How To Enable Offline Files In Windows 10

By default, Windows 10 has a feature named Sync Center and offline files, both of which operate Interactively, to allow the availability of network files when the network connection to the server Is down. Essentially, when offline files Is enabled, users can access their network files, regardless of server availability. In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to enable offline files via the Windows native Sync Center feature.


What this basically does, Is that It grabs a copy of the files that're stored on the network, and then stores those files on your PC. In the event your network/server goes down, you can still work with the files- locally on your computer. The moment the network Is up and running again, the offline files stored on your PC, will sync with the server and automatically update.

This Is achieved via the Windows native utility named Sync Center, that's available In Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education editions. If you're running either of these editions, then read on. So without further delay, let's rip Into this tutorial.

Step One:
To access Sync Center, you need to navigate to Control Panel. Open the Run menu, enter control panel and hit OK.

Step Two:
Next, select Large Icons from the drop-down menu as Illustrated below.

Step Three:
Scroll down until you locate Sync Center, and click on that link.

Step Four:
To the left of the window, click on Manage offline files as arrowed.

Step Five:
By default, offline files Is disabled by Windows 10, so click on the Enable offline files button and then hit OK to finalize the process.

Step Six:
Now go back to Sync Center, and click the Manage offline files link as shown below.

Step Seven:
To begin working with your offline files, click the View your offline files button.

Step Eight:
Your offline files are now readily available. In my case, I can simply open my folder and start working with It's contents.

Step Nine:
To disable offline files, go back to Step Four above, click on Manage offline files and then hit the Disable offline files button as per the Image below.

Last Step:
For the change to take effect, you must reboot your system, so do just that by clicking Yes. 

Final Thoughts:
Let's face It, we don't live In a perfect world and never will, nor do computers and their associated components. Downtime and system failure Is Inevitable, and will happen at some point during your computing experience. As such, you must always have a backup plan to continue your workload as best as possible and having your network files readily available In an offline state, Is certainly part of this equation. Be sure to keep It enabled at all times.