What is offline files in Windows 10?

Thanks to Sync Center, you can create offline files in Windows 10. It refers to a copy of network files and folders always in sync between local computer and network servers, and these data are kept available offline on your computer, even when your server is slow, not connected or unavailable. Moreover, you can see all data made offline at anytime, and it’s limited to this. By default, the network folders online only are empty, no files, if your computer is not connected to network drive.

Beside enabling offline files in Sync center and always available offline mode, your network files may also be offline in the following situations.

  • The connected server is unavailable.
  • The network connection is slower than a configurable threshold.
  • Work offline mode is enabled in  File Explorer

Why you should enable offline files in Windows 10?

1. Access network files or folders at any time.

If you want to access network files or folders at any time, especially when your computer is not connected to the network and server, you need to make them always available files with Sync Center. 

2. Sync offline files between computer and network drive.

If you want to sync files with offline files folder or Sync Center, the first thing is to enable offline files and activate Offline Files folder. This folder is used to keep offline files in sync between your computer and network drive. Usually, it’s located at C:\windows\CSC folder if your system drive letter is C.

How to enable/disable offline files in Windows 10?

Usually, you should create a shared folder to save the network files and folders. If you want to make it always offline, the first step is to map the network drive to local computer, and then turn on offline files in Windows 10. Also, disabling offline files is also included at the end. Now, without further ado, let’s start.

Sync network drive to local drive

Step 1. Connect network drive and find the shared folder. 

Press Win + R to summon the Run window, then type two backslashes and IP address or hostname to connect your network drive. Once your connect to the server, you will see the shared folder.

Step 2. Right-click the shared folders, then choose Map network drive from the context menu.

Step 3. Make files or folders always available offline. 

Go to the mapped network drive, also called offline files folder or its subfolder, right-click the files or folder you want to acess at local computer and select Always available offline from the context menu.

Step 4. Wait for the final result. 

Now, you will see a message, saying “ your files will be available offline”, just wait and then disconnect your network drive after this task ends. To confirm, please go to the mapped network drive and check your offline files.

Turn on/off offline files in Windows 10

To turn on offline files in Windows 10, there are 3 common used ways. You can try one of them in the following. Of course, these methods are still applied in Window 7 and Windows 8.

Method 1: Configure offline files in Windows 10 by Sync Center

Step 1. Open Sync center. Go to Control Panel, switch its view to “Large icon” or “Small icons“, then find Sync Center and click it to open.

Step 2. Click Manage offline files, then you will access the Offline Files window, it allows you  to enable or disable offline files.

Step 3. To enable offline files, click Enable offline files under the General tab. Please remember to restart your computer to activate Offline Files folder. If not, you will not offline files folder on the mapped network drive.

Step 4. To disable offline files, click Disable offline files in the Offline Files window. By default, after you enable offline files in the Offline Files window, this option will change  to Disable offline files.

Method 2: Enable/Disable offline files in Windows 10 using GPO

Step 1.Type group policy in the search box and then select group policy editor from the start menu list.

Step 2. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrator templates > Network > Offline Files key.

Step 3. Scroll down the Offline Files Setting and double-click Allow or Disallow the use of Offline Files feature. Then you can enable or disable offline files per your needs.

Step 4.  To enable offline files,  select Enabled in the next window.

Step 5. To disable offline files, select Disabled in the next window.

Method 3: Enable/Disable Offline Files in Windows 10 using Registry

Step 1. Open  registry editor by typing registry in the search box and selecting it. 

Step 2. Go to the CSC and CscService key and create a new Start key. To make it, right-click on the blank, select new and DWORD (32-bit) Value (so do computer with 64-bit), set its name as Start 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CscService

Step 3. To enable offline files, set the start value of CSC and CscService to 1 and 2 in order. 

Step 4. Restart your computer and make changes available.

Step 5. To disable offline files, set the start value of CSC and CscService to 4 and restart your computer to save changes.

How to sync offline files in Windows 10?

About offline files sync in Windows 10, you have two options, including syncing offline files manually and automatically. Detailed steps are below.

Method 1: Sync offline files manually

Step 1. Access the mapped network drive. Go to File Explore > This PC > network locations, then select the mapped network drive created in advance.

Step 2. Sync offline files. Right-click folders which contain offline files, then select Sync > Sync selected offline files.

Method 2: Sync files automatically

Step 1. Enter into Sync Center. You can type Sync Center in the search box, then select it from start menu list.

Step 2. Access the mapped network drive. You can click View sync partnerships link in the left pane, then double-click the mapped network drive.

Step 3. Select the folder you want to sync on a regular basis, then pitch on Schedule button on the menu bar. At last, follow the prompt to finish the rest of steps.

Conflicts in syncing files – how to fix?

If some certain files does not sync, you may see conflicts files in Offline Files. It occurs when you edit file offline and somebody else edit the same file on your network. After that, these files will not be synced and marked as conflicts. Don’t worry about it. It’s very easy to fix.

Step 1. Go to Sync Center, click View sync conflicts on the left panel and then you will see a list of conflict files.

Step 2. Right-click the files and click View option. Now, you can choose to keep the version that you created while you were away, keep the version on the server that someone else edited while you were away or keep both versions and rename the one that you created.

Step 3. Sync files with Sync Center again.