Getting connected

Joining takes one scan and three fields. You make up your own name and PIN on the spot — there are no accounts to create in advance and no email involved.

Join for the first time

1. Join the event Wi-Fi named on the poster (if your phone isn't on it already). In the phone app, Scan the join poster also reads the Wi-Fi's own QR code, where there is one, and asks the phone to join that network.
2. Scan the QR code — it's on the join poster, on the box's screen, or on the /connect page someone may have sent you. In the phone app, scan it from the app: tap Scan the join poster and point the camera at the QR, and the app fills in the box's address and the event PIN. The QR also names the event, so when you tap Join the app first checks that the box at that address is the one on the poster, and sends it nothing if it isn't. The phone's own camera would open the QR in the browser instead. Or skip the scan: the join screen lists the boxes on this Wi-Fi under On this Wi-Fi, and tapping Pick beside your event fills in its address. On an iPhone, tap Find boxes the first time, and allow Crewbox to find devices on your local network when the iPhone asks.

1. You'll land on the join screen. Fill in:

• Your name — what the rest of the crew will see. Adding your role or stage helps: "Alex (Stage 2)".
• Event PIN — the 4-digit code printed next to the QR. If you scanned the QR it's usually filled in for you.
• Your PIN — 4 to 8 digits you invent right now. This is yours; remember it. It's how you sign back in on any device.

1. Tap Join. You're in #general with the rest of the crew.

The three codes, untangled

Crewbox has three different secrets, and every crew ever assembled has mixed them up at least once:

Signing back in

Joining and signing in are the same screen. Type the same name you used before and Your PIN, and you're back — with your channels and unread state. You don't need the event PIN again.

This also means you can move between devices freely: same name, same PIN, on a phone at the barricade and a laptop at front of house.

It is also how you get back in on a new phone. The apps keep your sign-ins on the phone they were made on, so a new phone set up from your old one's backup opens signed out. An iPhone set up straight from your old one, with Quick Start, may open signed in.

A backup made before the apps kept sign-ins this way has yours in it, so after the update the app has the box swap it for a new one. If another phone set up from that backup got to the box first, the box gave the new one to that phone, and this one opens signed out: your name and PIN sign you back in.

If you type a name that's already taken and the PIN doesn't match, crewbox says so — either you've misremembered your PIN, or someone else got to that name first. Pick another name, or ask an admin to reset your PIN.

More than one event

Each event keeps its own messages, documents and unsent work on your device, so last week's sheets never turn up at this week's box. To go on to the next event's box, sign out and join it. Your device keeps the old event too: Your boxes, at the top of the menu, lists every event it holds, and one tap opens another. In the phone apps it also lists the other boxes on this Wi-Fi, with Join beside each, and marks an event of yours On this Wi-Fi when its box is here, at a new address too once the box has shown it is the same one.

• "The box at … has changed, and is starting afresh", or "… is running … now": the box at that address is running another event than the one you had open, a spare box or next week's. Your device has sent it nothing. Tap Open it to join it. Everything from before stays on your device.
• "The box at … has changed, and carries on …": a spare, or a bigger box, has taken over from your event's box, and whoever runs it says it carries your event on. It is still a new box to your device, which has sent it nothing. Tap Open it and join it, and your device offers to bring your work across.
• "The box at … is running …, which this phone knew at …": your event's own box, now at another address. Your device checked it first, with the key it kept when you joined, so Open it carries on there.
• "The box at … says it is running …, but it can’t show that it is that event’s box": something at that address says it runs an event your device holds somewhere else, and failed that check. Nothing has gone to it, and your device still has the event where it was. Type the address from the event's join poster in Your boxes. If you are sure it is your event's box, restored from an old backup, Open it anyway is beside the message there.
• "Bring your work across?" is asked once, after you join a box whose admin says it carries on an event your device has. Move it here brings your documents and running order, sends your unsent messages to the channels with the same names, and files your unsent show-log entries in its log. Messages to a person or with a file stay behind, and so do show-log entries written more than a day ago, which no box takes. Messages for a channel the new box doesn't have yet stay too: once an admin has made it, bring them across from that event's row in Your boxes. The old chat stays on your device to read.
• Bring its work here, beside an event in Your boxes, does the same whenever you like. A box that started afresh where your event's box was doesn't ask by itself when nobody has said it carries your event on, since it may be next week's; the row offers it instead.
• Forget, beside an event in Your boxes, deletes what your device keeps for it. It says first what that is, and warns you about anything that never reached the box, because nothing else has a copy of that.

When it won't connect

The app tells you what it's doing rather than spinning forever:

• "Can't reach the crew server" — your phone can't see the box. Check you're on the event Wi-Fi (the screen names it), then tap Retry now. It also keeps retrying by itself. In the phone apps, a box that has moved to a new address never answers the old one, so after a little while the app looks for it on the Wi-Fi. If it finds your event's box somewhere else, and the box shows it is the same one with the key your device kept when you joined, the app carries on there by itself and says so: nothing goes to a box that can't show it. If it isn't found, tap Your boxes and type the address from its join poster.
• "No boxes found on this Wi-Fi" — in the phone apps, nothing on this network said it was a box. Check you're on the crew Wi-Fi. The box may not be announcing itself (an admin can see why under Admin → This box), or the Wi-Fi may not pass announcements on; typing the address from the join poster works either way.
• "This iPhone doesn't let Crewbox look on the local network" — Local Network is off for Crewbox. Tap Open Settings and switch it on, or type the address from the join poster, which works without it.
• "The app didn't join …" — the phone asked whether to join the Wi-Fi whose code you scanned, and the answer was no, or an Android phone didn't offer to (a guest user, or a work profile that doesn't allow it). Join it in the phone's Wi-Fi settings, then scan the crew code.
• "The phone saved … but doesn't seem to be on it" — the iPhone has the network now, but the app didn't see it get on: it's out of range, or the code's password is wrong. It joins by itself once in range. If it is in range, check the password in the phone's Wi-Fi settings. If the settings show it joined, carry on and scan the crew code.
• "That code is for the Wi-Fi, …, which the app can't join" — the code is for an older WEP network, one where each person signs in with their own username, or it gives the password as a 64-digit key. Join it in the phone's Wi-Fi settings.
• "That code is for the Wi-Fi, …" — the app couldn't ask the phone: Android 10 and older can't join a network for an app, and now and then iOS refuses without saying why. On an iPhone, point the Camera app at the code and tap the Wi-Fi banner. On Android, join it in the Wi-Fi settings, where Add network may offer to scan the code. Then scan the crew code.
• "The phone can't use that Wi-Fi code" — the network name or password in the code can't be right: a WPA password is 8 to 63 characters. Ask whoever runs the Wi-Fi for its name and password.
• "The box at … isn’t the one on this poster" — in the phone apps, the box at the address on the poster couldn't show it is the poster's box, so nothing has gone to it. Most often your phone is on another Wi-Fi, where something else has that address: check you're on the event Wi-Fi, then tap Join again. Or the poster is from a box that has since been replaced: ask whoever runs the event for the current one.
• "This poster doesn’t match … as this phone knows it" — your device already holds that event, and the poster names another key for it, so your device sent the box nothing. If you are sure it is your event's box, a spare restored from an old backup, type its address in Your boxes, where Open it anyway is beside the message.
• "That isn't the crew code" — the scanner read a QR that isn't a box's join code. Scan the one on the join poster, or type the address printed under it.
• "Crewbox isn't allowed to use the camera" — the camera is off for Crewbox. Tap Open Settings and allow it, or type the address from the join poster.
• "This phone can't scan codes" — the phone has no camera the scanner can use. Type the address from the join poster.
• "An iPhone only connects to a name like … over HTTPS" — in the iPhone app, you typed the box's name without https://. Type https:// before it if the box has a certificate, or use the box's IP address from the join poster instead.
• Yellow "Connecting…" banner — you were connected and it dropped. Anything you send is queued on your device and delivered when the connection returns; nothing is lost.
• "Offline" banner — same story, longer gap. Everything you already loaded stays readable, and the app catches up the moment the box is back in reach.

There's more in Troubleshooting.