Study Stash

Phone app

Your library, in your pocket.

Read a lecture's notes on the bus, ask your notes a question, and see what's due, on an iPhone, iPad or Android phone. It's a web app your own library serves, so there's no app store and no account: it takes about five minutes, once.

Before you start

You need two things:

  • Study Stash on your library's computer, open and awake. With one computer, that's your laptop; with two, it's the computer at home that keeps the library.
  • Tailscale on that computer, signed in. Tailscale is the free, private network Study Stash uses to reach your library from anywhere; a laptop and a library set up for "anywhere" already have it. If not, get it from tailscale.com/download.

Your phone talks straight to your own library, over Tailscale's encrypted network. Your notes don't pass through any Study Stash server, because there isn't one.

Set it up

  1. Install Tailscale on your phone

    Get Tailscale from the App Store (iPhone and iPad) or Google Play (Android). Open it, sign in with the same account your library's computer uses, and switch it on. Your phone asks to add a VPN configuration: allow it. That's how the phone reaches your library; only traffic to your own devices goes through it.

  2. Choose Add a phone

    In Study Stash, open Settings → Add a phone. (The library's web page has the same button in its Settings.) It shows a QR code and a six-digit code. The code works once, for ten minutes; if it runs out, click Add a phone again for a new one.

  3. Scan the QR code

    Point your phone's camera at the QR code and tap the link it finds. It opens your library's phone app, at an address like https://your-library.your-tailnet.ts.net:8443/app/.

  4. Add it to your home screen

    Do this before you type the code: on an iPhone or iPad, the home screen app keeps its own sign-in, separate from the browser's.

    iPhone and iPad

    1. Open the page in Safari.
    2. Tap Share (the square with an arrow).
    3. Tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.
    4. Open Study Stash from your home screen.

    Android

    1. Open the page in Chrome.
    2. Tap Install if Chrome offers it, or open the ⋮ menu.
    3. Tap Install app (or Add to Home screen), then Install.
    4. Open Study Stash from your home screen or app drawer.

  5. Enter the code

    Type the six-digit code from your computer and give the phone a name you'll recognise, like "Sam's iPhone". That's it: the phone stays paired, and you won't be asked again.

Afterwards

  • Keep Tailscale on. The phone app reaches your library whenever Tailscale is connected, at home or anywhere else, and your library's computer is awake.
  • See or remove a phone in Study Stash's Settings, where each paired phone is listed with when it was last used. Removing one signs it out straight away: do this if a phone is lost, sold or given away.
  • Updates come with the library. When Study Stash updates on your library's computer, the phone app updates with it the next time you open it.

If something's wrong

The page won't open, or says it can't connect
  • Is Tailscale switched on on the phone? Open the Tailscale app and check it says Connected.
  • Is the phone signed in to the same Tailscale account as your library's computer? In the Tailscale app you should see your library's computer in the list.
  • Is your library's computer on and awake, with Study Stash running? A computer that's asleep can't answer.
The code doesn't work

Each code works once and for ten minutes. Click Add a phone again for a fresh one. After several wrong tries the library waits a little before trying again, so type slowly and check each digit.

I can't find Add to Home Screen

On an iPhone or iPad, open the page in Safari and look in the Share sheet; scroll down the list of actions if it isn't near the top. On Android, use Chrome and look in the ⋮ menu for Install app or Add to Home screen. Other browsers may not offer it.

It asks for a code again

That happens if the phone was removed in Settings, if the browser's data for the site was cleared, or, on an iPhone, if you paired in Safari and then opened the home screen app (they keep separate sign-ins). Click Add a phone for a new code and enter it in the home screen app.

It says the phone app isn't built

Your library is running a version of Study Stash from before the phone app. Update it: in Settings, click Update now.

It works at home but not when I'm out

That's almost always Tailscale being switched off on the phone. Switch it on in the Tailscale app. You can let Tailscale connect by itself (its settings call this VPN On Demand on iPhone, or always-on VPN on Android).

Still stuck? Ask on GitHub, and say which phone you're using and what the page shows.