Offline capable app won't open or disappears off app list in mobile player

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Posted on 31 Mar 2025 09:43:29 by Chaser

Hi all, if anyone can provide an answer I would greatly appreciate it. I am trying to construct an offline capable app which should be simple enough. Well apparently not. I have tried using the Dataverse offline function which does seem to work, the app appears on the PowerApps mobile player home screen (when offline) and can be opened but as there are roughly 23 tables being used in the app (some quite large) and no way to select specific columns or dynamically select the rows, this slows the app down significantly. So I binned off that idea.

I then went back to the alternative method using SaveData/LoadData so I can then pick and choose what data I want to cache. Again simple I thought. No. Apparently if the app is not enabled for offline use (using the Dataverse offline option in settings) the app does not show up on the app list without an internet connection.

I have tried on Android and iOS devices with several different variations and as soon as the internet connection goes (if the app is not already open), the app disappears from the app list on the PowerApps mobile player home screen. Additionally, the app does not open if you have it saved as a shortcut on the your device home screen, nor does it appear in favourites if already selected as a favourite.

So why build these functions in if you can't even open the app when offline? And what are developers who aren't using Dataverse supposed to do to allow offline access to an app? This is fundamental to the project I am working on to make the app openable when offline.

Can someone please advise how I can get around this as I've tried everything I can think of but nothing seems to work. Offline functions do work if the user loses signal whilst in the app but if they can't open the app it just falls apart.

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Mobile App

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AmínAA 809 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 03 Apr 2025 at 10:01:30

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Offline capable app won't open or disappears off app list in mobile player

Hi there @Chaser!

I didn’t expect that fast of a response hahaha! Well, there are several ways you could go about this . . .

First, while I see that a single app with fewer screens might solve most of your problems, perhaps the solution lays within your own comment. Instead of a single big app that contains everything within a few pages, you could try to dissect it into two or three smaller apps that you can call in with the launch function. This way you can have 3 lightweight apps which each can direct to the other.

While this is far from your preferred solution, which is a single, more centralized application, it might not be a bad idea to do so, unless you were planning on having everything on a single screen.

Now, you said you have to pull in all rows. I’m not sure if this means that you’re showing every single record in galleries, or if you mean that all records are saved into the cache.

If it’s the latter, I’m sorry to disappoint, but it is necessary for Dataverse offline to work properly to save the full table locally to be able to access it later.

Now, if the problem is that you’re showing too many records in a gallery, your solution lays in either pagination (If it’s not doing that by default, as Dataverse usually does), or custom filtering. I’ve read that you have a tried that last one, but it was taking effect as well in online. This should never happen if you’ve put a condition for the filter to only take effect when there’s no connection, or rather, to take effect always, but when it’s connected.

In microsoft’s learn page about offline apps (Develop offline-capable canvas apps), you can find this formula:

If( Connection.Connected, "Connected", "Offline" )

Which you should be able to use to apply the filters only when needed.

Edit: Also, how the hell have you managed to ping me in that last comment? I've tried to do that several times with no luck hahahaha!

Edit2: Learnt how to ping people lol!

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Chaser 18 on 03 Apr 2025 at 09:42:15

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Offline capable app won't open or disappears off app list in mobile player

Hi @AmínAA, thanks for your comments. The app itself is a technical support app which contains several smaller apps that launch from the home screen. Each of these smaller apps utilise either 1 or more tables depending on what it's doing. When I say 'launch' I do not mean using the 'Launch' function to link out to another app, the smaller apps are contained within 1 main app if that makes sense, just using different screens.

The task we have is to reduce the app estate to avoid engineers being overwhelmed with the number of apps at their disposal and not being able to find things easily, so a central app where everything is contained is the preferred solution. The other issue is that some of the tables these smaller apps use contains hundreds and in some cases thousands of records.

When I attempted to use the Dataverse offline profile, there did not seem to be any way to restrict the number of rows dynamically, other than rows that the user owns (created by). So the only option that seemed to work was to pull in 'All Rows' which again was not necessary but no other suitable options worked for our use case. I also tried the custom filter but when I applied that it filtered the data even when the app was online, which again was no good.

If you can think of a way to improve the speed of the app knowing a bit more context as to what I'm trying to achieve I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
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AmínAA 809 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 03 Apr 2025 at 09:17:21

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Offline capable app won't open or disappears off app list in mobile player

Greetings Chaser!

The main issue here is that Power Apps Mobile caches an app's definition for offline launch, only if the offline Dataverse function is enabled...

The SaveData/LoadData functions only work when the app is already working, which is great to avoid data loss when you know you will have connection most of the time, but you might lose it, or if you know the users might close the app by accident losing important data. It does not affect whether the app can or cannot be used offline, as you can have an entirely offline app without using those functions.

So, you will have to come back to the first idea you had... Now, you've said that the app slows down significantly. As I do not have much knowledge about what you're trying to specifically build, I'm going to give you the de-facto recommendations.

First, make sure that only the minimum required tables are in effect . . . 23 tables are not a lot of tables per se, but the data they hold might be massive. It might be a good idea for you to revise your data model, and try to see if you can simplify it, or create an auxiliar set of tables that only take effect in offline mode. I myself have done a few offline apps, and never had this problem, as I tried to minimize the amount of data they had to work with. In the end an offline app, should be to some degree, very lightweight to avoid less power devices from not being able to run them... If you could share more details, I might be able to give you some ideas on how you might be able to do so, but alas…

Ultimately, this is a fairly known limitation of the power platform. If you're not using Dataverse, to my knowledge there's currently no native method to make the app itself available offline. Microsoft's offline functionality is primarily designed around Dataverse, and until any enhancements are made, we are bound to work within those constraints if we want to keep using Dataverse.

Edit: You could also try setting the sync interval to more time, as this might help relieve the App's performance!

If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up. Should this reply solve your question, please mark your post as Solved. Otherwise, feel free to reply to my answer for further help.

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