Working Offline

If you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Outlook with Offline Access and your organization has purchased the offline feature, you have the option of working offline with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online records that you own when you are not connected to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online server.

How to tell if you are offline

Before you go offline, you can select a subset of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data to be available on your local computer. Any changes you make to this data when you work offline are saved to this local copy of your data. In addition, while you are working online, your local data is being updated periodically to help speed up going offline.

For example, instead of taking the whole database with you, you can choose to copy only your active accounts, for example accounts for the State of Washington. These local data groups can be reset every time that you go offline and give you the flexibility to download only the data you need. This speeds up synchronization with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online server when you go offline and also when you go back online. However, if you chose to remove large amounts of data from your local copy, this can cause a longer synchronization.

When you work offline, you can enter new information and edit existing records and activities. If you view edited records later, before you go online and synchronize your data, the information that you see reflects the changes that you've made.

More information: Work with Data to Take Offline

The following list shows the features that are unavailable when you are offline

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online applies all your additions and changes to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online server in the same order that you entered or updated it. If you made a change to a record while you are offline, and another user changes the same record during that time, when you go back online, your change will overwrite this change.

The first time you go offline, it can take a significant amount of time to synchronize your local data with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online server. It is best to plan to do your first synchronization when you do not need to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. While Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Outlook is synchronizing, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is not available.

Workflows

When you are working offline, workflow notifications are not generated until you go back online.

Also, if the changes you've made to offline accounts are set to trigger an automated workflow process or system job, the process is automatically triggered after you go back online. For example, if you have a rule that routes new leads to a welcoming team, a qualified lead that is created offline is routed to the welcoming team after you go back online.

Duplicate Detection

There is no duplicate detection Process of automatically identifying potential duplicate records. while you are working offline. Duplicate detection is triggered automatically when you go back online or synchronize. You can set a personal option to determine whether or not duplicates are created when they are identified.

More information: Avoiding Duplicate Records

Offline Security Permissions

You have the same security permissions and rights offline as when you are online. For example, if you do not have permissions to create accounts online, you will not be able to do this offline. If a contact was shared with read-only rights, you will not be able to update or delete that contact offline even though you are working with a local copy.