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Draft: not yet reviewed by a clinician

Use this page to prepare questions for your care team. It does not replace their advice. Your own targets and doses come from your nephrologist, diabetes team and renal dietitian.

Install the app on your phone

The app is a web page that you can add to the Home Screen of an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, or install on a computer. It then opens in its own window with its own icon, like an app from a store, but nothing comes from a store: it is your own server's page, kept on your device (design note 02).

Before you start

  • Ask your admin for the address you will keep using, for example https://food.home.example.net.
  • Check that the address starts with https:// and that your browser shows no warning.
  • Install from that exact address. The phone treats another name, another port, or http instead of https as a different app with empty storage, so you would have to install it again (design note 02).

Why HTTPS matters

Phones only let a web app work offline when the page comes over HTTPS (or from the same computer). The browser calls this a "secure context", and the offline part of the app (its service worker) cannot start without one (MDN).

Feature https:// address your phone trusts plain http:// on your Wi-Fi
Icon on the Home Screen, opens full screen yes yes on iPhone (iOS 26 and later); a shortcut elsewhere
Opens without a connection to the server yes no
Food you log without a connection waits and syncs later yes yes, but the app cannot be reopened until the server is back
"Update ready" message after an upgrade yes no
Live barcode scanning with the camera yes no (a photo of the barcode or typing the digits still works)
Install app button on Android and in desktop Chrome yes no
Your password travels encrypted yes no: anyone on the Wi-Fi can read it

Plain HTTP is fine for a first look on a network you trust. For daily use, ask your admin to set up HTTPS (HTTPS for phones).

iPhone and iPad

  1. Open the app's address in Safari. (Chrome, Edge and Firefox on iOS 16.4 and later can do this too.)
  2. Sign in if the app asks you to.
  3. Tap Share (the square with an arrow), then Add to Home Screen.
  4. Keep Open as Web App switched on. On iOS 26 every site added this way opens as a web app unless you switch it off (WebKit).
  5. Check the name ("Kidney Log") and tap Add.
  6. Open the app from its new icon. It may ask you to sign in once more: an app on the Home Screen keeps its own sign-in, separate from Safari's (design note 02).

On your third visit in the browser, the app shows these steps once as a tip at the top of the page. Tap × to close it; it does not come back, and the steps stay in Settings → This device.

These steps are written for iOS and iPadOS 26 and 27; installing works from iOS 17. If a button looks different on your phone, tell your admin so this page can be corrected.

Android

  1. Open the app's address in Chrome.
  2. Sign in if the app asks you to.
  3. Tap Install app on the banner, or open the ⋮ menu and choose Install app (on some phones Add to Home screen) (Chrome Help).
  4. Open the app from its new icon.

In the app, Settings → This device → Install this app also shows an Install app button when Chrome allows it.

Computer

  • Chrome or Edge: click the install icon at the right end of the address bar, or open the menu and choose Cast, save, and share → Install page as app (Chrome Help).
  • Safari on a Mac (macOS 14 or later): File → Add to Dock.
  • Firefox: use it in a normal tab.

What works without a connection

Once the app has been opened online from an https:// address, it keeps working when the phone cannot reach your server (no signal, the server is down, a flight) (design note 02):

Works offline Needs your server
The app opens from its icon. Signing in for the first time on this device.
Add, Quick add, Mark eaten, and editing or deleting an entry: they wait on the phone with a "waiting to sync" badge and are sent once, in order, when the server is back. Changing your profile, targets or settings: the app says the change needs a connection.
Today, the last two weeks and the coming week, from the copy saved the last time you looked (the screen says so). Barcode lookups, USDA search, AI and new meal suggestions.
Search among the foods this phone has seen (the builtin list is checked once a day while connected and downloaded again only when it changed).
The Treating a low card.
Handbook pages (Learn) you have already opened on this phone. Handbook pages you have not opened on this phone yet: they say so. Print the ones you need away from home, such as the Wallet cards.

A badge at the top shows how many entries and changes are waiting ("Offline · 2 to sync"; on a phone just the number). Tap it to open Settings → This device, where you can Retry or Discard an entry the server refused when it arrived (for example because the food was deleted meanwhile) (Logging food).

A change to an entry that is already on your server is never allowed to overwrite another device's change without asking. If the same entry was changed somewhere else while your phone was offline, your change is held back, the badge says "to review", and Settings → This device shows what your server has next to your change, with Keep the saved one and Use mine (Logging food).

Your log lives on the server, not on the phone. Removing the icon or getting a new phone does not delete it. Only entries still "waiting to sync" live on the phone alone, and only for the person who logged them; the app asks before you sign out if any are left, because signing out removes everything the app kept on the phone (design note 02).

Lows come first, even offline

If your glucose is low and the app will not load, treat the low anyway and log it later. Nothing in the app has to work before you treat a low (Treating a low).

Updates

When the admin upgrades the server, the app notices the next time you open it and shows Update ready with a Reload button. Tap it. Nothing you logged is lost.

If something goes wrong

  • The icon is blank or shows a letter. The phone could not fetch the icon. Open the address in the browser once, then remove the icon and add it again.
  • The app shows an old version. Close it fully, open it again and tap Reload when "Update ready" appears.
  • "My data is gone." Check the address. The same app at a different address starts empty. Your log is still on the server; open the original address.
  • It does not open without a connection. Offline use needs HTTPS. Open the app once while connected, then check Settings → This device: Works offline says "Yes: the app opens without a connection" when it can.
  • The app keeps asking me to sign in. The installed app has its own sign-in. Sign in once inside the app.

Sources

Not yet reviewed by a clinician. Facts and sources last checked 2026-10-07.