Maintenance mode

Maintenance mode puts a screen over your whole app that the user can’t get past. Use it for a database migration, an outage, or any time the app shouldn’t be used. It lives on the Emergency tab of Release control.

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What the user sees

• Your title and message, in English or Arabic depending on the device language.
• Expected back at followed by the end time in the device’s own time zone, unless you turn it off.
• A Try again button that checks again right away.

The screen can’t be dismissed. On Android, Back sends the app to the background instead of returning to it. On the web, the rest of the page can’t be focused or clicked. The screen disappears by itself as soon as the window ends or you end it. If you leave the copy empty, the defaults are:

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Start a maintenance window

While a window is on, a red Maintenance mode is ON banner shows on both tabs of Release control.

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Scope

With both version fields empty, every version matches, including devices that didn’t report one. When either is set, a device without a version doesn’t match. The scope can’t be changed once the window exists. To change it, end the window and start a new one.

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Scheduling

A scheduled window shows as Scheduled under Active and scheduled, with a countdown, and starts by itself at its start time. Devices learn about it up to 24 hours before it starts and keep it to themselves until then, so it begins on time even on a device that has gone offline in the meantime. Cancel removes a scheduled window before it starts.

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Automatic end

Every window has an end time, so a forgotten window can’t lock users out for good.

• By default it ends 24 hours after it starts.
• You can set it up to 7 days after the start.
• A device that saved the window ends it on its own at the end time, even with no network.

Extend moves the end time later (+1 hour, +4 hours, +24 hours or a time you pick), within the same 7-day limit.

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Allow-list and test mode

The Allow-list holds the people and devices the window treats differently, one ID per line:

• External user IDs: the IDs you pass to setUser (see Identify users).
• Install IDs: single installations of your app, such as your test phones.
• Lerix user IDs: the IDs Lerix gives each registered device.

By default, devices on the allow-list are never blocked, so your team can keep using and checking the app. Turn on Test on allow-listed devices only to do the opposite: the window applies only to devices on the list (it needs at least one). Use it to see the real screen, with your real copy, on your own phone before anyone else does.

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Go live

When the test looks right, click Go live on the window. Test mode turns off and every device in scope sees the maintenance screen within a minute. You can also edit the copy, the expected end time and the allow-list of a running window.

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End a window

• End now ends one window. Devices drop the screen at their next check, which is within about a minute for apps in the foreground.
• A window also ends by itself at its end time.

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Lift all

Lift all is the undo button for when something went wrong and users must get back into the app now. One click:

• ends every scheduled and active maintenance window, and
• turns off every forced-update rule (a minimum version or build, a blocked version, or a deadline).

Optional and recommended update prompts stay as they are. The confirmation shows how many windows it will end and how many rules it will turn off, and asks for a reason.

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How fast devices react

When you start, change or end a window, or use Lift all:

1. Lerix sends a silent push to every device of the project that has a Lerix push token, at most once a minute. Apps in the background refresh without showing anything to the user. A scheduled window starting or ending by itself sends the push too.
2. For the next 30 minutes, apps in the foreground check every minute.
3. While a window applies to a device, or starts within the hour, that device keeps checking every minute.

Web pages, and apps that don’t set up Lerix push notifications, don’t get the silent push. They rely on the one-minute checks and on checking when the app or tab comes back to the foreground. See Delivery and offline behaviour.

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Propagation meter

Propagation, on the Emergency tab, shows how many devices have picked up your latest change, for example “1,830 of 2,240 active devices have the latest config (82%)”.

• Active devices are those seen, or that checked release control, in the last 24 hours.
• A device counts as updated once it has fetched the configuration after your last change.
• Only devices that identify their user to Lerix are counted.

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History and alerts

Every start, edit, end and Lift all is recorded in History, with who did it, when, the reason, and the values before and after. Windows that start or end on schedule are recorded too, by System. Project members who can manage app updates get an in-app notification and an email when a window is turned on or scheduled, starts on schedule, goes live, or ends, and when someone uses Lift all. Each member can turn the email off in their notification preferences. See Events, webhooks and permissions.