Most documents are saved to livedocuments' servers so you can reach them from any device and share them. Offline Mode is the opposite choice: a document saved only in the browser you made it in, that is never stored on the server. It suits private, local-first work, simply trying livedocuments out, or wanting a document that physically never leaves your machine.
Creating a document in This Browser
Offline Mode is chosen per document, so you can keep normal documents and ones in This Browser side by side.
- If you haven't signed in, your new documents start in This Browser. Nothing you try out is sent to our servers until you choose to share it, sync it, or sign in and move it to your account. Everything you make from New Document, and from the links that create a document straight away (a template from the home page, say), starts in This Browser. Use Sync Document from its Share dialog if you would rather it went to livedocuments now.
- Once you've signed in, new documents go to your account. To keep one only in this browser, choose Take Offline from its menu (see below).
- A document made inside a folder or a team goes to livedocuments, whoever makes it, because that is where the folder or team lives.
- The document is written to your browser's own storage (IndexedDB) and opens like any other. A This Browser badge next to its name in the editor marks it, so you always know which documents live only in this browser. Hover or focus the badge to read that clearing this browser's site data deletes the document. The rest of the Explorer lists only documents on the server, so This Browser, in the More group of the Explorer sidebar, is where you find them all.
A document in This Browser is not synced and not backed up. It lives only in this browser: clearing your site data, or the browser reclaiming storage, will delete it. Keep anything important on livedocuments, or export a copy.
What's different
A document in This Browser is a normal document: every editor feature works, including pages, shapes, arrows, tabs, themes, undo/redo, and export. Only the features that need the server are unavailable, because there's no server copy to power them:
- Sharing needs a document on the server. Opening Share on a document in This Browser tells you so and offers Sync Document: press it and the document uploads, and the Share options appear in the same dialog, with no reload. Embeds are unavailable until it is synced, for the same reason.
- Live collaboration and teams don't apply; a document in This Browser is yours alone. Comments still work, but only you see them.
- Images you add are stored inside the document, so it stays fully local.
- Add a Tab to Another Document is unavailable for a document in This Browser in either direction, and Duplicate makes another copy in This Browser rather than uploading one.
- It is listed under This Browser in the Explorer's sidebar, in Home's Jump Back In once you have opened it, and on the This Browser page (/offline, also reached from the Explorer panel), not in My Work, Recent or search, because those list what is on the server.
Moving to your account
You can change your mind at any time, from the document's ⋯ menu.
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When you sign in with documents in This Browser, we offer to move them to your account. Every one is ticked; untick any you want to keep in this browser, then Move. Not Now leaves them where they are, and we only ask again when there are more.
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Sync Document (in a document's Share dialog, signed in or not, and on each document under This Browser, in the Explorer and on the This Browser page, when you're signed in) uploads a document in This Browser to the cloud. From the Explorer, the This Browser page opens and asks you to confirm. It becomes a normal document, shareable and (when you're signed in) reachable from your other devices, and the copy in this browser is removed.
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Take Offline (on a document's menu in the Explorer and the Explorer panel) does the reverse: it downloads a cloud document into this browser and then removes it from your account and every other device. Because that deletes the server copy for good, we ask you to confirm first.
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A tab it shares with other documents (see Add a Tab to Another Document) stays in those documents, and this browser keeps its own copy. From then on the two are separate: edits on one side no longer reach the other, and syncing the document back brings your copy in as a new tab beside the original.
Take Offline is deliberate and irreversible on the server side: once a document is in This Browser it exists only in the browser you took it offline in. If it was shared, taking it offline also revokes the share links, and a team document leaves the team library. For the owner it is a move, not a delete, so it skips the Trash; a teammate taking a team document offline sends the team's copy to the team Trash. Deleting a document in This Browser removes it from this browser.
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