The FreeMaint mobile app is the field-facing companion to the web product. Technicians use it to scan QR codes, complete work orders, log meter readings, capture photos, and chat with the office — all from the shop floor. It works on iOS and Android and installs from the App Store or Google Play.

Android installation (Play Store)

1. {"title":"Open Google Play","description":"Launch the Play Store app"}
2. {"title":"Search for FreeMaint","description":"Search FreeMaint CMMS; verify the publisher is FreeMaint"}
3. {"title":"Tap Install","description":"Wait for the download to finish (~40 MB)"}
4. {"title":"Open the app","description":"Tap Open from the Play Store page, or the icon in your launcher"}

The previous Android app (APK)

Before the current app, FreeMaint for Android was this website shown in a frame. While it remains available, that previous version can be downloaded as an APK from inside FreeMaint: open the help icon (?) at the top of the page, choose “FreeMaint on your phone”, then “Download the previous app”. It only makes sense if you need a screen the new app does not have yet — putting the full FreeMaint on your home screen (above) gives you the same without its drawbacks. Read the warnings beside the button first: the previous app is no longer maintained and receives no updates, including security fixes, and you must uninstall the current app to install it. If the page says the previous version is not available, contact us.

1. {"title":"Uninstall the current app","description":"Android refuses to replace an app with an older one, so remove the current FreeMaint app first"}
2. {"title":"Download the APK","description":"On the phone, sign in to freemaint.com in your browser, tap the help icon (?) → “FreeMaint on your phone” → “Download the previous app”. The link is valid for one hour"}
3. {"title":"Allow the install","description":"Open the downloaded file. Android asks you to allow installing from an unknown source and shows a warning — that is normal for any app installed outside the store"}
4. {"title":"Confirm install","description":"Confirm to install. Remember that this version receives no updates, including security fixes"}

First login

On first launch you can sign in with your existing FreeMaint email + password. SSO (SAML/OIDC) is not yet available in the mobile app — sign in on the web for that. If you are a username-based user (no email), enter username@your-company-slug as the identifier.

1. {"title":"Enter your credentials","description":"Email or username, then password"}
2. {"title":"Allow notifications","description":"Tap Allow on the iOS or Android system prompt"}
3. {"title":"Walk through onboarding","description":"Two-screen swipe explaining the bottom bar and the scanner"}
4. {"title":"Land on the home screen","description":"Your assigned work orders are listed by default"}

iOS installation

1. {"title":"Open the App Store","description":"On your iPhone or iPad, launch the App Store app"}
2. {"title":"Search for FreeMaint","description":"Search FreeMaint CMMS; verify the publisher is FreeMaint"}
3. {"title":"Tap Get","description":"Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your Apple ID password"}
4. {"title":"Open the app","description":"Tap the FreeMaint icon on your home screen to launch"}

What works offline

Your work orders: open them, start, put on hold and complete them, tick checklist steps, add notes, comments and photos. Inspections: start them — including those that require a QR scan, which is checked on the phone — answer every checkpoint, add photos and complete them.

Download for offline

Me › Offline copy, or More › Offline copy. “Smart” (the default) keeps the work orders you open. Before a day without signal, choose “Full offline” › “Download for offline”: the card first shows how many work orders and inspections will be saved, the size and the free space, then the date of the last full download.

Sync screen

Tap the sync card in Me: what is still waiting to be sent (“Sync Now”) and what needs your attention, with the server's reason. A refused completion reopens with what you typed (“Review & resend”); an inspection that needs a new scan offers “Scan”.

Needs a connection

Closing, validating, cancelling or reopening a work order; a completion that requires an approval, a permit, a signature or parts; work orders and inspections not saved on the phone; files never opened on this phone; discarding an inspection.

Offline support

The app keeps working when the signal drops. What you do offline is saved on the phone, marked “Pending sync”, and sent automatically when the connection returns — in the order you did it, never twice, and dated at the time you actually did it (up to 72 hours earlier). On a weak network, a change that cannot reach the server within a few seconds is saved on the phone the same way instead of failing. This needs the latest version of the app from the store.

What works offline

Your work orders: open them, start, put on hold and complete them, tick checklist steps, add notes, comments and photos. Inspections: start them — including those that require a QR scan, which is checked on the phone — answer every checkpoint, add photos and complete them.

Download for offline

Me › Offline copy, or More › Offline copy. “Smart” (the default) keeps the work orders you open. Before a day without signal, choose “Full offline” › “Download for offline”: the card first shows how many work orders and inspections will be saved, the size and the free space, then the date of the last full download.

Sync screen

Tap the sync card in Me: what is still waiting to be sent (“Sync Now”) and what needs your attention, with the server's reason. A refused completion reopens with what you typed (“Review & resend”); an inspection that needs a new scan offers “Scan”.

Needs a connection

Closing, validating, cancelling or reopening a work order; a completion that requires an approval, a permit, a signature or parts; work orders and inspections not saved on the phone; files never opened on this phone; discarding an inspection.

Camera

QR scanner and photo attachments. Required for the bottom-bar scanner.

Notifications

Push notifications for assignments, status changes, overdue alerts

Storage

Save offline copies of assigned work orders and recent attachments

Location (optional)

Only when you record an asset's GPS position, or when you clock in and your company has turned on “GPS team clock-in tracking”

Permissions explained

At first launch the app requests a small set of permissions. Each one is requested only when first needed and can be revoked from the device settings later.

Camera

QR scanner and photo attachments. Required for the bottom-bar scanner.

Notifications

Push notifications for assignments, status changes, overdue alerts

Storage

Save offline copies of assigned work orders and recent attachments

Location (optional)

Only when you record an asset's GPS position, or when you clock in and your company has turned on “GPS team clock-in tracking”

iOS

iOS 15.0 or later — iPhone 8 and newer, all current iPad models

Android

Android 8.0 (API 26) or later — most devices from 2017 onward

Network

Cellular or WiFi at first launch; later offline session up to 7 days

Storage

About 120 MB after install, including offline cache

Device requirements

iOS

iOS 15.0 or later — iPhone 8 and newer, all current iPad models

Android

Android 8.0 (API 26) or later — most devices from 2017 onward

Network

Cellular or WiFi at first launch; later offline session up to 7 days

Storage

About 120 MB after install, including offline cache

Common installation issues

Put the full FreeMaint on your home screen

This is the fastest way to reach a screen the new app does not have yet — and it is exactly what the previous app was: this website, in a frame. One difference to know: the home-screen version cannot send you push notifications. That is what the native app is for.

1. {"title":"Android (Chrome)","description":"Android, in Chrome: open freemaint.com, tap the three-dot menu, then \"Add to Home screen\". It opens full screen, with its own icon, like an app."}
2. {"title":"iPhone (Safari)","description":"iPhone, in Safari: open freemaint.com, tap the Share button, then \"Add to Home Screen\"."}

Same credentials as the web app.

Biometric Unlock

Turn on Settings > Unlock with Face ID or fingerprint to lock the app when it goes to the background. It protects a phone left on a bench — it is not a second password, and it never replaces your password or two-factor code.

Sessions

Stays logged in until you log out or admin revokes access.

Steps

1. Open app
2. Enter email and password
3. Tap Sign In

Fastest way to reach an asset or a part in the field. On a phone, scanning brings up quick actions tailored to your permissions — and the actions differ depending on whether you scanned an asset or a part.

After Scanning

• View details
• Check history
• Create work order
• Submit request
• Record meter reading
• Take a part from stock (scan a part label)
• Attach the machine to a work order you already opened

Attaching an Asset by Scanning

Useful when several machines share the same name and only differ by serial number: create the work order without an asset, then scan the machine's label in front of it. Open the work order, tap the … menu and choose « Attach asset (scan) ». The label can be a FreeMaint QR code, a barcode, or the manufacturer's serial number plate — no sticker required. The row only appears while the work order has no asset yet, and only if you may edit it. Offline, the change is saved on the phone and applied as soon as you have signal again.

Scanning a printed work order

The QR code printed on a work order opens that work order in the app. A QR code pointing to another FreeMaint page that the app can show, such as a request, opens it the same way. You see the record only if your account can open it on the web too.

Scanning a Part

A part label opens its stock level and lets you take units out. Use it on a work order so the cost is booked against that job; taking it without one is possible but records no job cost.

If your workspace hides asset details from the public

An administrator can restrict what a QR scan reveals to people without an account (Company Settings → Intervention Request form → Public QR landing page). It never affects you: signed into the app you keep seeing the full asset whatever the level, because the app sends your session with every scan.

How to Scan

1. Tap QR icon
2. Point camera at label
3. Auto-detect and read
4. Opens asset detail

Full WO access from mobile.

Add a task from the phone

On the work order's task list (the “Execute” screen), “Add Task” at the bottom lets a supervisor add a task to an existing work order: a title, optional details and, for roles allowed to create tasks, “Photo required to complete”. It needs the permission to update work orders and a connection. On the detail screen, the list carries the name of the web tab, “Procedure & Tasks” (or the name your administrator gave it), with the progress, for example “2 of 5 tasks”. A work order with no task yet shows “Add Task” there instead, so the procedure can be prepared before the work starts. On an open task, “Edit task” changes its title and details.

Tasks assigned to you

When a task is assigned to you, its row shows “You” (a task assigned to someone else shows their name), and a “Mine” filter appears next to “All” to show only your tasks. Supervisors allowed to assign work orders can choose “Assigned to” when adding or editing a task, among the work order's assignees, once it has at least two. This needs a connection.

Features

• View assignments
• Update status
• Log time
• Add parts
• Complete tasks
• Comments and photos
• Push notifications

Tasks that require a photo

A task marked “Photo required to complete” cannot be ticked until a photo or short video of it is added — a document does not count. The only photo of a completed task cannot be deleted: reopen the task to replace it.

Fill in an inspection round while standing in front of the equipment. Reading rounds works on every plan; filling them in requires the Starter plan or higher.

Filling It In

• Each checkpoint is answered with the control its template defines
• Add a note or a photo to any checkpoint
• Answers save on their own as you go
• The progress bar counts what is answered

Finding Your Rounds

1. Open More > Inspections
2. Mine shows the rounds assigned to you
3. Overdue shows what is past due
4. Tap a round to open it

Finishing

Complete the round when every required checkpoint is answered. If one is missing, or a checkpoint that requires a photo has none, the app names it before sending. A failed checkpoint can raise a corrective work order automatically when the template asks for it.

Camera integration for quick documentation.

Editing a photo before attaching it

In the mobile app you can mark up a photo before it is attached: tap it in the strip of the camera sheet, or tap its thumbnail in the attachments of a creation form. The edited version replaces the original before upload. Photos that are already uploaded cannot be edited.

1. Take or pick the photo, then tap it to open Edit photo
2. Crop: drag the frame or its corners, then tap Apply
3. Rotate: turns the photo 90° with each tap
4. Draw: choose Red, Yellow, Blue or White and draw with your finger
5. Text: tap the photo where the label goes, type it and tap Add
6. Undo removes the last change; tap Done to keep the edited photo

Photos in a discussion

In a request's Discussion, as in a work order's messages, the camera button next to the message field attaches up to 5 photos. You can mark each one up first (circle the fault, add a label), then it is sent with what you typed, as one message, and shows in the conversation on the web too.

Before and after photos

Each work order photo carries a Before or After badge. A photo added before the work starts counts as Before, one added afterwards as After, and the completion screen has its own Before and After tiles. Press and hold a photo to change its classification. Photos without a badge — for example those carried over from a request — are shown last.

Taking Photos

1. Open WO or request
2. Tap photo button
3. Take new or select from gallery
4. Add caption
5. Auto-uploads

Real-time alerts for assignments, approvals, and status changes.

Number on the app icon (iPhone)

On iPhone, the number on the FreeMaint icon is your count of unread notifications — the same number as the bell. Each push notification updates it, reading in the app lowers it, and it goes back to zero when you sign out. On Android, the badge is drawn by your phone's launcher from the notifications in the notification shade.

Setup

1. Open app > Settings
2. Allow notifications
3. iOS: Settings > FreeMaint > Notifications
4. Android: Settings > Apps > FreeMaint > Notifications