An iPad hub must stay awake with Faida open. Locking the screen or switching apps can interrupt service to paired tills.
What an iPad hub does
A hub holds the shop workspace and serves paired tills over the local network. You can use the same iPad to make sales while it hosts. Other tills and the hub must be on the same trusted shop network.
Hosting limitation: keep Faida open and awake
An iPad hub serves other devices while Faida remains open and the iPad stays awake. iPadOS can suspend Faida when you lock the screen, switch apps, close the cover, or leave the app. Paired tills can then lose access to the hub. Connecting the iPad to power does not prevent this suspension.
Faida prevents automatic idle sleep while hosting is on. This does not override the lock button or grant background hosting. Use a dedicated counter iPad and keep it connected to power during trading hours. If the hub needs to serve while its screen is locked or someone uses other apps, choose a desktop or Android hub instead.
Set up the hub
- Install Faida and choose to set up this hub. Continue with Faida to sign in and activate the workspace.
- Finish the local device unlock setup and confirm that the correct business is open.
- Connect the iPad to the shop network and allow local network access when requested.
- Open LAN hosting and turn hosting on. Keep Faida visible.
- On each additional till, choose Connect to a LAN server and scan the hub's pairing QR code, or enter its address and pairing code.
- Make a test sale from a paired till and confirm it reaches the hub before starting service.
Prevent accidental app switching
For an individual iPad, enable Guided Access in Settings, Accessibility. Open Faida, start a Guided Access session, configure Display Auto-Lock to keep the screen awake, and restrict the hardware buttons that could lock the device. Keep the Guided Access passcode available to the owner.
For managed shop devices, an administrator can use supervised Single App Mode to keep the iPad in Faida. Guided Access and Single App Mode help prevent accidental exits; neither grants background execution or guarantees uninterrupted service through a restart or power loss.
See Apple's instructions for Guided Access and Single App Mode.
Recover after an interruption
Unlock the hub and return to Faida. Check LAN hosting and turn it on if it is stopped. After closing or restarting Faida, hosting must be turned on again. Confirm the correct workspace and network address before asking other tills to reconnect.
Paired tills keep queued changes on their own devices and retry when the hub returns. Check their connection, waiting-to-send count, and any refused changes before treating the shop's records as up to date. Avoid entering the same sale again just because it has not reached the hub yet. Do not leave the hub, clear app data, or reinstall a till to solve a temporary interruption while it has unsent changes.
Internet outages and backups
An internet outage does not stop local trading if the hub remains awake, Faida stays open, and the shop network is working. Cloud sync and off-site backups resume when internet access returns. Keep backups current; a paired till's cache is not a replacement for the hub's complete workspace backup.
Before relying on an iPad hub in your shop, test your devices, Wi-Fi, printers, and recovery from interruptions. See Pair a tablet and work offline for connection checks and contact support if you need help.