Permanent Install Guide
How to keep an unattended booth running reliably over time
By making booth maintenance part of a weekly routine, you’ll avoid the common pitfalls associated with permanent installations. A little consistency goes a long way toward ensuring a reliable, guest-ready experience.
Preparing Your iPad
If this is your first time setting up a booth for a permanent install, ensure you have completed the one-time setup steps in these guides:
Preparing Your iPad for Public Use: Covers important tips for Guided Access, auto-lock, and other iOS settings. This only needs to be done once.
Pre-Event Checklist: Covers basics like charging, connectivity, and testing the booth. This should be reviewed periodically to ensure everything is still optimal.
Guided Access
Guided Access is covered in detail in both articles above.
The person responsible for maintaining the booth must know the Guided Access passcode. While you can share it with the wider team, someone must be able to exit the feature to update the app or reboot the iPad. Ensure Guided Access is always re-enabled after any maintenance.
Regular Maintenance
Assign a Point Person
In permanent installs, booths often go untouched for weeks until something breaks. Assign a dedicated staff member or manager to be explicitly responsible for the booth. Ideally, this should be someone who isn't juggling active customer service (like a bartender or waiter).
Their weekly checklist should include:
Ensuring the proper preset is in use: Using Guided Access at all times helps prevent accidental preset changes.
Checking for iOS and app updates: Check the App Store at least once a week. Install updates promptly to avoid crashes or sync issues.
Restarting the device: Reboot the iPad after any major software updates.
Monitor the Offline Queue
If the booth is actively capturing photos, reviewing the queue ensures everything is functioning correctly.
Daily: Check the queue for high-traffic booths.
Weekly: Review the queue at the same time as app and iOS checks. Regular reviews help catch stalled uploads or failed syncs before they become widespread problems.
If your patrons contact Simple Booth's team about missing pictures, we do our best to help, but our team cannot directly intervene with pictures stuck on your iPad.
Helpful Management Tools
These features make it easier to manage a permanent booth, especially when you are not onsite.
The devices page is your primary tool for remote troubleshooting. From your dashboard, you can:
Check the iPad’s battery level and connection status.
See which preset is currently running.
Monitor how many captures are pending in the offline queue.
Remotely launch a different preset—useful for switching to special event themes without going onsite.
If you are collecting guest information, you can download a CSV of your results from your account's analytics page. The CSV download button is located about halfway down the page on the left-hand side.
Quick Links
Troubleshooting Guide: Tips on overcoming common hardware and software issues.
Brand Moderation: Available on the Select plan, this allows you to review photos before they appear in your online gallery. The moderation queue should be checked as often as possible.
Analytics: Access participant information and event performance data.
Last updated