Write it down
Writing when you are offline
Writing works offline. Everything you write is saved locally and syncs when you reconnect.
Why you'd care
The moments you most want to write something down are often the moments with no signal: a plane, a lift, a train tunnel, a basement. An app that refuses to accept input then is not a capture tool.
What works offline
- Writing, editing and completing things
- Creating lists and setting reminders
- Reading any list or day you have already opened on that device
- Search across what is already on the device
- Reminders that were already scheduled
iPhone, iPad, and Android
Some things are deliberately kept on the device rather than being left to chance. See what is kept below.
What waits
- Syncing to your other devices
- Photo uploads, though the thing itself saves immediately
- Anything that asks a server: chat, smart suggestions, reading text from photos
- Lists you have never opened on that device, which have no local copy to show
Going further
Nothing is lost by writing offline. Your things are stored on the device first and pushed up afterwards, so a failed connection delays sync rather than losing input.
Reconnecting is automatic. There is no sync button to press and nothing to confirm.
Carry-over runs when you open the app. After time away, unfinished to-dos from the last day you used Twos move to today. See carry-over.
iPhone, iPad, and Android
Some things are always kept, whatever else gets dropped. The phone cannot hold everything forever, so when the local copy is trimmed these survive in full, with no limit on how many:
- Every thing in a bookmarked list
- Every thing you have starred, unless its list has stars hidden
- Today and tomorrow, and any list a widget is pointed at
After that the most recently edited few hundred things are kept, and beyond that the trim still holds on to your unfinished to-dos, anything with a reminder on it, and your templates.
Bookmarking a list is therefore the reliable way to guarantee it reads offline. It is more dependable than opening it and hoping it is still cached.
Tips
- Bookmark the lists you will want before you get on the plane. A bookmarked list is kept in full, where a merely-opened one can be trimmed.
- Starring works the same way for individual things. A starred thing is always there offline.
- If a photo has not uploaded, leave it. It goes when the connection returns.
If it's not working
A list will not open offline. It has not been opened on this device before, so there is no local copy. Bookmark it while you are connected and it will be kept from then on.
My other device does not have what I wrote. One of them has not been online since. Open both while connected.