Google is bringing back “offline mode” to its web-based version of Google Calendar—at least, for Workspace users. Most of you shouldn’t need this, assuming you’ve previously connected your Google Calendar to one of the many smartphone or desktop apps available, but it never hurts to have a backup just in case something happens and you need to know your itinerary.
I’m going to walk you through the process of enabling offline mode, but know that Google is still rolling this feature out to Google Calendar users—per usual. If you can’t set it up just yet, give it another shot in a week or two. With that said, here’s how you set up offline mode in Google Calendar.
Start by navigating over to Google Calendar in your desktop browser and clicking on the gear icon in the upper-right corner. Click on Settings, and look to see if you have an Offline option under Keyboard Shortcuts, like so:
Click on that option, and click on “Turn on offline calendar” to do just that. Your calendar will start synchronizing to your desktop, and you’ll be able to view its progress via an icon in the upper-right corner of Google Calendar’s main interface. Once it’s done, you’ll see a status that says “Ready for offline.”
Should you try to access Google Calendar when you’ve lost your internet connection, you’ll see a little notice that tells you that you’re working in offline mode. You’ll be able to view your events, but you’ll have some limitations as to what you can do—like you won’t be able to create or edit events, email guests (obviously), or access your tasks or reminder lists. Similarly, writes Google:
If you clear your computer’s cached images and files, it will also clear offline support for Google Calendar. Turn on Google Calendar offline again to use Calendar offline.
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Here’s hoping Google rolls out this useful feature to regular user of Google Calendar, not just those using Google Calendar as part of their Workspace setup. There’s no word if, or when, that might happen, but it seems like it would be an easy enough of a change for Google to make.