Around the app

Everything lives off one sidebar: chat channels at the top, then a section for each module the box has switched on. On a phone the sidebar becomes a drawer — and every screen has a way back to it.

Crewbox on a phone: a channel with the composer

From top to bottom:

A connection dot and the event's name.
Channels and Direct messages — chat, which is always on.
A section per module — Running order, Patch Sheets, Lighting, Network — whichever this box has enabled. Running order carries what's on each stage right now, so the answer is there without opening anything.
Your identity row: your avatar and name, your connection ("Online · 42 ms"), and four buttons — admin panel (the cog — visible to everyone, but it wants the admin password), mute/unmute alert sounds (the bell), light/dark theme (sun/moon), and sign out.

On a phone: the drawer

Below tablet width the sidebar tucks away and a ☰ button (top left, "Open channels") brings it back. Opening a channel or a module closes the drawer so the content gets the whole screen; the ☰ is always there to get back. Every module's screens carry it too — you can't get stranded.

Light and dark

The sun/moon button in the identity row switches theme, and the choice sticks on that device. Dark is the default and follows your system setting until you choose. Both themes are maintained deliberately: dark for a FOH tent at night, light for reading a patch sheet outdoors in daylight.

Install it like an app

Crewbox is a web app that installs to your home screen and keeps working offline:

Android: the browser offers "Install app" / "Add to home screen" — or use the Android app from the box's /connect page, which adds lock-screen alerts.
iPhone/iPad: Share → Add to Home Screen. (The app shows this tip once; it's worth doing — you get a real icon and full-screen.)
Desktop: the install icon in the address bar, if you want it.

Installing from the browser needs the box to be on HTTPS. If the install option doesn't appear, the box is running plain HTTP — everything still works in the browser tab.

Offline is normal here

The app treats a dropped connection as expected weather, not an error:

Everything you've already loaded stays readable.
Anything you send while offline is queued on your device — marked "sending…" — and delivered, once, when the box is back in reach.
If your device refuses to keep a message, usually because it is out of space, the message says Not saved on this phone. It still goes when the box is back, but only if crewbox is still open then, so leave it open.
A banner says Offline or Connecting… so you always know which state you're in. When the connection is up but slow, signal bars appear in the channel header instead.
On reconnect the app fetches only what it missed, so catching up is quick even on bad Wi-Fi.

If a screen goes wrong

If something on a screen breaks, you get Something went wrong on this screen instead of a blank page, with Try again and Reload the app. Your messages are safe either way: anything you sent that the box hasn't confirmed is still queued on your device. The sidebar, voice and every other module keep working — open the menu and go somewhere else.

Under Send a crash report you can pass the error on to the people who make Crewbox, with a note about what you were doing if you like. It goes to the crew box, which sends it when it next has internet. Nothing is sent unless you press Send report.

Send feedback

Send feedback… at the bottom of the sidebar, beside the version, is for anything you'd tell the people who make Crewbox: something broken, an idea, a question, or something that worked. Add your email if you'd like a reply. Tick OK to post this publicly and a bug or idea may be filed on the public issue tracker — message only, never your name or email. It goes through the crew box, so it may arrive after the show; if the box is out of reach, your phone keeps it and hands it over later.

When a new version arrives

If the box has been updated, a pill appears: New version available — Reload. Tap it when convenient; anything unsent survives the reload. If the pill seems to do nothing for a moment, it's still fetching the new version — give it a few seconds and tap again.

In the iPhone and Android apps the pill says New version ready — Reload, and it waits until the new version is on the phone and the app has checked that a Crewbox release made it, so one tap opens it. Each event runs its own box's version where the app can, so opening another event can take a few seconds while the app gets that box's version ready.

When the app can't run the box's version, a note at the top says which to update, the app or the box, and the app carries on with the version it has. Tap × to put the note away.