Google Drive offline screenshot

HOW TO: Use Google Drive Without Internet Connection

Google Drive offline screenshot
Google Drive offline screenshot

Google Drive online cloud storage support automatic syncing and offline access for all your Google Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets, and Drawings. In this article, you will learn how to setup and use Google Drive in offline mode.

Table of Contents

Setup Google Drive for offline access

Google Drive’s offline access is available only on Google Chrome or Chrome OS computer. Chrome OS users do not need to setup offline access because it is already there for you.

Google Drive Offline Edit
Google Drive Offline Edit
  1. Install Google Drive extension for Chrome.
  2. Goto https://drive.google.com and login your Google Account.
  3. In the left menu bar, click on “More” to show hidden menu items.
  4. Click on “Offline”.
  5. On the right panel, click on the “Enable Offline” blue colour button.
  6. Done. Your Google drive files will be saved to current computer for offline access.

Please note that only one Google account per Chrome profile can set up offline access to Drive. You can create a new Chrome profile for each Google account.

Google Drive’s documents will be synched to each computer where you have enabled offline access. Anyone who use those computers will have access to your Google Drive documents. Make sure you only allow offline access on your own computers!

Google Drive offline mode

After you have setup offline access, your Google Drive files will be synched in the background. Any changes made to synced files while offline will sync to all other devices with a time stamp when you reconnect to Internet.

  • When your computer is disconnected from Internet, open Chrome browser and goto https://drive.google.com to load offline version of Google Drive.
  • If your computer suddenly lost Internet connection while you are using Google Drive in Chrome, simply reload the browser window to show the offline version of your Drive and each file you have open.
  • If you are using unstable Internet connection, load https://drive.google.com/#offline in Chrome instead for stable view of offline Google Drive.

What files available for offline?

Google Documents, Presentations and Drawings are available for both offline viewing and editing. Offline Spreadsheets are view-only mode. Google Forms does not support offline access.

Other files such as PDF, Microsoft Office files and images are also viewable from Google Drive folder when you are offline.

How to disable Google Drive offline access?

You can diable Google Drive offline access anytime by clicking the “gear” icon in the upper-right corner in Google Drive and select “Stop using Docs offline”.

Find more information in Google Drive Help Center.

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