Get ready for a trip: a deck, offline study and the time zone

Before you leave, you'll have a deck saved on your phone with its audio, so you can study on the plane with no connection. When you land, your study day moves to local time.

What you need

• The Vocards app on an iPhone or an Android phone. Offline study and audio downloads are in the phone app only. The web app needs a connection.
• An internet connection before you go, to make the deck and save it.
• AI credits if you make the deck with AI. Every account gets 500 free every 30 days.

1. Make a deck for the trip

Make the deck while you're still online, on the web or in the phone app. Describe a topic, such as "Travel phrases for my trip to Japan", and choose how many cards you want: see Build a vocabulary deck from a topic. If you already have a phrasebook page or a list, photograph it instead: see Turn a photo into flashcards.

A deck's languages can't be changed after you create it, so pick the pair you'll use on the trip.

2. Save the deck on your phone

The phone app keeps a copy of your decks so you can study without a connection. Each time the app starts with a connection, it saves every deck's cards, skipping any it saved in the last hour. It doesn't do this again while it stays open in the background. Opening a deck while online always saves that deck again, with any cards you added since.

Do this after your last change to the deck, so the copy on your phone is up to date:

1. Open Vocards on your phone while you're connected.
2. Open the deck you want to take with you.
3. To check, turn on airplane mode and start a session on that deck. If the first card appears, the deck is saved. You can keep going. Those answers sync when you're back online.
4. Turn airplane mode off.

3. Download the deck's audio

Word audio comes from the internet, so download it before you go.

1. On the deck page, scroll down to Audio for offline use. It has one row for the language you're learning and one for the language you know.
2. Tap Download on both rows.

When a row is done, it reads Audio downloaded. Downloads only start while you're online.

Offline, a card plays its words only if they're on the phone: downloaded here, already played by Podcast Mode, or played recently while you were online. That last copy can be cleared to free space, so don't count on it. The download is the copy that stays. Example sentences aren't part of the download, so in a session their speaker buttons are grayed out while you're offline. Tapping a grayed-out speaker shows Audio not downloaded – connect to play.

If you'd rather listen than tap through cards, the same download lets Podcast Mode play the deck offline. You still need a connection to open it. Podcast Mode also replays example sentences it has played for you before. Sessions don't. See Listen to a deck hands-free with Podcast Mode.

4. Study with no connection

Open the deck and tap the bar at the bottom of the deck page to start a session.

The session runs on your phone, with the same kinds of exercises as online. A small label under the header reads Offline · progress syncs when reconnected .

While you're offline:

• Edit Card and Delete Card in the session's ⋯ menu are grayed out.
• You can't create decks or add cards. The app says This feature is unavailable in offline mode .
• Making cards from a photo or a topic needs a connection and AI credits, so save that for when you're back on Wi-Fi.

5. Let your answers sync

When your phone is back online, Vocards sends your offline answers by itself. The label changes to Back online · syncing…, and a message says Sync complete with how many reviews were sent.

To check or send them yourself, open the Settings tab. While answers are waiting, an Offline section shows Pending reviews with the number waiting. Tap Sync now.

A session you did offline counts for the day you studied, even if it syncs a day or two later.

6. Move your study day to local time

Vocards starts a new study day at 4 AM in the time zone saved in your settings. Your phone's clock doesn't change it. Your streak and the cards due each day follow that saved time zone. If you keep your home time zone abroad, the day turns over at 4 AM home time, which can fall in the middle of your day.

When Vocards starts with a connection and your phone's time zone is different from the saved one, it asks New timezone detected, "Update saved timezone to Asia/Tokyo?" . Tap Update.

It checks only when the app starts. Switching back to Vocards from another app doesn't trigger it. If you don't see the question, close Vocards fully and open it again while you're connected.

If it doesn't ask, or you'd rather not wait for it, change it yourself. This works offline too.

1. Open the Settings tab.
2. Under App, find Timezone. It shows the time zone saved now.
3. Tap that row. Its right side reads Use device. The app says Timezone updated, or Timezone already matches device if nothing needed changing.

The question only appears while Auto-detect timezone changes is on. It's on unless you turned it off.

When you get home, Vocards asks again. Tap Update to go back to your home time zone.

Note: The web app checks too. When you open it in a browser whose time zone differs from the saved one, it shows the same question with an Update button.

Limits

• An offline session counts for the day you studied only if it syncs within 30 days. After that, it still updates your cards, but counts for the day it syncs.
• Persian and Uzbek have no audio, so there's nothing to download for that side of a deck.

If something goes wrong