One of the well-kept secret features of Windows 10 is the Sync center, which many users do not seem to know about. Using the Sync Center, users can synchronize the files stored locally, with the folders that are stored on network servers. Thus, you can take your work anywhere with you, without having to worry about unavailable servers.
What Are Windows 10 Offline Files?
With sync center active, you can sync your computer information and the network folder files. When you enable the Sync center, you can access these files on your computer locally. These files are called offline files in Windows 10 because users can access these files even when the computer is disconnected from the network.
When the computer goes online, these offline files will be automatically synced, and the latest copy will be available.
How To Enable Offline Files In Windows 10?
There are two ways to enable offline files in Windows 10 i.e. from the control panel and from the Registry Editor. Let us take a closer look at both of these methods.
Method 1: Using The Control Panel
If you wish to use the Sync center to use Windows 10 offline files, first you will need to enable offline files in Windows 10. To enable offline files, follow these steps:
- Open your control panel. You can do so from the desktop icon if you have one, or from a Run dialog.
- Change the View by option to Small Icons, if previously set to Category.
- Here, locate and click on Sync Center.
- In the additional menu options on the left, click on Manage offline files.
- A new Offline Files window will open above the Control panel.
- Here, click the button that says, ‘Enable offline files’.
- Close the Offline Files dialog window and restart your computer to implement the changes.
If you had previously set Offline mode to sync files, instead of the Enable offline files button, you will find the Disable offline files button.
Method 2: Using The Registry Editor
The registry in Windows 10 is actually the place where the settings files are stored for Windows and all the applications that are installed on it. You can enable or disable offline files in Windows 10 from the Registry editor as well. Simply follow these steps for the same:
- Open a Run dialog, using the shortcut Win + R.
- Type regedit and press Enter to launch the Registry Editor. Click on Yes if you see a User Account Control prompt.
- Navigate to the following location by pasting the path in the address bar of the Registry editor:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC - In the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) from the right-click context menu.
- Name this value as Start. Double click on it to modify its value.
- In the Value data box, change the value to 1.
- Next, click on the CscService key from the left pane, just below the CSC key that you are in now. The address for the same is:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CscService - Create another Start DWORD value similar to step 4.
- Here, set the Value data to 2.
To disable offline files in Windows 10, change the value data to 4 for both the Start values that you created.
How Do I View And Sync The Offline Files In Windows 10?
If you are on a slow or unstable internet connection, you might want to work on the offline version of your files. To view your Offline files, you can do so from the Control panel itself.
- Open the Sync Center as shown in Method 1 above.
- Under the General tab, click on the View your offline files button.
This will show your offline files, and you can work on your synchronized files from here.
To sync your files, you will need to open the network drive. You can open this from the File Explorer > Network locations.
Here, select the mapped network drive, and select Sync from the right-click context menu.
Wrapping Up
If you do not like using the Sync Center, you can choose from a variety of backup software like AOMEI backupper (read our detailed review), which can be used to sync files in real-time. Now you know how to enable or disable offline files in Windows 10. Did you find this useful? Comment below if you did, and to discuss further the same.
