Chromebooks are sometimes bought on their tight integration with the cloud: They’re basically home windows to the online and never a lot else. That comes with quite a lot of advantages, like by no means having to fret about shedding an unsaved doc, but it surely additionally means Chromebooks are much less helpful than Home windows or macOS laptops when you do not have an web connection.
Nonetheless, it is not true that Chromebooks are full bricks whereas they’re offline. With advances in internet app and browser expertise, now you can get quite a bit executed on a Chromebook with out an web connection, with all of your work resyncing when Wi-Fi is on the market once more.
Clearly, you’ll be able to’t ship an e-mail or stream a video whilst you’re disconnected from the online—however you’ll be able to work on paperwork and emails in an offline mode, in addition to cache content material to observe and hearken to whilst you’re offline, as I am going to clarify right here.
Utilizing Gmail Offline
Maybe unsurprisingly, contemplating it develops ChromeOS, Google has been on the forefront of creating internet apps work offline for the good thing about Chromebook customers. Gmail is without doubt one of the big-name apps that works offline, up to some extent—you will not have the ability to ship or obtain emails with out an web connection, however you’ll be able to nonetheless work on them.
From the primary Gmail interface on the net, click on the gear icon (high proper), then See all settings. Open the Offline tab, verify the Allow offline mail setting, and a lot of new choices pop up. Chief amongst them is the drop-down menu that allows you to select how a lot e-mail to sync to your Chromebook: 7, 30, or 90 days’ price. The next worth provides you extra messages to work with, however takes up extra cupboard space. You will see how a lot area Gmail is presently utilizing on the identical display.
On the identical web page, that you must select what occurs in the event you log off of your Google account within the ChromeOS browser. You may both preserve the synced information in place (handy in the event you signal again in, however doubtlessly dangerous from a safety standpoint), or delete it out of your Chromebook (a safer possibility, however you’ll need to resync all of the messages once more in the event you signal again into Google).
Click on Save Modifications, and also you’re executed. Whenever you’re offline, you are in a position to search by way of and skim the emails you’ve got cached, in addition to compose new emails and save them as drafts. Completed emails could be despatched too, with out really being despatched; they will be saved in a newly created Outbox folder, and dispatched as quickly as internet entry is restored.
Utilizing Google Drive Offline
You should use Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides whereas offline, in addition to sure elements of the broader Google Drive app—however as with Gmail, that you must do some preparation prematurely. From Google Drive on the net, click on the gear icon (high proper), then choose Settings.
