Most canvases are saved to livediagram's servers so you can reach them from any device and share them. Offline Mode is the opposite choice: a canvas saved only in the browser you made it in, that is never stored on the server. It suits private, local-first work, or simply wanting a canvas that physically never leaves your machine.
Creating a canvas in This Browser
Offline Mode is chosen per canvas, so you can keep normal canvases and ones in This Browser side by side.
- If you haven't signed in, your new canvases start in This Browser. Nothing you try out is sent to our servers until you choose to share it, sync it, or sign in and move it to your account. Everything you make from the New Canvas screen, and from the links that create a canvas straight away (a template from the home page, Start Blank), starts in This Browser. Use Sync Canvas on one if you would rather it went to the server now.
- Once you've signed in, new canvases go to your account. To keep one only in this browser, choose Take Offline from its menu in the editor's Explorer panel (see below).
- The canvas is written to your browser's own storage (IndexedDB) and opens like any other. A This Browser badge next to its name in the editor marks it, so you always know which canvases live only in this browser; hover or focus it to read that clearing this browser's site data deletes it. They are not in your account's lists: the Explorer sidebar's This Browser row, with how many there are, lists them all, and so does their own page, This Browser, where each has Sync Canvas and Delete.
A canvas in This Browser is not synced and not backed up. It lives only in this browser: clearing your site data, or the browser reclaiming storage, will delete it. Keep anything important on the cloud, or export a copy.
What's different
A canvas in This Browser is a normal canvas: every editor feature works, including shapes, arrows, layers, tabs, themes, undo/redo, and export. Only the features that need the server are unavailable, because there's no server copy to power them:
- Sharing needs a canvas on the server. Opening Share on a canvas in This Browser tells you so and offers Sync Canvas: press it and the canvas uploads, and the Share options appear in the same dialog, with no reload. Embeds are unavailable until it is synced, for the same reason.
- Live collaboration and teams don't apply; a canvas in This Browser is yours alone. Comments still work, but only you see them.
- Images you add are stored inside the canvas, so it stays fully local.
- Add a Tab to Another Canvas is unavailable for a canvas in This Browser in either direction, and Duplicate makes another copy in This Browser rather than uploading one.
Moving to and from your account
You can change your mind at any time, from the canvas's ⋯ menu in the editor's Explorer panel, or from the This Browser page.
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When you sign in with canvases in This Browser, we offer to move them to your account. Every one is ticked; untick any you want to keep in this browser, then Move. Not Now leaves them where they are, and we only ask again when there are more.
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Sync Canvas uploads a canvas in This Browser to the cloud. It becomes a normal canvas, shareable and (when you're signed in) reachable from your other devices, and the copy in this browser is removed.
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Take Offline does the reverse: it downloads a cloud canvas into this browser and then removes it from your account and every other device. Because that deletes the server copy for good, we ask you to confirm first.
Take Offline is deliberate and irreversible on the server side: once a canvas is in This Browser it exists only in the browser you took it offline in. If it was shared, taking it offline also revokes the share links, and a team canvas leaves the team library. For the owner it is a move, not a delete, so it skips the Trash; a teammate taking a team canvas offline sends the team's copy to the team Trash. Deleting a canvas in This Browser removes it for good: nothing else holds it, so it has no Trash.
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