Accessing Google Drive Offline

One of the first questions I always get from people when asking about Chromebooks " What happens when I don't have Internet access?" When Chromebooks first came out options were limited, but things are much better now.

Accessing your Google Drive offline is easy.  In fact, it's a default setting for Drive to be available offline if you are using the "New" Google Drive.  But to you may want to check to be sure.  Offline access is device specific.  If you have multiple devices you will need to do this on each device.


Steps to check Offline access for the New Google Drive:

1.  Access Google Drive click on the gear and then settings.

2.  Check to make sure Offline is checked and click done.

3.  Your documents will now be available offline.  You can edit and create while offline.  As soon as you access drive with a WiFi connection, your Drive will sync.

Steps for  setting up Classic Drive for offline.  (Why is anyone still using Classic Drive?)

1.  Access Drive.  On the left side select More.

2.  Then select offline.  You will need to have the Chrome Web App for offline access to work.  Download app if necessary and then enable offline access.  

From Google:

• Set up offline access in Google Drive. As soon as you do, all of your Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings will be available for offline viewing and editing. Because of space limitations, Drive stores at most 4,000 items or 5 GB of data offline.

• Use Chrome. Offline access is not available in other browsers, but if you haven't already, give Chrome a try! Offline access is also available on Chrome devices. If you want to enable offline access on both your laptop and desktop computer, you'll need to set it up twice — once on each computer.

• Use one account per Chrome profile. Multiple accounts can use Drive offline on the same computer, but each account will need to log in with a different Chrome profile.