Been grappling with this problem for over a month now, I cannot get PouchDB functional with my ionic application.
A minimal test case is available here, all the diagnostic information is outputted onto the screen via $scope.
CORS settings on couchdb are here (need admin access to view):
http://pastebin.com/KxNkUwib
Running ionic on chrome desktop works fine.
Running ionic on chrome mobile works fine.
Running ionic as APK on android device, doesn't work.
Running ionic on firefox desktop doesn't work.
The problem seems to be with connecting to couchdb database rather than local manipulation (I suggest you check the logs to validate this).