I have lots of great ideas about how Coda could make my life and job easier, but I live in a rural area where having internet access when I’m away from home is the exception, rather than the rule. If I can’t count on accessing my data wherever I am, Coda is pretty much useless for me! Is full offline syncing in the works, or am I not Coda’s target audience?
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This is something that we’d like to have, and you’re definitely not alone here. There are some hurdles to clear first as things get pretty tricky if you offer collaborative editing and offline…who’s edits win if two people are working on the same sentence and come back online at different times???
As a few other things get checked off the list, this will keep rising. So not something that’s immediate, but something we’re curious about and keeping in mind.
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Suggestion: start with offline without collaborative editing.
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The suggestion to start offline without collaboration is an idea, but then the doc would be disconnected forever, which tends to cause more of a loss of features than gain.
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Makes sense. But I still think it would be viable if the person had a setting to disable sharing if the doc is personal and you don’t want other people collaborating.
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+1 for offline access, I travel a lot and it would be nice to be able to view or work with Coda on the plane and also in places where Internet is spotty. What’s the timeline for this if any…thanks!
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No ETA for this at the moment, but an idea that is discussed. There are a fair number of challenges that go along with this, and “fair number” might be understating it.
Currently though, as long as you don’t refresh your page, you can continue to work in a Coda doc that’s already open and it will sync back up when your internet connection picks back up. I am a little careful in this situation though if it’s data I absolutely cannot lose. If I’m typing up notes, I may copy them to a text editor just to be sure, but I haven’t actually run into any issues.
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I can only imagine! If Coda wasn’t built from the ground up with offline access in mind, I suspect it will never be a true first-class feature - it sounds impossible to shoehorn in such a fundamental idea after the fact, if the core architecture wasn’t built with it in mind.
Unfortunately, I can’t think of a use case for me, personally, using Coda, if I can’t reliably access and edit all my data when I’m offline. Don’t get me wrong, I can see how it might be wonderful for someone with different needs - I’m just not your target market, and I’m glad to know that up front. Thanks for communicating!
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Keep an eye on Coda as this is discussed a good bit and can be done, it just takes time to make it happen. A lot of the logic is already built and used for instances like when you’re working on a doc and lose internet connection. You’re actually working offline then. Making a fully native app though has a few more items after this that need to be tackled.
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My number one use case for offline access would be simply adding rows. (If I could edit row data or section content offline, I probably would rarely do it.) But I would definitely love to have something like an offline form on my phone to, for example, submit a reimbursement request, log a project milestone, track a workout, etc. That would allow coda to replace even more apps in my life.
My second use case would be just a read-only snapshot for reference.
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I want offline access just so that I can view docs when on patchy reception. As a first step, it would be fine if it was in read-only mode just so I can access the doc.
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How’s the discussion going 2 years later? FWIW, I’d be fine with read-only offline access for starters. Imagine you’re on a business trip flight and need to discuss some numbers with colleagues.
We don’t have a dedicated desktop app, but offline access has been possible to a degree for years now.
If you have a doc open, you can continue to work on it while you’re offline, even for the length of a flight. The caveat is that you don’t want to refresh or close that tab. As long as you open the tabs you need before you get on the flight, you can continue working and all of your edits will get uploaded when your internet connection picks back up.
We do hope to look at a desktop app at some point, it’s just not fully in the works yet.
Well… yes, but you might accidentally refresh a tab or the computer might shut down. It’s not ideal… If at least a copy was saved in the local cache somehow.
What is the current status of offline access? A pointer to a current write-up would be great.
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Bumping this topic as it seems to me an unfortunate critical gap for many who wish to transition to Coda but can’t because of current offline limitations.
Any estimated timeline or an explanation of why this is remaining a hurdle would be great.
Hi,
Welcome to the community!
I do not have any special inside information, but Coda is from the ground up a cloud based product, built with an emphasis on online team work. I do not expect an offline version.
Having said that - are you looking at a personal or team environment? As long as you have the doc open in a browser tab, you are able to use the doc even if you are off-line. Bear in mind that automations and other on-line only functionalities will not work.
But it’s just a ramble,
Rambling Pete
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Thank you for your answer Pete, and very much appreciative of what you shared! The cloud-based focus / infrastructure makes a lot of sense, I just hope that edge cases could somehow be included.
I am specifically looking for a team environment, and unfortunately members of the team will regularly lose reliable / all internet connectivity for a few days at a time. There are some workarounds I have in mind with ingesting data from third-party tools though. Their work ultimately has them use a relatively simple form app that works offline by default and syncs once internet connectivity is restored.
What is less ideal is that I want to have instructions of assigned tasks or relevant documents also available to them through Coda, instead of a third-app / a pdf export or otherwise shared with them. Keeping a browser app / the app open before leaving is too unreliable to me. Maybe having Coda generate an email with instructions and send them out at prior to a mission is the way to go.
There is a simpler example that is very common: team members travel and would like the ability to contribute even when offline. Having a central Coda-supported solution for this situation is preferable than numerous partial workarounds.
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Offline access is a key feature for many users, especially those in areas with unreliable internet. While Coda’s current setup allows for some offline work if you keep your document open, a more robust offline solution would certainly enhance usability for frequent travelers or those with spotty connections. Just like traceshipments ensure that every detail is tracked and managed seamlessly, having comprehensive offline access would provide the reliability and flexibility needed for uninterrupted productivity.
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