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Make Excel worksheets available offline

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Linda_C
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Aug 25, 2024

(Originally published on May 26, 2022 by Hugo Garcia)

 

Hello, Insiders! My name is Hugo Garcia and I'm a Product Manager on the Office team. I'm excited to announce that you can now make Excel worksheets that are stored in the cloud available offline when using your iPhone or iPad.

 

Make Excel worksheets available offline

 

You can now have the best of both worlds: save your files to the cloud so your data is safe and available on all your devices and choose which files you want to be able to access offline.

 

How it works

  1. Open Excel (or the Office app) on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. On the Home screen, tap the More Options menu ("...") for the worksheet you want to view or edit while offline.
  3. Tap the Make Available Offline option.

    Excel File Settings with Make Available Offline option selected

  4. Once the word Downloaded and a checkmark icon appear next to the file name, it is ready to be viewed and edited offline.

    File showing Downloaded status

 

Scenarios to try

  • To view all files that have been made available offline, go to Open > Other Storage > Offline Files.

    Excel Offline Files folder

  • Try putting your iPhone or iPad in Airplane mode and open any of your offline files.

    Use Airplane Mode to test offline availability of your Excel files

     

    NOTE: You can make files available offline in Word and PowerPoint as well as the Office app! Try it out!

 

Tips & tricks

  • By default, Excel only downloads files over Wi-Fi (to avoid accidental charges if you have a metered data plan). If you have an unlimited data plan, feel free to disable the Download Over Wi-Fi only option. To do so:

     

    1. Open Excel (or the Office app) on your iPhone or iPad.
    2. Tap your profile photo.
    3. Tap Settings > Offline Files.
    4. Clear the Download Over Wi-Fi Only setting if you would like to allow downloads using your mobile data plan.

      Download Over Wi-Fi Only option selector in Excel

  • If you make edits offline, they will sync to the cloud the next time you open the app and have internet access.
  • You need internet access the very first time you're marking a file to be available offline. Once you see the word "Downloaded" next to the file name, you're good to go!

 

Availability

This feature is available to Insiders running Version 2.60 (Build 22040400) or later.

 

Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.

 

Feedback

We want to hear from you! If you have any feedback or suggestions, tap your profile photo in your Excel tab on iOS, then tap Help  & Feedback > Tell Us What You Like or Tell Us What Can Be Better.

 


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Updated Aug 25, 2024
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