; it still shows that there are no apps when PowerApps is launched offline.

I will update a couple more offline-capable apps to this new release and report back if they work on my iPhone (and Android as well if I have time). If anyone else wants to give it a go and report back, I would appreciate hearing your results.

*edit* Just to be clear, no apps before that release would open for me, just the 3.18082.42 offline-capable one. I tried all of them that I have.

Update: The two apps that I updated both launched offline on my iPhone. One note, the shortcuts do not work; apps need to be launched directly from the PowerApps app itself. I will update when I get a chance to test on an Android device.

Update 2: So I tried on an Android phone and the updated app also launched on it while offline. Here are the versions of iOS and Android I used as well as the PowerApps versions:

iOS 11.4.1, PowerApps 3.18084.12
Android 7.1.2, PowerApps 3.18083.30

Cautiously optimistic about this though a bit disappointed that it doesn't work on Win10. Still, I'll take it!

[Anonymous]

@wyotim Thanks for the update - I have checked my Android PowerApps 3.18083.30 and it works!

It would be good if it worked on Win10 as well, but at least we can get by with Android and iOS

[wyotim]

@AnonymousGlad to hear it is confirmed!

[PaulD1]

We have an App with offline capabilities that is fine on Android and iOS but, as others have noted on this thread, cannot be run in the Windows PowerApp player as, when opening the player while offline, no Apps are listed as available.

As this appears to be a long running issue, is a fix for this planned and, if so, when can we expect it to be made available?

An investment has already been made in Windows tablets so running on Android/iOS is not a viable alternative in this case.

Thanks

Paul

[PaulD1]

I started a separate thread to focus specifically on the bug in the Windows App player which prevents starting any Apps while offline. One of the MS staff has said they are looking into it... 

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Discussion/Bug-Windows-PowerApp-Player-Cannot-use-offlin...

[gautmish]

Hi Team,

This issue is reported 8 months back and there is no solution yet .

This is really frustrating when offline app can not be open offline . Could anyone respond , when this can be taken up and can be fixed .

Thanks
gautmish

[JoaoN]

Hello Microsoft?! Are you Alive??

Is that a joke that no Microsoft team worker really do not anwser this post?

What Bill would think about It?

I am with that same issue and do not have any anwser to. I am afraid that maybe I would have to go to another solution.