Always available offline option lets you access the network files even when the connection is not stable between your host and network computer. However, if the Always available offline option is missing in the Windows 11/10 context menu, you can fix it by following these tips. Although this option appears by default in some computers, at times, you might not find it where it should be because of some wrong settings.
Always available offline context menu item is missing in Windows 11/10
If Always available offline option is missing in Windows context menu, follow these suggestions:
- Enable offline files
- Add Always available offline using Registry
- Adjust slow connection checking time
- Verify synchronizations conflicts
- Increase storage limit for offline files
1] Enable offline files
Before heading to other solutions, it is recommended to check whether the offline file option is enabled or not. If you haven’t turned it on earlier, you might find this setting handy since it allows you to activate the offline files functionality on your computer. For that, you have to open Control Panel. To do so, search for the control panel in the Taskbar search box, and click on the individual result.
Once it is opened, make sure that the View by setting is set as Large icons. After that, click on the Sync Center option, and select Manage offline files on your left-hand side.
It opens a window named Offline Files, and here you can find an option called Enable offline files.
Click on this button to enable the Always available offline option in the right-click context menu for network files.
Tip: Even if it is enabled by default, you can turn it off by clicking the Disable offline files option and re-enable it by following the steps above.
2] Add Always available offline using Registry
It is possible to add or remove the Always available offline option using the Registry Editor on your Windows computer. In case you added it earlier but messed things up due to some reason, there could be a situation when you cannot find this specific option where it should be.
Follow this detailed tutorial to add the Always available offline option using Registry Editor.
3] Adjust slow connection checking time
When you enable the Always available offline functionality, it verifies the internet connection every 10 minutes by default. It checks for a slow connection, and if it finds any problem in your network, it lets users continue their work offline. However, if it doesn’t find any issue, it lets users work online. You can get the hidden option by tweaking the slow connection checking time.
To do so, open the Control Panel, go to Sync Center, click on the Manage offline files option, and switch to the Network tab.
Here, you can find the option to increase or decrease the time in minutes. It is suggested that you increase the time accordingly and save the setting by clicking the OK button.
Now, restart your computer and check whether it solves the issue.
4] Verify synchronizations conflicts
At times, this option goes missing due to some synchronization-related conflicts, which is very common in network computer situations. The good news is that Windows 5 shows all the conflicts so that users can fix the respective issue. For that, open Sync Center in Control Panel, and click on the View sync conflicts option on the left-hand side.
If your computer has detected any issue so far, it appears in a list format.
5] Increase storage limit for offline files
When you turn off the offline files feature, it requires some storage space to be stored on your computer. If you are running out of free storage, you might encounter the issue. To verify whether you have some storage left or not, open the Sync Center option in Control Panel, click on the Manage offline files option, and switch to the Disk Usage tab.
Here, it shows the available space on your computer for storing your offline files. If you find it not sufficient, it is recommended that you increase the storage.
For that, click on the Change limits button, and click on the Yes option in the User Account Control popup.
Next, you can increase the storage limit for offline files.
However, it is suggested to increase the storage limit for temporary files as well so that you do not get the issue anymore.
At last, click the OK button to save the change.
Tip: You can also delete temporary files that get stored automatically when you use a network file to do some work. To remove them, click on the Delete temporary files button in the Offline Files window.
At last, click on the OK button to save the change. Then, restart your computer, and check if it solves the issue or not.
That’s all!
