Chromebooks are usually They sell themselves on their tight integration with the cloud — they’re basically windows to the web and little else. That brings a variety of benefits, like never having to worry about losing an unsaved document, but it also means that Chromebooks are less useful than Windows or macOS laptops when you don’t have an internet connection.
However, it’s not true that Chromebooks are a complete disaster when they’re offline. With advances in browser and web app technology, you can now do a lot of things on a Chromebook without an internet connection, and all of your work syncs back up when Wi-Fi is available again.
Obviously, you can’t send an email or stream a video while disconnected from the web, but you can work on documents and emails in offline mode, as well as cache content to watch and listen to while offline, as I’ll explain here.
How to use Gmail offline
Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering it develops ChromeOS, Google has been at the forefront of making web apps work offline for the benefit of Chromebook users. Gmail is one of the most well-known apps that works offline, to a certain extent: you won’t be able to send or receive emails without an internet connection, but you’ll still be able to work on them.
From the main Gmail interface on the web, click on the gear icon (top right), then See all settings. Open the Disconnected tab, check the Enable offline mail Settings and several new options appear. Chief among these is the drop-down menu that lets you choose how much email to sync with your Chromebook: 7, 30either 90 The days value. A higher value allows you to work with more messages, but takes up more storage space. You’ll see how much space Gmail is currently using on the same screen.
On the same page, you need to choose what happens if you sign out of your Google account in the ChromeOS browser. You can either keep the data synced (convenient if you sign back in, but potentially risky from a security standpoint) or delete it from your Chromebook (a safer option, but you’ll have to re-sync all your messages if you sign back into Google).
Click Save ChangesAnd that’s it. When you’re offline, you can search and read your cached emails, as well as compose new emails and save them as drafts. Completed emails can also be sent without actually being sent; they will be stored in a newly created Outbox folder and sent as soon as web access is restored.
How to use Google Drive offline
You can use Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides offline, as well as certain aspects of the broader Google Drive app, but as with Gmail, you’ll need to do some preparation ahead of time. Google Drive On the web, click the gear icon (top right) and then select Settings.
