UPDATE – PLEASE READ
After a few days trying to replicate this problem we finally arrived at a fail state. We are able to periodically have our iOS4 devices get in a state where the app caching and offline support completely fails. Other non-MobiOne webapps have this same problem so this is an iOS4 issue (See Financial Times iOS WebApp Troubleshoot Guide)
We are monitoring this problem and expect it to be resolved in iOS5.
How app cache should work in MobiOne webapp that is configured for offline support:
1) On initial access of webapp URL MobiOne will present an “Updating” dialog and then download and cache all contents of the
2) save webapp to homescreen
3) turn on airplane mode (device is offline)
4) launch webapp from homescreen
– webapp spins up and functions as if it were online
How to reset device for proper app caching and offline operation:
1) go to Settings>Mobile Safari, select Clear Cache
2) restart iOS device
Initially we had difficulty replicating the problem because we frequently reboot our test devices to have a clean state for testing.
Here is a discussion on this issue by others:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6270175/ios-did-apple-disable-html5-offline-capability-for-web-apps-saved-to-the-home-sc