Tana is an collaborative outliner text editor that lets you build out a knowledge graph from all your knowledge. A system where meeting notes become tasks, tasks link to projects, insights connect across time, and your knowledge compounds instead of scattering.

With Tana Desktop’s new offline support you can now keep capturing ideas, updating notes, and working in your personal workspaces without interruption. When you reconnect, everything syncs seamlessly.

This feature has been months in the making; our most-requested addition to Tana Desktop. Tana Desktop's new offline mode automatically downloads all your sidebar workspaces so you can access your entire knowledge graph without internet.

Now you can use Tana on flights

Keep working, even when the network drops

If you lose connection briefly, Tana keeps working in the background. You’ll see a notification that we’re attempting to reconnect. Once you’re back online, your changes sync automatically. No data lost, no interruptions.

If your network drops, you'll see a banner while Tana tries to reconnect. You can enter into offline from here.

If you reload with no connection you can enter into offline mode. As long as you have loaded the Tana Desktop app before, you're data is already available.

You can enter offline in Tana Desktop if you reload without a network connection

How does Tana's offline mode work?

Unlike other tools that require pre-selecting specific pages, Tana gives you full access to your interconnected notes, tasks, and projects offline.

For longer offline sessions, you can now manually switch to working offline. The offline experience is built for longer sessions of work.

Tana will reload and build local indexes of your workspaces so that features like inline references and search still work, even without a connection.

What you can do offline

Write and edit everything in your personal and non-shared workspaces
Read shared workspaces
Search across your workspace (for workspaces up to ~750k nodes)
Use inline references and navigate your graph
Capture ideas, notes, and tasks exactly as you would online

What you can't do offline

Use AI features or transcription
Use commands that require AI
Publish is disabled

Good to know before you go offline

When working in shared workspaces offline, you’ll have read-only access. You can still browse and review content, but to avoid conflicts, we disable editing shared nodes while offline.

Going in and out of offline mode require reloading of Tana. If you have made many changes offline, reloading to go online may take a few minutes. You'll see a loading screen while your changes are being synched. You'll have to actively choose to go back online:

You will actively have to go back online, as this will reload Tana to sync your changes.

Offline mode can last as long as you need, whether for a flight, a long commute, or days without internet. Just note that very large workspaces or workflows that create thousands of nodes may give longer reload times when going back online, as everything has to be synched.

You’ll see an indicator in the top menu showing when you’re working offline.

How to start working offline

Make sure you’re on Tana Desktop app version 1.0.49 or later
In the user menu, click Work offline
Confirm and reload: the first reload may take a few minutes while Tana builds your local index
You’re now offline!

When you’re ready to reconnect, click the indicator in the top bar to go back online, Tana will reload and sync all your changes.

If you are offline, but get a connection again, you'll see a green dot on the online indicator

Why offline matters

For many users, being tethered to a network was the one thing holding them back from using Tana as their central workspace. That changes today.

Now, Tana is your always-available second brain: ready whenever inspiration strikes, no matter where you are.

Offline mode brings us closer to our long-term vision: a workspace that helps you focus and do your best work.

Work anywhere with Tana Desktop: Offline now available