Setting up an iPhone
- 1
Open the library in Safari
It must be Safari, not Chrome and not a link opened inside another app such as Messages or Mail. If a page opened inside another app, tap the share icon and choose Open in Safari first.
- 2
Share → Add to Home Screen
Tap the share button at the bottom of Safari, scroll down the list and choose Add to Home Screen, then Add. A compass icon appears on the Home Screen.
- 3
Open that icon — not Safari
Close Safari and launch the library from the new Home Screen icon. The saved copies live with that icon. Saving from a Safari tab and then reading from the icon is the most common reason guides look missing in the field.
- 4
Tap “Save all for field use”
Stay on good Wi-Fi. The bird guide alone is close to 10 MB because every illustration is inside the file. Each guide is checked against its published fingerprint before it is stored — a guide only reads Ready offline once that check passes.
- 5
Test it properly
Turn on Airplane mode and also switch Wi-Fi off — airplane mode alone can leave Wi-Fi connected and hide a problem. Open the Home Screen icon and open all four guides.
Then turn connectivity back on, reopen the library and tap Check saved guides to pick up any new editions.
Things worth knowing
Saved copies belong to one web address
A browser stores offline data per domain. If this library later moves to its final address, nothing carries across. Wait until the final address is in place before doing the field setup on the ranch phones — then re-add the Home Screen icon on that address and save everything again.
Your notes and logs stay on this device
Notes, training logs and worksheets typed inside a guide are stored by that browser, on that device, for that web address only. They are not shared with anyone, not backed up here, and they do not move automatically — not to a new phone, not to a new address, and not into a file you downloaded.
Use a guide’s own export control to save your entries before changing phone, browser or address.
Outside documents are not saved
Links inside the guides that point to official regulation PDFs, agency pages or videos are not part of this library and are not stored offline. Open each one while you still have signal and save it into the iPhone Files app separately.
iPhone storage is not a guarantee
The library asks iOS to keep its storage, and iOS usually honours that for a web app on the Home Screen. It can still clear data if the phone runs very low on space or the app goes unused for a long stretch. That is why the library rechecks the actual stored files every time you open it instead of trusting a memory of having saved them. If something has been cleared, it will say so.
No app store, no ZIP file
Nothing else is needed. There is no third-party app to install, no archive to unpack, and no account to create. Every guide is also downloadable as a single self-contained file from the library page if you prefer keeping a copy in Files as well.