Always-On Serving

iOS does not allow true background servers, so NAS Reborn runs as a foreground appliance that owns the screen. Sharing pauses whenever the app leaves the screen, and a little setup makes the arrangement reliable for months at a time.

Keep the app in front

While sharing, NAS Reborn keeps the screen awake and slowly drifts its content to avoid OLED burn-in. Because serving stops the moment another app takes the screen, make sure NAS Reborn stays in front:

• Guided Access (any device): turn it on under Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access, then triple-click the side or home button inside NAS Reborn. The device is now locked to the app until you triple-click again and enter the Guided Access passcode.
• Single App Mode (supervised devices, via Apple Configurator on a Mac): the stronger version. The device boots straight into NAS Reborn and relaunches it automatically, even after a power failure and reboot. This is the true set-and-forget appliance configuration.

Even without either mode, NAS Reborn remembers that it was serving and resumes automatically when reopened after a reboot or crash.

Power and battery

• Keep the device plugged in. NAS Reborn shows a warning banner with the battery percentage whenever it is sharing on battery power. A printable stand holds the phone upright with the cable attached, which also points its camera at the room instead of the ceiling.
• A battery held at 100% for months is a swelling risk on old cells, and iOS has no charge-limit setting on these devices. A cheap smart plug that cuts charging on a schedule, for example 45 minutes on and a few hours off, keeps the battery in a healthier range.
• Keep the device out of direct sunlight, and take it out of a thick case if it runs warm. The app monitors the thermal state, which is also visible to template sites.

The watchdog

NAS Reborn schedules a ladder of local notifications that it keeps postponing while serving. If the app is ever killed, crashes, or the device reboots without relaunching it, the postponing stops and the notifications fire: first after a few minutes, again after an hour and after a day. So silence really does mean everything is fine.

Stopping the server yourself cancels the pending alerts, so a deliberate stop never causes a false alarm.

App updates

The App Store rarely auto-updates an app that never leaves the foreground, so check for updates occasionally; NAS Reborn shows a notice itself when an update fixes a security problem. Installing one stops serving for a minute, so pick a moment when nothing is mid-backup, and start the server again afterwards.