This guide takes you from a brand new iPad to a working installation of The Muster App, ready for your crew to use. The whole process takes about five minutes if your iPad already has WiFi.
You'll need:
- An iPad running iPadOS 16.6 or later (iPad, iPad Air, iPad Pro, or iPad mini all work). A 10.9″ or larger screen is easiest to read at the gangway
- A WiFi connection
- An admin account on admin.themusterapp.com for your vessel
1. Download the app from the App Store
On your iPad, open the App Store and search for The Muster App. Tap the result with the orange square icon and the teal anchor. That's us. Tap Get or the cloud-download icon to install.
The download is around 30 MB and takes a few seconds on a normal connection. When it's finished, the icon will appear on your home screen.
2. Open the app for the first time
Tap the icon to launch the app. The first time you open it, you'll see a welcome screen and then a prompt asking for an access code. The access code is how the app knows which vessel you belong to.
Every iPad is paired with its own one-time code, generated in the admin when you need it.
Get a device code from the admin
From the admin panel, log in and go to Devices. Click Add device and you'll see a seven-character code generated for you on screen, shown as XXX-XXXX, for example A3K-X9M2. The code is valid for 10 minutes and can only be used once.
The letters O and I and the digits 0 and 1 never appear in a code, and neither does L. That is deliberate: a code read aloud across a noisy quay, or written on a scrap of paper, cannot be mistyped as the wrong character.
Type that code into the access code field on the iPad. Within a couple of seconds the iPad will be authorised, the code will be marked as used, and you'll see the welcome screen.
3. Name your iPad
Once authorised, the app will ask you to give the device a name. This is what shows up in the admin panel's Devices list and in any audit logs, so pick something descriptive, for example Bridge iPad, Crew Mess iPad, or Engine Room iPad. You can change it later from the iPad's settings.
4. Grant the necessary permissions
The Muster App will ask for a small number of system permissions on first launch. Each one is needed for a specific feature, and you can change your mind later in iOS Settings → The Muster App.
- Camera: used to take visitor photos and scan IDs. Tap Allow.
- Microphone: used to record muster session audio (only when explicitly enabled by an admin) and for VoIP emergency calls. Tap OK.
- Local Network: used to discover Brother label printers on the same WiFi network. Tap Allow.
- Notifications: used to alert crew when a muster is activated remotely. Tap Allow.
If you accidentally tap "Don't Allow" on any of these, you can re-enable the permission later in iOS Settings, but the easiest path is to just allow them all on first launch.
5. You're done: meet the crew board
After the permissions, the app drops you straight onto the crew board, the home screen. You'll see a list of every crew member on the vessel, organised by department, with their current status (on board, ashore, on leave) shown as a coloured pill. From here you can navigate to visitors, safety documents, muster control, vehicles, and everything else The Muster App offers.
If you've just signed up, your crew board will be empty. That's fine. The next thing to do is add your crew members from the admin panel. They'll appear on the iPad within a few seconds of being added.
Stuck?
If you got an error during authorisation, the most common causes are:
- Code expired: one-time codes only last 10 minutes. Generate a new one from the admin panel and try again.
- Code already used: each one-time code can only be used once. Generate a fresh code.
- No internet: the iPad needs WiFi to talk to our servers for the first authorisation. Check your WiFi connection.
- Wrong yacht: double-check you're using a code generated from the correct vessel's admin panel.
If none of those apply, just contact us with the error message and your vessel name and we'll get you sorted.