Stop me if you have heard that one: A Chromebook is a glorified browser in a box. Or that one: It’s just like a “real” computer but without all of the good stuff – and it’s really practically useless offline.

You see where we’re choosing this, right? Those are wildly inaccurate myths which have plagued Chrome OS since its start. To be fair, many of them did have nuggets of reality back the platform’s earliest days , when it had been a small-scale still, beta-like project within Google. But also for years upon years now, Chromebooks have already been capable productivity tools offering ample advantages over traditional desktop os’s and work equally well as any computers offline.

With regards to offline effectiveness, the main element – exactly like with a Windows or perhaps a Mac system – is really a healthy dose of planning and preparation. Some cloud-centric services need a touch of setup before are going to functional offline, plus some common work tasks need specific third-party software set up to become handled lacking any active web connection. None of this, however, is difficult to accomplish. And it’s definitely not impossible.

If you’re utilizing a Chromebook for work , consider the next four areas to be sure your personal computer is offline-ready and primed for productivity before the necessity arises. Then, whenever your next business flight will take off (hopefully soon?), miss the usable airplane Wi-Fi and instead relax barely, relax, and revel in your Slack-interruption-free productivity session.

1. Ensure that your Google apps are ready for offline use

Google’s core productivity apps are completely offline-capable – however in most cases, it’s your decision to take the initiative and set them up appropriately.

For Gmail:

• • Open the Gmail website from your own Chromebook, click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner, and choose “See all settings” from the menu that appears. Click “Offline” in the menu near the top of the settings screen.

• • Check the box close to “Enable offline mail.”

• • Be sure to carefully think about the remaining options on the page – just how many days’ worth of email ought to be stored, whether attachments ought to be offered offline, and whether data should stick to your computer even with you sign out (fine for a single-person computer) or should instead be erased and resynced each time you sign out and back (more advisable for something that’s shared by multiple people) – and pick the settings that make probably the most sense for the situation.

• • Click on the “Save Changes” button in the bottom of the screen, accept any confirmation up prompts that pop, and wait while Gmail reloads itself and downloads your computer data then.

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Setting Gmail up for offline use takes most of 30 seconds to accomplish. (Click any image in this story to enlarge it.)

There’s just one single more step, and it’s really a significant one: Set a bookmark in your browser for Gmail by pressing Ctrl-D – or, easier yet, develop a shortcut for the website in your Chrome OS shelf by clicking Chrome’s three-dot menu icon while viewing Gmail, selecting “More tools,” and selecting “Create shortcut.” In any event enables you to pull up the website and access your mail when there is not an active connection.

For Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides:

• Be sure you have the Google Docs Offline Chrome extension installed. (In the event that you visit a blue box on its Chrome ONLINE STORE page that says “Remove from Chrome,” you’re all set. If you visit a box that says “Increase Chrome,” you will need to click that and follow the steps to perform the installation.)

• Go directly to the Google Drive website , click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner, and choose “Settings” from the menu that appears.

• Search for the line labeled “Offline” in the settings box that arises. If the box close to the phrase “Create, open, and edit your recent Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files with this device while offline” isn’t already checked, check it.

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One check of a box, and all of your recent Docs, Sheets, and Slides files will undoubtedly be available without an web connection even.

Exactly like with Gmail, you will have to be sure you have a bookmark or shortcut intended to pull up Drive whenever your Chromebook isn’t connected. You can also have to double-check that the precise files you intend to use are set to be accessible offline in advance – as, annoyingly rather, Drive stores just a vague assortment of “recent files” automagically, and you don’t desire to assume that anything you need will undoubtedly be included.

Here’s what to accomplish:

• • Start the Drive website as long as you’re online and discover whatever Docs, Sheets, or Slides files you need. (You can even do that directly from the Docs , Sheets , or Slides websites, if you love.)

• • Right-click on each file’s title, then activate the toggle close to “Available offline,” if it is not already active.

• • Repeat as necessary for any extra files.

For general Google-Drive-stored files:

That previous section addresses only Docs, Sheets, and Slides files – not other styles of files you’ve uploaded to Google Drive, such as for example images, PDFs, ZIP archives, or MP3s. (It is a rather confusing distinction to possess to create, I realize, especially given how blurred the relative line is between Drive and the Docs-branded productivity apps. Hey, that’s Google for ya.)

For just about any non-Docs, -Sheets, or -Slides files from your own Drive storage you’ll want to have the ability to access offline:

• • Open the Files app on your own Chromebook, then select “Google Drive” from the set of choices on the left.

• • Find any folder or file you intend to make available offline, right-click it, and choose “Available offline” from the menu that appears – or simply click it and activate the “Available offline” toggle near the top of the Files window.

• • In case a file or folder can be acquired offline already, you will see a checkmark close to its name.

JR Raphael/IDG

The Chrome OS Files app holds the main element to making Drive folders and files accessible offline.

You’ll then have the ability to access those files from that same Files app anytime you’re offline. And, needless to say, any files you’ve manually downloaded or copied to your Chromebook’s local storage will already be accessible for offline use.

2. Find out how many other offline-ready apps you have – and everything you still need

Chrome OS includes a couple of offline-ready basics, like a calculator and an ordinary text editor. These Files app is offline-friendly fully, too, and it carries a simple image editor and viewer alongside an audio player.

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Your Chromebook also was included with Google Play Movies probably; that’ll enable you to download movies and Television shows to help keep yourself sane throughout a long flight (provided you’re ready to pay to rent or choose the videos, needless to say).

Google’s official Chrome ONLINE STORE has a wide selection of other offline-capable Chrome apps , but that native Chrome app form is defined to be eliminated and eliminated in June of 2022, so it is not probably the most advisable long-term substitute for get invested in at this time.

Luckily, though, you have a lot of other possibilities to select from.

3. Find progressive web apps, Android apps, and Linux apps to fill any remaining voids

Though it’s still technically a cloud-centric platform, Chrome OS supports a variety of apps these full days – and it’s likely that, you can find anything you need on the list of software’s more traditional-seeming app options.

The first category to take into account may be the progressive web app, which really is a fancy method of saying an app that depends on the web as well as your browser to use but looks and acts such as a regular, standalone packaged program. When an app you will need can be acquired as a progressive web app, that’s usually the fastest, simplest, & most effective form to utilize.

The thing is that progressive web apps don’t all work offline, and as of this true point, it’s mostly a casino game of learning from your errors to figure out those do. Google had been working toward a requirement that’d force all progressive web apps to feature offline support to become appropriate for Chrome, but that plan has been delayed indefinitely – so it is still annoyingly hit and miss as of this moment.

To see in case a ongoing service you utilize includes a progressive web app obtainable in the first place, go directly to the associated service’s website in Chrome. Look toward the proper end of the address bar and see if you discover an icon that appears like some type of computer screen with a downward-facing arrow together with it. Once you sign in to the task management website Todoist , for example, you will see that icon appear. So when you do, it is possible to click it to set up the site’s progressive web app – and point it’ll come in your launcher and become almost indistinguishable from any type of program.

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By embracing Android apps on your own Chromebook , meanwhile, you should use both Google Keep and Google Calendar offline – something no other desktop platform supports. You can even stay connected to your computer data in services such as for example Evernote , OneNote , and Trello with or lacking any active internet connection, sufficient reason for the right subscriptions, you can also download videos from YouTube and Netflix for offline viewing (another perk that’s not possible on plenty of regular laptops – here’s lookin’ at you, MacBook!). Basically, if an app works offline on Android – which most do – it’ll work offline on Chrome OS, too.

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For a lot more powerful possibilities, you might like to take time to consider some Linux apps for the Chromebook – provided you’ve got a recent enough system to take care of such utilities. It’s definitely power-user terrain, but it isn’t impossible to navigate. Click to my step-by-step Linux-Chrome-OS guide to begin with, and then have a look at my set of Chromebook Linux app recommendations for a few standout ideas.

4. Give yourself some offline-ready reading material

You may not have the ability to browse the web as long as you’re offline, but it doesn’t mean you can’t catch through to some worthwhile web-based reading.

The easiest way to store articles for offline use would be to save them directly in your browser: While viewing any website on your own Chromebook, click on the three-dot menu icon in Chrome’s upper-right corner, hover over “More tools,” and select “Save page as.” (Or hit Ctrl-S for a straight faster way to reach exactly the same place.) Hit Enter or click on the Save button, and that is it: The complete page you’re viewing is now designed for your offline reading pleasure.

When you’re ready to get the article, open Chrome’s Downloads page – either by searching for the “Downloads” option in the primary browser menu or by hitting Ctrl-J while a browser tab is open – and select its title in the list that appears. The complete page shall load just like you were considering it live.

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If you’d like to have a far more fully featured article-saving setup that works across multiple platforms, you should use something like Pocket , that provides an offline-friendly Android app – or my very own personal pick for optimal article organization , Notion , which also offers an Android app with some offline capabilities. Both services are free with optional premium upgrades that you almost certainly won’t dependence on basic link-storing purposes.

If books or magazines are what you’re after, meanwhile, Amazon’s Kindle Android app and Google’s Play Books Android app both provide commendable reading experiences (way more than their web-based counterparts).

Sufficient reason for that, your Chromebook is officially ready for compromise-free offline productivity – and perhaps a good little offline procrastination.

Don’t worry: I will not tell.

in August 2019 and updated in-may 2021 This short article was originally published.