HelpFix a problemThe lobby TV is blank or offline
The lobby TV is blank or offline
A lobby TV that is blank, "offline" or showing the wrong thing is almost always one of five things. Work down the list — the first one is by far the most common.
Quick answer. If you designed a display and the TV is showing the plain built-in one instead, your design was never sent to a screen — that's step 1, and the commonest reason of all. Otherwise check the screen on the Devices page: offline means a network or power problem on the TV itself; online but blank usually means the line is simply empty, or a schedule swapped the display.
The five things to check, in order
- 1Is your design on the screen?Designing and sending are two different steps
- 2Is the screen online?Devices page shows this
- 3Empty, not broken?No one waiting yet
- 4Scheduled off?A schedule swapped the display
- 5Showing the connect page?Somebody navigated away
| Cause | How to tell | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Your design was never sent to a screen | Open Displays, open your design, and look at the top right of the editor. "Not on any device yet" means no TV is showing it — it's still showing the built-in Standard display. | Open Devices, find the device's row, and press the display button on it — the pill that names the display it's showing, today reading "Display: Standard display". That opens Device settings, where you pick your design under Display and save. When a design is on a screen the editor says so instead — "On 2 devices". |
| The screen is offline | Open Devices and look at the device's status. Offline means the TV or tablet has lost power or its internet connection. A screen showing "Re-pair to monitor" isn't necessarily blank — it just can't report in until you pair it once more. | Check the device's Wi-Fi, cable and power. The lobby TV reconnects on its own once it's back — see Pair a device. If it stays offline for several minutes, turnda also raises a Warning on your Dashboard and warnings list, “the lobby TV has been offline for N min”, with a Check the TV button (Check the tablet for an entrance tablet). You can snooze it until closing. |
| Online but shows no numbers | Nobody is waiting, so the lobby TV is idle — it says "No one being served yet" rather than going blank. | Press Add walk-in on the Queue page to add a test visitor and watch the number appear. If it does, the display is fine. |
| The display was scheduled off | A screen can run a schedule that swaps displays by time of day — a "now serving" display in opening hours, a quieter one after close. A slot can only name a display you designed, never the built-in Standard display. When two slots overlap, the first one in the list wins. | Check the device's schedule in Devices → (the screen) → Schedule. |
| Showing the connect page | The TV lands on the connect page (app.turnda.com/tv) showing a code — somebody navigated it away from your display. Nothing was lost. | The TV restarts the remembered display by itself — press Start now to skip the countdown. To pair it afresh, press Connect a TV in Devices and type the code the TV shows. See Connect a TV. |
The exact hover message "This design is saved, but no device is showing it yet. Send it to a device from Devices."
Why the TV lands on the connect page A remote button, the TV's own home screen, or someone tidying up can send it there — never a fault on our side.
Your design was never sent to a screen
| How to tell | What to do |
|---|---|
| Open Displays, open your design, and look at the top right of the editor. "Not on any device yet" means no TV is showing it — it's still showing the built-in Standard display. | Open Devices, find the device's row, and press the display button on it — the pill that names the display it's showing, today reading "Display: Standard display". That opens Device settings, where you pick your design under Display and save. When a design is on a screen the editor says so instead — "On 2 devices". |
The screen is offline
| How to tell | What to do |
|---|---|
| Open Devices and look at the device's status. Offline means the TV or tablet has lost power or its internet connection. A screen showing "Re-pair to monitor" isn't necessarily blank — it just can't report in until you pair it once more. | Check the device's Wi-Fi, cable and power. The lobby TV reconnects on its own once it's back — see Pair a device. If it stays offline for several minutes, turnda also raises a Warning on your Dashboard and warnings list, “the lobby TV has been offline for N min”, with a Check the TV button (Check the tablet for an entrance tablet). You can snooze it until closing. |
Online but shows no numbers
| How to tell | What to do |
|---|---|
| Nobody is waiting, so the lobby TV is idle — it says "No one being served yet" rather than going blank. | Press Add walk-in on the Queue page to add a test visitor and watch the number appear. If it does, the display is fine. |
The display was scheduled off
| How to tell | What to do |
|---|---|
| A screen can run a schedule that swaps displays by time of day — a "now serving" display in opening hours, a quieter one after close. A slot can only name a display you designed, never the built-in Standard display. When two slots overlap, the first one in the list wins. | Check the device's schedule in Devices → (the screen) → Schedule. |
Showing the connect page
| How to tell | What to do |
|---|---|
| The TV lands on the connect page (app.turnda.com/tv) showing a code — somebody navigated it away from your display. Nothing was lost. | The TV restarts the remembered display by itself — press Start now to skip the countdown. To pair it afresh, press Connect a TV in Devices and type the code the TV shows. See Connect a TV. |
Three messages that can take over the whole screen
| What the screen says | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| This line has been retired | The line behind this screen was archived. It also says "This device is still paired. Reopen the line and this display comes back on its own." | Devices lists these under "Devices on archived lines" — remove the screen there, or unarchive the line on the Locations page. |
| This device code isn't recognised | The screen was removed, or its code was replaced. | The display prints the code it tried underneath — compare it with the one in Devices. |
| Can't reach turnda | The line underneath tells you where the fault is. "Nothing to fix on this device — it keeps trying and will come back on its own" means that's us, not your TV — don't send anyone to the router. "Check this device's internet connection" means the TV itself has lost its connection. | Check the line underneath before doing anything: only the second one means check the Wi-Fi on the device. |
- "Updating slowly" over a display that's still showing numbers means live updates dropped back to a regular check. Nothing is wrong — it just refreshes a little less often.
- An amber band saying "Reconnecting — numbers last updated 14:32" is more serious: the numbers on the wall are no longer live, and you're being told exactly how old they are.
- "This line isn't available right now" in one panel means that panel points at a named line that's been deleted or is no longer yours to show. A screen will never quietly fill that space with a different line's numbers.
- Fix it by pointing the section at another line, or at "this display's line", in the section's own controls.
- A banner across the top of the business app that begins “turnda is having a problem:”, with a More details link to the status page, means the fault is on turnda's side. Your lobby TV keeps the last screen it had and reconnects by itself when turnda is back. Nothing to fix on the TV.
Display looks squashed or cut off, not blank? That's a fit problem, not an outage. Open the device's Display settings in Devices — Device size, Rotation, Keep clear of the edges and How the display sits on this device (Fit or Fill) only appear there for your own designs, not the built-in Standard display. See Readability on the TV.
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Related: Pair a device · Device settings & scheduling · The lobby TV · Readability on the TV