Offline Project Overview

When you are finished with a project, you can take it offline to free up space on the file system. When you take a project offline, it will be listed with a status of Offline throughout Project Center. Project Center users can view and search items in an offline project, but not files, and offline projects cannot be edited.

Folder permissions

Windows folder permissions are not applicable to offline projects since the folders have been removed from the file system. Additionally, be aware that search results will be returned in offline projects that otherwise would have been excluded since the files have already been indexed but the Windows folder permissions no longer exist.

Offline projects versus archived projects

The difference between an offline project and an archived project is that the project files are not available in an offline project, whereas they are still available in an archived project. Files and record copies for offline projects are moved offline and stored on external media. Files and record copies of an offline project can be searched if they were indexed before they were moved offline, but you cannot preview or access them.

Project items in both types are still available and indexed by Project Center, so users can still search those items in both types.

Windows folder permissions are not applicable to offline projects, whereas in archived projects, Windows Explorer folder permissions still take precedence, which means that users can still modify, copy, move, or delete files and file email messages to archived projects as long as they have adequate permissions to do so in Windows Explorer. Additionally, search results that would have been omitted due to Windows folder permissions in archived projects will be returned in offline projects since the Windows folder permissions do not exist.

When a project is offline, all project items in the project become read-only. You can return an offline project to Active or OpportunityOpportunity is a project that business development is pursuing. The firm is doing work, creating files, filing email, etc. related to the proposal. Employees are billing hours. But the firm does not have a contract with the client. at any time. The ability to edit files, drag and drop files, and file email to offline projects is governed by the underlying prevailing Windows permissions on the project folders, which Project Center does not change.

Offline projects versus active projects

Active projects are fully editable. Offline projects are read-only when opened in Project Center, and cannot be edited.

Re-pathing a project

You may want to copy or move an offline project to another physical network location. Project Center does not provide any tools for copying or moving project files. However, you can use any system tool (such as Windows Explorer or a third-party offline or backup utility) to copy or move the project folder and project files. After copying or moving the project files, the project will need to be re-pathed before it can be used. See Repath Projects/Batch Repair Broken Project Folder Links for information on re-pathing a project or repairing broken links.