Is it your connection or us?

On a boat, "the app is down" is usually "the link is down" — and the app is built to keep working through exactly that. Run this before anything else.

The 60-second triage

1. Check our status, cheaply. Fetch support.watchkeeper.me/status.txt — it's a few hundred bytes of plain text and loads on the worst link you own. If it reports an incident, it's us; the incident note will say what's affected.
2. Check the footer chip. If the app shows the offline indicator, it knows it's offline — everything you post is queueing normally. That's not a fault; see Logging offline.
3. Try another site (a fast one — example.com). If nothing loads, it's the link. Satellite terminals sulk: power-cycle the terminal, check for obstructions, wait out the rain cell.
4. Check Settings → Pending writes. Queued entries with rising attempt counts but no errors = the link is flapping; they'll clear when it steadies. Entries with a red error = read the error; a validation or plan-limit message means the server answered — your connection is fine.

Reading the symptoms

Symptom	Most likely	Do this
Pages load but data is stale	You're offline; cache is serving	Nothing — it syncs when the link returns
Log entry "saved" but not on other devices	Entry is queued locally	Pending writes → Retry all when online
Everything spins, nothing errors	Link is up but terrible (high loss)	Wait or retry near the terminal; queued writes are safe
Clear error message on save	Server rejected it (validation, plan limit)	Fix what the message says — connection is fine
status.txt reports an incident	Us	Nothing to fix aboard; check back on /status

If it's really us

The status page is updated during incidents, and the fix lands there first. You don't need to report an incident that's already listed — but if you're seeing something status doesn't mention, that report is gold. Include:

• Boat name and the email on the account
• What you did, what you expected, what happened
• Your connection type (Starlink, Iridium GO, marina Wi-Fi…)
• The error text from Pending writes, if any

"My family didn't get the shore brief"

Shore briefs are generated and sent from the server — your boat being offline doesn't stop them. If they're not arriving, it's a recipient/schedule question, not a connection one: see Shore briefs and arrival notices.

The one thing not to do

Don't sign out and back in to "fix" it. Signing in needs a live connection — signing out on a bad link locks you out of an app that was working fine offline.