Offline play
Download the offline mixing package and the Mixer keeps generating rounds with no signal — even on courts with dead Wi-Fi.
Gym Wi-Fi drops. Cell signal at the back courts is one bar on a good day. Install the offline mixing package before you head out and the part that builds your matchups runs right in your browser — no connection needed.
Setting it up
Offline mixing is opt-in:
- Open Games Settings in the Mixer.
- Tap Download Offline Mixing Package. It's around 100 KB and is stored locally in your browser.
- The package installs to that device only. If you mix from more than one device (a phone and a laptop, say), download it on each one.
Once installed, a Mix Offline switch appears. Flip it on and mixes run locally instead of on the server. While it's on, the Mixer uses the standard mix — presets and the advanced algorithm controls disappear, since the local engine only runs default settings.
What works offline vs. what needs a connection
With the offline package installed and Mix Offline on:
| Works offline | Needs a connection |
|---|---|
| Mix, Mix Next, REmix (local engine) | Live score sync from players' phones |
| Swapping players, sitting players out | Saving the session to your account |
| Renaming courts, linked partners | Loading a saved roster or ratings |
| Fresh-partner and sit-in-turn rules | Frozen and pinned courts |
The split follows one line. Anything the local engine does happens on your device and works offline. Anything that has to talk to other devices or the cloud — players entering scores from their own phones, saving to your account, syncing across screens — waits until you're back online.
A couple of mixer features fall outside what the local engine handles. Frozen courts and pinned courts aren't supported offline: if a court is frozen or a player is pinned, an offline mix is refused with a message asking you to clear it or turn Mix Offline off. Unfreeze and unpin before you mix locally.
Without the offline package, Mix sends a request to the server — a dead connection stops it cold. That's why installing the package ahead of time matters for spotty venues.
If your connection drops mid-session
When the package is already installed and the connection cuts out mid-session, the Mixer offers a one-tap Use Offline Mixing option — no hunting through settings required.
Go fully offline and reload or reopen the page, and you land on a small offline screen with a Reopen Mixer button. Your session lives on the device; nothing is lost. When the connection comes back, the network-only buttons re-enable and you pick up where you left off.
Tips for spotty venues
Install the offline package before you go — download it on each device you'll mix from while you still have a good connection, and load your roster and ratings before you leave, since fetching saved data requires the network.
Run the session from one device when signal is unreliable. The fewer devices that need to sync, the less the network matters.
REmix works offline too with Mix Offline on — it regenerates the current round locally. One catch: REmix replaces the displayed round rather than advancing, so use it only if the round wasn't played.
When a mix takes too long
On a slow or intermittent connection the server mix can stall. After a quality-dependent wait (longer at higher quality settings), the loading overlay drops and a dialog appears:
Mix Taking Longer Than Expected This mix is taking longer than expected. This can happen with a slow connection or a transient network issue.
Three choices appear:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Retry | Cancels the stalled request and starts a fresh mix immediately. |
| Keep Waiting | Restores the loading overlay and waits another 10 seconds before asking again. |
| Cancel | Abandons the mix. No round is generated, and nothing is lost — you can try again whenever you're ready. |
If the device appears to be offline when the dialog appears, an extra line notes that. The dialog closes automatically if the mix succeeds while it's open, and a brief success notice confirms the result.
There is a hard ceiling of 60 seconds on any mix request. If that limit is hit, the request is aborted and a simpler alert asks you to try again — no dialog choices, just a prompt to retry.
Three things correlate with a slow mix: higher quality settings (the server searches longer, and the soft-timeout threshold scales with the quality slider), larger rosters (bigger search space), and a poor connection (latency on top of computation time).
If slow mixes are a recurring problem at a spotty venue, install the offline package, flip Mix Offline on, and mixes run on your device with no server round-trip at all.
Installing the app for reliable offline use
Installing PickleMixer as an app on your device (via the browser's
"Add to Home Screen" prompt or the /add-to-home page) gives you a
dedicated icon and a faster launch path. The install itself does not add
offline capability — you still need the Download Offline Mixing Package
step in Games Settings for that. With both in place, a dead Wi-Fi
connection barely registers.
See Install on your device for the install walkthrough.
What's next
- Fine-tune how rounds are built — see the Settings reference.
- Saving sessions, rosters, and ratings is what needs a connection — see Accounts and your data.
- Install the app for a faster launch at the courts — see Install on your device.