Use this when a device comes back from a job with a lot of queued items and you want them out on the next job quickly without waiting for a full cloud upload. Synced device is freed up for the next job while the PC takes care of pushing the data to the cloud.
When to Use Browser Sync
Browser Sync is an alternative to letting the device upload directly to the cloud. It's useful when:
A device has a large offline queue that would take hours to upload over cellular or a slow hotspot
You want the device back in rotation right away
The office has a fast local network but the device's mobile data is slow
If the device's queue is small and you're already on decent WiFi, the normal auto-upload is simpler — no need to use Browser Sync.
Requirements
Same WiFi network. The device and the admin's PC must be on the same local network — no VPN, no guest-network isolation, no routing between subnets.
Admin PC running Chrome or Edge. Browser Sync uses the File System Access API, which Safari and Firefox don't support yet.
Organization admin account on the web app. The Phone Sync tab only appears for admins.
The device app must stay open. If the worker backgrounds the app or locks the phone, the transfer pauses.
How It Works (Overview)
The worker enables Browser Sync on the device's Offline tab.
The admin opens the Phone Sync tab on the web app and picks a folder on their PC to receive the files.
The admin clicks Connect on the device shown in the list.
Photos and metadata stream directly from the device to the admin's PC over the local network — no cloud round-trip.
Each record that lands safely on the PC is deleted from the device, so the device's queue shrinks in real time.
When every device has finished, the admin clicks Upload to cloud to push everything from disk up to the cloud at their own pace.
On the Device: Enable Browser Sync
Make sure you're on the office WiFi.
Open My Account → Offline tab.
Scroll to the Browser Sync section.
Tap Enable browser sync.
The status will show "Waiting for an admin PC to connect..."
Keep the app open and in the foreground until the admin finishes the transfer.
Tip: Browser Sync automatically pauses the normal cloud upload while it's active, so the two can't conflict. When you stop Browser Sync, cloud uploading resumes automatically.
On the Admin PC: Pull the Queue
Open the web app in Chrome or Edge.
Go to the Organization page and click the Phone Sync tab.
First time only: click Choose sync folder and pick a folder on your PC. Subsequent sessions will remember it.
Active devices appear in the list with their model, platform, and queue size.
Click Connect on the device you want to pull from. The browser may prompt you once for permission to write to the folder — grant it.
Watch the progress update as records and photos arrive.
When you see "Transfer complete", that device is done and its queue has been cleared.
If multiple devices have Browser Sync enabled, you can transfer from them one at a time from the same PC.
What Happens to the Device's Data
When a record is successfully written to the PC's folder, the device:
Marks the record as transferred so the normal auto-uploader won't touch it.
Deletes the record from the device's offline queue.
Deletes the associated photo files from the device's storage.
The only copy of that data now lives in your chosen folder on the PC until you run the cloud uploader.
⚠️ Important: Do not rename, move, or delete anything inside the sync folder on your PC until the cloud upload has finished. If you delete the folder, the work captured in those photos is lost.
Uploading From PC to Cloud
After one or more transfers have landed, the Phone Sync tab shows an Upload to cloud section with the number of pending records on disk.
Click Upload to cloud.
A "Keep this window open" notice appears. Don't close the tab — the uploader runs in this browser.
Records are processed in order: labels/boxes first (so items can attach to them), then items, then job/room/box photos, then additional images.
Each record's folder on disk is deleted as soon as the cloud write confirms. The sync folder shrinks to empty when everything has been uploaded.
The uploader resumes across page reloads: if you accidentally close the tab, just reopen the Phone Sync tab and click Upload to cloud again — it picks up where it left off.
Videos are not supported in the current version of the cloud uploader. Video photos stay on disk and need to be uploaded through the normal device auto-upload.
Do's and Don'ts
✅ DO
Stay on the same WiFi — if the device or PC changes networks mid-transfer, the connection will drop.
Keep both apps open and in the foreground during transfers.
Let the PC finish uploading to cloud before touching the sync folder.
Use a folder you'll remember — the browser will keep using it across sessions, so pick a location you're comfortable with (e.g. a dedicated
ContentsPal-Sync/folder in your Documents).
❌ DON'T
Don't close the browser tab during cloud upload — transfers will pause. (They resume when you reopen it.)
Don't rename or move files in the sync folder — the uploader matches files to records by their on-disk names.
Don't sync the folder with Dropbox / OneDrive / etc. during transfers — those services can lock files while the uploader is writing to them.
Don't use a VPN while syncing — the device and PC need to see each other on the local network.
Troubleshooting
The device doesn't appear in the admin's Phone Sync list
Confirm both are on the same WiFi and not behind separate SSIDs.
Make sure the worker's device is signed in to the same organization.
Try tapping Stop browser sync and Enable browser sync again on the device to refresh the connection.
The connection starts but never completes
Some office networks isolate wireless clients from each other ("AP isolation" or a guest network). Ask IT to confirm the office WiFi allows device-to-device traffic.
If the network uses VLANs that segment wired from wireless traffic, the two sides may not be able to discover each other.
"Browser not supported" message
Browser Sync requires Chrome or Edge on a desktop computer. Firefox, Safari, and mobile browsers don't expose the File System Access API that Browser Sync relies on.
A record failed to upload to the cloud
The record's directory stays on disk and the manifest still lists it. Click Upload to cloud again to retry the failed records.
Videos were skipped
This version of the cloud uploader doesn't handle video files. Video items stay on the device and will upload through the normal auto-upload when the device is online.
Last Updated: April 2026