Offline app basic functions for Windows and Mac

I understand their is limited support for the Mobile app in offline mode. I am interested to ask if the function will also appear on the desktop app. When travelling by air, or facing any connection problems, or damaging a mobile phone while out in remote areas, it would be handy to at least use the task creation function on the desktop app, this allows me to actively plan and make notes on multiple points for ease of recall. It is also more comfortable to work on a laptop/desktop platform at times in flight when no WiFi etc is available, or while out in tough remote areas once you are setup, without having to switch between phone and laptop use.

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Permanently deleted user

Hi Andre, thanks for sharing your feedback here! Are you referring to the browser version of Wrike, or to the beta version of the Wrike desktop app (can be enabled in Wrike Labs)? There's no way to support offline mode in the browser, but it's an interesting idea for the desktop app. Since we just launched it, it's great to hear your feedback about it!

Andy Hoebeke

Anastasia, with all due respect I'd like to know why you say offline mode is not possible for browsers?
Modern technology most certainly makes this possible. Local persistent storage that remains available when offline is already commonly used by many platforms to accelerate web app loading or make data available offline.

Your desktop app being a web app running in a packaged/bundled browser, the desktop apps should certainly have no problem doing likewise or better.

Not being able to create new tasks or add comments when offline is incredibly annoying for business and project management, and hopefully just a matter of time for such functionality to become available offline.

Kind regards

Permanently deleted user

Andy, thank you for your input here! Sorry if I wasn't entirely clear there - I'm not saying it's not possible at all, but that it's not a part of our web version functionality. An important aspect of Wrike is collaboration in real time, so offline modes are more of a backup option - hence their appearance on the mobile where the connection can often be unreliable. I do like the suggestion about having this option in the desktop app, which is a new feature and still being improved, so your feedback here is definitely timely! Thanks again for taking the time to share it here.

Andy Hoebeke

Thanks for the reply and clarification Anastasia.

Could you elaborate regarding the real time collaboration?

More and more, people work remotely (whether part time or full time). One of the big advantages is that interruptions, questions and feedback become asynchronous You focus on your work, on your tasks, and decide when to check for messages. In the office, harder to say "dude I'm busy, come back at lunch time".

Also, project managers I've worked with don't check statuses or updates in real time for all projects.

I really do want that offline option hahah you can tell? But the real-time thing for improved project management seems a bit strange or let's say "non intuitive" to me. Just want to make sure Wrike could stay the best tool for async "non-real-time teams"

Permanently deleted user

Andy, thanks for your reply and for the enthusiasm for this functionality Real-time can have different levels of interpretation here. It ranges from simply having the possibility to see an updated status as soon as it has been changed (and being confident that the info is up-to-date), to more time-sensitive updates. Remote work does play a part in this too - for example, Wrike helps eliminate several types of meetings through task collaboration. I can see the value in your point about interruptions becoming asynchronous, and at the same time, real-time means that the interruptions may cease to exist. For example, because the status update or some other attribute has already been located in a task or Project. There are definitely various approaches to this, as well as different methodologies. I must admit that your methods do sound solid, and as mentioned, I think your feedback is great for the desktop version and mobile apps (where offline has already been introduced). Thanks for sharing your ideas here, I've really enjoyed your insight!

Keith Acton

This is a functionality that is a must for Mac desktop users.

Laura Boylan

Having recently switched all of my business-related personal task management from OmniFocus to our company's Wrike account, I am dismayed to find that I must be online in order to use the Wrike for Mac desktop application.

Offline task and project management is crucial in my world, which unfortunately means I'll need to move everything back to OmniFocus until/unless offline capabilities become available in Wrike for Mac.

To add another dimension to the request... from a company perspective for contingency planning, if we are relying on project/task management in Wrike, and for some reason our Internet connection experiences a problem, or Wrike's service becomes temporarily unavailable, or there is some other connection interruption, we lose all visibility into our project plans and task lists. This risk creates a tougher sell when making the case that we should move all of our project management into Wrike.

Nat Zettel

+1 for offline mode, for all the reasons the customers stated above.

If Wrike's experience model is limited only to the online, real time use case, then Wrike is missing the voice of customer. I would appreciate using Wrike to update information in flight or when connectivity is not an option. (Yes, there are times in real world business when you cannot connect!)

I just installed the desktop app - basically a browser shell. Yes, I read the Features and Benefits. (small yawn)

It is nice to be able to have a 'wrike only' environment outside of the browser (something I can Alt-Tab to select), without certain browser window clutter. Congratulations and thank you for the packaging improvement!

We are looking forward to features and functions that will further improve our productivity (and therefore adoption and recommendation) of this utility.

Glenn Murphy

+1. for someone that travels frequently 8 hrs of uninterrupted work time is priceless. In fact i would say generally people are most productive when they are off the grid and can focus. The fact that Wrike does not enable this is very inconvenient. Ideally i would like to do my work and update the status of all my tasks/project then when i get back online the changes are synced. Obviously there may be the issues on conflicts (ie some sets a task to complete yet the other sets it to in progress) but I'm sure this can be handled.

Jeff Richter

Been using the desktop app on my Mac and it is working great for a while now. My reference for offline functionality would be Evernote. This note taking platform works both on the web, with a desktop app, and allows you to select folders to be copied for off line viewing. Any changes done off line are then sync'ed once you are connected again to the internet.

I travel a lot and spend some significant time in an airplane and this feature would be amazingly helpful for me to manage project tasks while I am stuck in an airplane seat. Please clone their capabilities into your desktop app.

Permanently deleted user

@all,

Some really great use cases here - thank you.

As Wrike works in real-time, adding an array of offline embedded functionalities in the Desktop app could lead to problems elsewhere, and for others sharing the workspace. The team are reviewing the information on this post for future updates to the app, however, I have no concrete information right now.

The important thing now is for the team to gather as much detail and use cases about this, so please post here and upvote if you'd like to see enhancements in this area.

Thanks, everyone! 🙌

Jeff Richter

@Stephen,

While I understand your comments I don't think this thread isn't asking for anything beyond what other apps currently handle. While Wrike might be more complex than my example of Evernote, these apps have found a way to create an off line edit process. I would suggest that even if you build this capability with limitations on the sync when I come back on line, this would be far better than what I have right now. Start up the sync and give me a list of tasks that have had updates since my baseline and let me go thru them one by one resolving with a decision of replace or merge. This would then give program managers the option to work while not having access to a network, and process probably 95% of the updates without any issues.

Gabriel Wolf

I'd love this too! Even if I had to manually resolve conflicting changes once back online - the ability to get a bunch of work done both in email and wrike while on a plane with no wifi would help a lot.

Becky Dunlap

This is critical for our team. Even just a simplified version of the desktop app during offline mode would be appreciated. This is one of the final barriers to us truly adopting Wrike since many of us travel on an airplane (or have limited connectivity) 50 to 60 percent of our work. What's the status update on this and when can we expect to know something?

Don Vo

While I understand that software development is difficult, we already have offline mode for iOS and Android. I'm wondering how high on the priority list Offline is for MAC/Windows app. Its clearly a critical feature since most people still work on Desktops/Laptops regardless of Apples push to working on an iPad 🙃.

@Stephen, can you give us an idea of its even treated remotely as a real feature in the roadmap? Desktops OSs are real people too!

FWIW, pitchforks are $25 on Amazon Prime my Wrike community friends. 😜

Nat Zettel

@DonVo - thanks for the bump on the topic. After nearly two years there seems to be no progress toward offline support. As long as the only desktop interface to Wrike is a browser (or a browser wrapped in an "app"), it's unlikely we'll see any local data storage and thus no offline mode.

I'll save the pitchfork money for something else, like a license for something that will work very well when I'm connected, and acceptably well when I am not.

Don Vo

While I understand your argument that the Wrike on MAC/WIN is basically a browser, and that to have offline cache there would have to be a real app. Then it seems like it would be worth it to me that a possible path to would be to go offline cache (similar to Google Docs) or give us a real desktop app instead of this fluff of a "desktop" version that is simply a checkbox for the Wrike sales team.

Jeff Richter

@Nat -- The off line mode in the iOS app is hardly something I would call robust or competitive to other applications that offer an off line mode. You can only see what you were last viewing on line and only with the current active filters. Want to work back up the to the parent project and no luck, need to change the filters to get different task no luck, want to work on another project no luck.

So I would not call the current off line capability anywhere close to what people in this thread are asking for. Additionally I don't see this thread asking to invent something that doesn't already exist in apps already.

Can we have the ability to tag projects or folders for "off line use" so they are constantly saved locally to the device your on and then I can at least work on those and I am only limited to the local storage capability? And give me an option to sync files yes/no with that setup.

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Hi everyone, thanks for your continued support here.

For now, the suggestion is not planned by our Product team. I'll update you here if that changes. Thank you for your feedback, we continue to gather and log it for future discussions.

Alex Perez-Fragero

Hi Lisa, Please can you explain why this isn't possible? I have teams that work remotely and are travelling frequently. It's very limiting to have to have internet connection. This request has 35 up votes which from what I can tell is quite high for the community page. I currently use your competitor, todoist, offline as well as a number of other email/ team collaboration services.

Ryan Finch

What's interesting is in the Wrike Project Management Guide FAQ there's a section called "Why should I use a desktop app in PM software?" From the Quicker Access section:

https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/why-should-i-use-a-desktop-app-in-project-management-software/

“Plus, as long as you select a project management software solution with a work-offline mode, you can access and work within the desktop app even when you don’t have access to a safe and secure internet connection.”

Then further below from the Functionality section:

“As with mobile applications, you should select a desktop application that enables working offline. This way, if you’re traveling with your laptop or lose internet connection, you can keep working. Make sure that the application supports any changes being automatically updated in the project management software once you reconnect to the internet.”

Having the benefit of working offline seems to be promoted by Wrike as something that you should consider when selecting a PM tool. Online, the tool is great and I've noticed many improvements suggested by the user community over the last few years coming to fruition. But it seems odd to promote the offline feature, yet not even have it on the road map for enhancements at this point.

Ryan Martin

Hi all, Just beginning to test this Wrike Windows desktop app. I think it would be exactly what I need if I could access my files offline. Ryan

Lamar Weber

Yes please!! Our team works in an area with poor internet connection. Being able to work offline in the windows desktop app is exactly what we need from Wrike. Definitely hope to see this soon!

Permanently deleted user

Hi everyone, just a quick update - this is currently still not planned by our Product team. Thank you for all of your feedback and as soon as I have an update I'll keep you posted.

Rob Geraedts

Hi all,

Just started checking out Wrike and I do fully agree with this feature request. An offline mode is more or less mandatory to me too. I have a lot of meetings at customers where I need to be able to access project information and make new notes.

By the way, the Android app isn't working at all, in offline mode. When am offline on my S20, the Wrike app will crash...

Hope you put this on your dev list!

Rob

Permanently deleted user

Hi @Rob Geraedts,

Thank you for sharing your use case here, it's been passed on to the Product team. No updates here at the moment; I'll be sure to keep you posted on any new information in relation to this suggestion.

Also, I can see that the Support team has reached out to you about your experience with the Android app. If you are still experiencing this, I'd recommend replying to their message so that they can assist you further.

If you need anything else, let me know!

Sven Passinger

Hi all,

I want also to rasie my hand for an offline possibility for the Windows app. The mobile app for Android and IOS is a nice first start, but it's use is very limited. I really would need a possibility to download a complete project and then work on it offline, as I am traveling most days for at least one or two hours without internet connection.

Nowerdays an offline desktop app is quiet common for a lot of programs (one of the most used examples for sure is OneNote).

So please help us all and implement an offline version for desktop app. You can use a lot of disk space on my laptop for this.

Best Sven

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Thank you for sharing your feedback and use-case here @Sven Passinger! I've passed it on to the team and I'll let you know if there's an update from them 👍

Martin Hoffmann

Hi, UPRAISE
I can just support the comments above. Why it is possible on a mobile device but not on a desktop PC. With no offline mode, wrike is not useful for me. I will have to search for another Workflow tool. Sorry to say. The other features I really liked.

BR
Martin

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Thank you for supporting here @Martin Hoffmann! This feedback is passed on to the Product team, and once it reaches 60 upvotes (looks like this will be happening soon), we'll be adding a Product status here.

I'm sorry to hear that the current functionality isn't sufficient for you. Please let me know if there's anything else that I can help you with.