Windows 11 Offline files cannot switch to online

Question

Like the issue noted: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-you-switch-from-offline-mode-to-online-mode/ce76eca9-a33c-4e40-bece-2b2eebec3364

I cannot switch from Offline to Online through the traditional 'easy access' work online option. The feature doesn't exist in Windows 11 that I can find, but it is still referenced in the documentation.

Answer 1

Right-click Start Menu button and select Run. Type in the word Control and then press ENTER. You should now be viewing the classic control panel. Go to the address bar, delete what is in there, and type the drive letter of the drive that is offline. Now you are in classic File Explorer and will have access to the "Easy Access" button.

Answer 2

Hi @Steve

There are 3 options provided by M Microsoft to make the files online. Kindly try following steps.

Option 1: Enable Offline Files in Windows 11 by Control Panel
The first method is also the most common method, you can enable offline files through the control panel. Here are the specific steps.

Step 1. Press Win+R to open the Run Window and type control to open Control Panel, then click on Sync Center.
Step 2. Click the Manage offline files link on the left side.
Step 3. Click Enable offline files button and then click OK.
Step 4. If you want to disable offline files in Windows 11, you can click the Disable offline files button and click OK.

Option 2: Enable Offline Files in Windows 11 by Registry Editor
The second method is to enable or disable offline files using the registry editor, please follow the steps below.

Step 1. Type registry in the search box and select it to open the Registry Editor app.
Step 2. Navigate to the paths below and and create a new 32-Bit DWORD value Start.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CscService

Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value.

Step 3. You can enable the offline files to set the start value of CSC and CscService to 1 and 2 in order.
Step 4. If you want to disable offline files, set the start value of CSC and CscService to 4.
Step 5. Confirm your operations and restart your computer to let the new settings take effect.

Option 3: Enable Offline Files in Windows 11 by Group Policy Editor
In addition to the first two methods, Group Policy Editor can also help you enable or disable offline files. You can follow the steps below to operate.

Step 1. In the search box, type group policy and select it to open Group Policy Editor.
Step 2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Offline Files.
Step 3. In the Offline Files, double click the Allow or Disallow use of the Offline Files feature to edit it.
Step 4. When you see the Allow or Disallow use of the Offline Files feature window if you want to enable the offline files, select Enabled and click OK.
Step 5. If you want to disable offline files, please select Disabled and click OK.
Step 6. Finally, restart your computer to make the changes take effect.

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Answer 3

Hi This is an issue we had. Here is a fix that has worked for us, it forces the PC to use the old windows 10 style ribbon in file explorer.

Reg edit to force file explorer to always use Windows 10 ribbon over Windows 11

1. Open regedit
2. Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions’
3. Create a new key/subfolder for ‘Shell Extensions’ called ‘Blocked’
4. In ‘Blocked’ create a new string value called ‘{e2bf9676-5f8f-435c-97eb-11607a5bedf7}’ and leave the ‘Value Data’ Empty.
5. Restart your PC
6. You will see the Windows 10 ribbon and will be able to go to ‘Easy Access’ > ‘Work Online’

Answer 4

Any news on this issue? Any solution?
I can only echo jtn1970-3116's question and explanation. It's a serious issue because there is no way to access files which are not made available offline on a share with offline files as long as we cannot force Windows 11 to work online.

Answer 5

Completely agree with you all. The functionality is mostly useless now.
Upping this to see if Microsoft can solve this in some way.
For now I would do with just a PowerSehll script...