Connect Offline
Connect Offline was a Salesforce desktop application that let sales reps take a local copy of their accounts, contacts, opportunities, and other records onto a laptop, work on those records while disconnected from the internet, and sync changes back to the org when they reconnected.
Definition
Connect Offline was a Salesforce desktop application that let sales reps take a local copy of their accounts, contacts, opportunities, and other records onto a laptop, work on those records while disconnected from the internet, and sync changes back to the org when they reconnected. It was Salesforce answer to the pre-mobile-era field-sales problem: reps spent hours on planes, in customer offices without wifi, or at remote sites, and a connection-required web app left them stuck.
Salesforce retired Connect Offline in the Spring 17 release. The replacement is the Salesforce mobile app offline mode, which caches recent records on the device, supports limited offline edits, and syncs when the user reconnects. Field Service Lightning has its own deeper offline capability for technicians at customer sites. Connect Offline still appears in old training material and in long-running orgs where some user laptop has the dormant install still on disk.
What Connect Offline did and what replaced it
The Connect Offline desktop experience
Connect Offline was a Windows desktop app that downloaded a slice of the user Salesforce data to a local SQLite database. The user could view, edit, and create records (Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Leads, Tasks, Events) while offline. When they reconnected, the app pushed local changes back to Salesforce and pulled fresh data down. The local UI mimicked Salesforce Classic so users would not need to learn a different interface for the offline view.
Which records came down to the local DB
Connect Offline used a Briefcase concept. The admin or user defined a Briefcase Configuration that specified which records to download: My Accounts, My Opportunities Closing in the Next 90 Days, Tasks Due This Week. The configuration was a pre-2008 version of the same filter syntax Salesforce used for List Views. Each user got their own briefcase based on the records they owned or had access to.
How sync conflicts were handled
When a user worked offline and another user (or a workflow rule) edited the same record on the server, sync produced a conflict on reconnect. Connect Offline showed the user a conflict dialog with the field-level differences and asked them to pick. The pattern was crude by modern standards but functional for the typical use case: a single sales rep owning a small set of records that few others touched.
Why Salesforce retired Connect Offline
Two main reasons. First, the rise of mobile devices made the laptop-offline use case shrink dramatically; reps started using iPads and iPhones in the field, where Salesforce had a mobile app with native offline support. Second, the desktop app had not been substantially updated in years and depended on Windows-only components that conflicted with the move toward web-based and cross-platform Salesforce. Salesforce announced retirement in 2016 and removed the download in 2017.
The current replacement: Salesforce mobile app offline mode
The Salesforce mobile app on iOS and Android caches recent records and supports limited offline edits. The cache is automatic for recently viewed records and configurable per user. Offline edits queue locally and sync on next connection. The mobile app offline mode covers most of what Connect Offline did, with the obvious shift to phones and tablets instead of laptops.
Field Service and the deeper offline use case
For technicians at customer sites with truly intermittent connectivity, Field Service Lightning has a more capable offline layer than the standard mobile app. It caches full work order details, related parts and stock, customer history, and lets the technician work fully offline for a shift then sync at the end of the day. This is the modern Salesforce answer to the field-offline problem Connect Offline originally targeted.
Why the term still comes up
Connect Offline references persist in Salesforce training material from 2005 to 2015 and in long-running org documentation that has not been refreshed. Reps still occasionally ask whether they can take Salesforce offline on the laptop the way they used to; the answer is no on desktop, yes on mobile, and yes more thoroughly on Field Service.
How to migrate users from Connect Offline to mobile offline
Connect Offline cannot be reinstalled. The migration is straightforward but requires reframing the offline use case from laptop to mobile.
- Identify users with leftover Connect Offline installs
Run an endpoint inventory for the Connect Offline executable. Note which users still have local data that has not synced back.
- Force a final sync where possible
For machines that can still reach Salesforce, walk through one last sync to flush any local-only edits to the server. If the local data is irrecoverable, accept the data loss; in 2026, it is mostly stale anyway.
- Uninstall the desktop app
Use the endpoint management tool to remove the app from user laptops.
- Configure the Salesforce mobile app for offline use
From Setup, search for Mobile App, configure the offline cache size, and decide which objects are cacheable. Common picks are Account, Contact, Opportunity, Lead, Task, Event, and the custom objects the field team uses.
- Train users on the mobile offline pattern
The pattern is different from Connect Offline. Mobile offline is implicit (recently viewed records are cached automatically) rather than explicit (the user defines a briefcase). Train users to view records before going offline so the cache contains what they need.
- For Field Service users, configure Field Service offline separately
Field Service has its own offline configuration with more aggressive caching. If you have technicians who go fully offline for hours, set up Field Service offline rather than relying on the standard mobile app.
- Connect Offline data is locked in the local SQLite DB. If a user laptop is wiped before final sync, the data is unrecoverable.
- The mobile app offline cache is much smaller than what Connect Offline supported. Users accustomed to having every Account locally will have to relearn the cache-by-viewing pattern.
- Briefcase configurations from Connect Offline do not migrate. Mobile offline is implicit based on recent view, not on declarative filters.
- Field Service offline is a separate license and a separate configuration. Do not assume mobile app offline is the right answer for technicians; FS offline is significantly deeper.
- Offline edits queue locally on the phone. If the user uninstalls the mobile app before reconnecting, the edits are lost.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Connect Offline RetirementSalesforce Help
- Salesforce Mobile App OfflineSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Connect Offline.
- Field Service Mobile OfflineSalesforce Help
- Salesforce Mobile App SetupSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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Q1. What was Connect Offline?
Q2. What is the modern replacement for Connect Offline?
Q3. Why does mobile-based offline make more sense today than a desktop app?
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