# How does a player keep itself running?

A player checks in every 30 seconds, plays its content from the offline stock on the device, and recovers by itself after a fault: The display software restarts, then the device, and a separate watchdog brings the Wi-Fi back. In most cases, nobody has to go there.

> **Type:** concept
> **For:** anyone looking after displays in several places
> **Prerequisite:** a paired player with SzeneraOS. Web displays report less.
> **Where in the portal:** **Devices** › device › tab **Offline stock**

## The check-in and what it does not say

Every 30 seconds, the device sends a check-in. From it, the portal calculates its status: **Online** under 60 seconds, **Delayed** between 60 seconds and 5 minutes, **Offline** above that.

That is purely a time calculation: A device can check in and still show no picture, and the other way round. The **Visibility** tells you what the display is showing (**Showing content**, **Starting up**, **Showing a fault**, **Showing nothing**, **No cable**, **No report**). The **Realtime channel** row in the device record tells you whether the display software itself is connected.

## Without a network, the display software keeps running

Content, media, and apps are on the device, not on the wire: A state that is still valid survives a dropped connection.

![From the first loaded state through the expired deadline to the last state without a network. Every fresh retrieval leads back.](/docs/devices/bilder/5f5d5c3e-offline-levels.svg)

*Only beyond both deadlines and without a connection does “current” become “last state.”*

Only when a state has hard-expired **and** there has been no network for 60 seconds continuously does a calm, dark notice appear at the bottom right: **No connection — showing the last known content**. The content keeps running underneath unchanged. When the network returns, the device catches up.

A device that has never loaded a state shows the error screen with a reason and countdown without a network. The operations log records every change with a timestamp.

## The offline stock on the device

The **Offline stock** tab shows how much is on the device. [The device record](/docs/devices/device-record#offline-stock) explains its numbers. The offline stock is capped at 10 GiB. When space gets tight, the oldest files give way first, and media of the running rotation stay. How long a device holds out without a network depends on your content and on the available space.

## When the display software crashes

A watchdog checks on the display software every 30 seconds and restarts it within seconds after a crash. If the display software on the same display crashes **three times within an hour**, the watchdog restarts the whole device, even if the second display runs flawlessly. If the device does not respond at all for 60 seconds, a watchdog in the hardware steps in and forces a restart without involving the system.

In the operations log, these events appear in plain language, for example **Display crashed and was restarted** or **Device started**.

## When the network stays away

A second watchdog checks every minute whether the connection holds and steps in stage by stage. Each stage is stronger than the one before.

| Failed rounds | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | nothing, because a single missed response is nothing to worry about |
| 2 | rebuild the Wi-Fi connection |
| 5 | switch the radio module off and on again |
| 10 | restart the network service |
| 30 | emergency restart of the device, at most every 6 hours |

In the setup hotspot, the radio is deliberately left alone: There, the same interface carries the setup page. A failed attempt does not delete your Wi-Fi, and the setup card remains the emergency access.

## What follows

- **For short outages, you do nothing.** **Delayed** recovers by itself as soon as a check-in arrives again.
- **After hours offline, you check the network on site.** Router, repeater, cable: By then the device has tried everything it can do alone.
- **A power outage needs no action from you.** The player has no switch: When power returns, it starts and goes back to showing what it should, without asking.
- **A black display is rarely a network problem.** If the display shows text, the cause is the network or the device. If it is completely black with no text, the cause is the display software.

## Related

- [What happens when the network goes down?](/docs/getting-started/about-network-outages) — the same question from the portal’s point of view.
- [Connect to the network: cable, Wi-Fi, company network, time](/docs/devices/connect-network) — what the device needs for a reliable connection.
- [Troubleshooting on the device](/docs/devices/troubleshooting) — when self-healing is not enough.