Working Offline and Syncing Later

The Papyrus mobile app is designed for environments where connectivity is unreliable. This page explains what works offline, what doesn't, and how syncing resolves.

What works offline

Viewing cached documents: any document you've recently viewed is cached locally (default cache: 200 MB)
Searching cached documents: filename and tag search; semantic search requires connectivity
Capturing documents: scan and queue for upload
Adding comments: queue locally, syncs when online
Approving / rejecting workflow tasks: queue locally, syncs when online
Filling eForms: complete and queue, syncs on reconnect
Reading offline-marked docs: any document you've explicitly marked “available offline”

What doesn't work offline

Searching across the full tenant (only cached subset)
Asking the Copilot (RAG needs server-side retrieval)
Real-time presence (no SignalR connection)
Push notifications (FCM/APNS deliver when you reconnect)
Loading documents not in cache

The sync indicator

A persistent indicator at the bottom of the app shows current state:

☁️ Synced — everything's up to date
🔄 Syncing — actively pushing queued items
⏸️ Offline (N queued) — connectivity lost; N pending actions
⚠️ Sync error — something failed; tap for details

Tap the indicator to see the queue: each pending action with status (Pending / Uploading / Failed).

What gets cached automatically

Recently viewed documents (last 50 by default)
Documents in workspaces you're an active member of
Documents tagged urgent (regardless of view history)

The cache is LRU — least-recently-used evicts first when the cache is full.

What you can pin

To force a document to stay cached:

Open the document
Menu → Make available offline

Pinned documents stay cached even when the cache would otherwise evict them. Useful before traveling to areas with no signal.

Cache size and storage

Default cache is 200 MB. Increase under Profile → Storage:

100 MB (basic)
200 MB (default)
500 MB (heavy field user)
1 GB (max)

Each step trades phone storage for offline capability.

When sync conflicts happen

Rarely: you modify a document offline; meanwhile someone else modifies the same document online. When you reconnect, the sync engine detects the conflict:

Metadata conflicts (you both edited tags): server wins, your offline change is logged for review
Comment conflicts: both comments preserved as separate entries
Approval conflicts: extremely rare (only one person should hold a workflow task); if it happens, the earlier action wins

You'll see a notification listing any conflict resolutions.

Best practices for offline-heavy workflows

Pin essential documents before going offline
Increase cache size if you regularly work offline
Sync proactively when you have signal (don't wait until you have 50 queued items)
Trust the queue — once an action is queued, it will sync; you don't need to keep the app open