Why would an iphone app NOT work on STJ?

[mindehankins]

Here's a little detail that has bugged me that last few trips, and I'm wondering if someone has the answer for:
I use a sleep app that's on my phone, to fall asleep at night. It's a guided meditation. On STJ, I could open the app, but it locked immediately and would not play. This happened at Cruz Views, which doesn't have great wifi reception indoors, and at Lavender Hill, which had pretty good wifi reception indoors. Both places had fair cellular data, but less so indoors.
Next trip is coming up. Because I play this app on a dock every night, and re-start it every time I wake in the middle of the night, even Blaine has become accustomed to falling asleep to it, and we really sleep better with it.
I don't know how apps work. Is an app IN my phone? Does "it" come through wifi? LOL - I'm sorry to sound like such a dummy.
I'd love to be able to fall asleep to our usual meditation, in November. Thanks, all!

[PA Girl]

I had a similar problem with an app when vacationing in PHL last month. My phone was set to seek out open Wifi. As soon as I turned that off and forced the phone over to cell service, the app worked fine. My resident younger person at the office said it was because my phone was constantly trying to (unsuccessfully) grab a wifi signal.

I'm interested in hearing others opinions because I am a total dummy when it comes to smart phones. The only way I solved my problem was by looking at my husband's phone and comparing every single setting, a process of elimination.

[poidog]

Does the app use any copyrighted material (music, images, coding, etc)? If so, it may be using your device's GPS and determines you to be "international" and stops the app from operating outside of the US (even though you aren't). Check to see if the app is on any other international app store (in iTunes you can change the country store). If the app isn't there, this is probably the reason why.

[mindehankins]

You're right, poi dog! Thank you! The app http://appshopper.com/lifestyle/relax-s ... meditation says that you can save sessions for listening - we'll try that! Thanks for your help!