Visual quick start
From your first enclosure to the daily feeding routine – this guide shows the most important workflows directly in the app.
01 · Set up your collection
On the first launch of an empty standalone collection, a skippable introduction walks through enclosures, animals, feedings and QR codes. Next and Back stay within the introduction; Finish or Skip closes it without changing the current page. You can replay it from Settings. Create the physical enclosure first, then add the animal and assign it to the appropriate enclosure.
Open Enclosures and tap +. Add a name, dimensions, optionally a picture and any other useful information. After saving, the enclosure receives its own unique QR identifier automatically.
Tip: A clear picture makes visual identification easier later, especially in larger collections.
Under Animals, create the animal record and assign it to an active enclosure. Optional details include taxonomy, explicit sex, birth information, daytime and nighttime temperatures, humidity, origin, weight, rest periods and notes.
Weight and shedding can be shown or hidden separately on Animal details without deleting their histories. An existing birth date can also be cleared together with its accuracy.
Enable Big Picture Mode in Settings when pictures should be the main focus of the enclosure and animal overviews. The setting also applies when animals are grouped by category and is restored through portable backups.
In addition to the primary picture, you can store more pictures in the gallery. Any picture can later be selected as the primary image without deleting the others. Tap the primary or a gallery picture to zoom it in the full-screen viewer. On wide screens, overviews, settings, detail pages, editing forms and history pages stay at comfortable reading widths. The side margins follow the selected theme. Detail pictures gain more height in wide layouts; the full-screen viewer still uses the entire window.
02 · QR codes
Every enclosure has a unique QR code. Attach the printed code to the enclosure and scan it to open the matching workflow immediately.
Under Settings → Box QR codes, select active or archived Boxes and save their QR codes as individual PNG files, a ZIP archive or a print-ready A4 PDF. You can deselect Boxes before each export and choose a 6–20 mm code size for the PDF.
Attach the printed code to the actual terrarium or enclosure. In standalone mode, TerraManager’s integrated scanner resolves the code locally. The same scanner can open an enclosure, start Feeding Mode or select an active destination enclosure from Edit Animal. Rehouse Mode asks for confirmation and rejects unknown, archived and current enclosures. In optional Shared Care Web mode, a Box scan opens the shared Box details; it requires trusted HTTPS and a supported browser’s built-in QR reader. Only the QR identifier is sent to your own server.
03 · Feedings
Feedings are stored with date, time and food or quantity, creating a chronological history for each animal.
The feeding history shows the animal’s previous feedings. Existing entries can be corrected or deleted if they were entered by mistake.
Add timestamped shedding events from Animal details or Edit Animal. The history is ordered from newest to oldest, and every entry can have its own optional note. Existing entries can be corrected or permanently deleted after confirmation.
Scan the enclosure first. TerraManager then shows the active animals assigned to it with their names and current thumbnails. Animals without a picture use the usual placeholder. Shared Care Feeding Mode uses the same selection layout. Select one or more animals that were actually fed and save the feeding together. A separate feeding entry is created for each selected animal.
Scanned the wrong enclosure? “Scan another enclosure” returns to the scanner so you can correct the accidental scan.
04 · Reminders
Each animal can use a day interval or a fixed weekday feeding plan.
Open the reminder action in the animal details and enable the feeding reminder. Choose either a positive whole number of days or fixed weekdays with a time and time zone. Recording a feeding does not shift the selected weekdays. Existing intervals remain available.
When the calculated date is reached or passed, the animal is marked as Due. The primary Animals navigation item and the Animal Overview indicate active due feedings. The due list can be collapsed and expanded in both overview modes while its count stays visible. Enable the optional Next Feeding card and tap it to see all animals with reminders ordered by their next appointment, even when every appointment is overdue.
05 · History
Animals and enclosures that are no longer active can be removed from the active collection without deleting their existing information.
When archiving, you can record a reason, date and optional note. Animal History and Enclosure History can be sorted by archive date or displayed name in both directions. A context menu provides direct Restore and Duplicate actions.
“Delete permanently” removes the record for good. When historical information remains useful, archiving is the safer choice.
06 · Backup
As your collection grows, backups contain core records, picture galleries, feedings, weight and shedding histories, Animal detail preferences and portable overview settings.
Before restoring a backup, TerraManager offers an additional safety backup of the current state by default. This protection is opt-out and can be deliberately disabled.
In standalone mode, the enabled safety backup removes the need for a separate manual backup before every restore. In Shared Care, a current portable safety backup is required before replacing existing collection data. Only a server-confirmed empty collection may skip it, and the server checks again before replacement. Explicit restore confirmation is still required; full server recovery also requires a backup of both databases in the server data directory.
Select Protect with password when saving a portable backup, enter the password twice, and keep it separately from the file. TerraManager recognizes a protected import and asks for the password. It rejects a wrong password or damaged file before replacing the collection. Older unprotected backups remain importable.
A forgotten password cannot be recovered. TerraManager does not persist the backup password. Processing a large backup can take several minutes and may fail on a device with little free memory; a failed or cancelled attempt does not replace the existing collection. When restoring a protected file, the optional local safety backup uses the same password. In Shared Care, an administrator first saves a current password-protected safety copy; the browser decrypts the selected file before sending it to the operator's server.
For daily use, TerraManager comes down to a few recurring actions: identify the enclosure, record care, check due feedings and regularly back up the growing collection data.
