Prepare maps for offline use

Note:

The Collector for ArcGIS (Classic) help site is retired and no longer being updated. To learn about Collector retirement and to find the latest information on data collection, see Collector retirement.

Authoring your map for offline use allows data collectors to view, collect, and update features when disconnected from the Internet. Once reconnected, data collectors can synchronize with your map, send any updates they have, and get map updates from other collectors. In Collector, an offline option appears on maps authored to meet the offline requirements. Data collectors can go offline with maps hosted in your ArcGIS organization as long as they are configured for offline use.

Data requirements

To author a map for offline use, the map needs to contain the following:

• Sync-enabled feature layers—These can be hosted feature layers or ArcGIS Server feature services. Feature layers that are not sync-enabled are not supported. For details on using hosted feature layers, see Allow offline editing (ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise). For details on using ArcGIS Server feature services, see Preparing data for offline use and Tutorial: Setting up feature service data for offline use in the ArcGIS Server documentation.
• A basemap enabled for offline use—This can be from your own ArcGIS Server or a hosted tile layer. For details on enabling export of tiled map services, see Allow clients to export cache tiles in the ArcGIS Server documentation.
• (Optional) Tiled map services with export tiles enabled—See Allow clients to export cache tiles in the ArcGIS Server documentation for more information.

Note:

Going offline requires using hosted data or data on ArcGIS 10.2.2 for Server or later.

Offline mode

When creating or saving a map that meets the offline requirements, offline mode is automatically enabled. If you would like to specify which types of information mobile workers download and sync, see Optimize download and sync.

To disable offline mode for a map, deselect Enable offline mode in the map's item details (ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise).

Note:

If your map doesn't meet the offline data requirements, you won't see the Offline mode options.

Optimize download and sync

By default, mobile workers download and sync all features and attachments for both editable and read-only layers. However, mobile workers don't always need all of this information to complete their work. Also, your organization may want to limit the size and amount of data mobile workers retrieve from the server during initial download as well as subsequent sync operations. This can make it faster for mobile workers to share changes and minimizes data transfer costs. This is especially true when your mobile workers are in areas with low bandwidth. You can limit the types of data mobile workers retrieve from the server by adjusting the Advanced Offline Options in your portal. The options won't affect edits made by the mobile worker; those are always sent to the server. This section provides examples of when you might not want mobile workers to retrieve features or attachments. For more details about how to change these settings, see Choose the right advanced offline options (ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise).

Note:

If a mobile worker enables the Push Only synchronization setting in Collector, this overrides any of the settings you specify when authoring the map. See Sync your work for the mobile worker for more details about the Push Only synchronization setting.

• If mobile workers are collecting new assets and do not need knowledge of existing assets, you might not want them to retrieve features and attachments. Mobile workers receive less context, but the time and cost for them to share edits is minimized.
• If mobile workers are inspecting existing assets, you might want them to just retrieve features. You might not want them to retrieve attachments, because these can be large. Mobile workers will not see attachments of existing assets, but they will see their locations and attributes, which might be all they need to know to complete their jobs. Preventing the retrieval of attachments may also decrease the time and cost to share edits.

Note:

If you have multiple layers that come from the same service, and at least one layer is read-only and one layer is editable, then all of the layers in the service honor the settings of the editable layer when you take the map offline.

Use an Esri basemap with ArcGIS Enterprise

You can use an Esri basemap to go offline with an ArcGIS Enterprise map. To do so, you need to meet the following requirements and take the following steps:

• You have an account that is a member of an organization in ArcGIS Online.
• You are using ArcGIS Enterprise.

1. In the Tiled Basemaps group in ArcGIS Online, find the basemap you want to use and open its item details page.
2. On the item details page, in the URL section of the right-hand column, click Copy next to the text box.
3. Sign in to your ArcGIS Enterprise portal, click Content, and go to the My Content tab.
4. Click Add Item and choose From the web.
5. Choose ArcGIS Server web service.
6. In the URL text box, paste the basemap link you copied in step 2. Click the Title text box so that the URL text box loses focus.

   The service information is retrieved from ArcGIS Online. It is detected to be secure, and the Username and Password text boxes appear below the URL text box.

7. Provide the user name and password for your account that is a member of an organization on ArcGIS Online and choose Store credentials with service item.
8. Click Add Item.

   The item details page for your new item displays.

9. To make your basemap available across your maps, create a map that uses the new layer as the basemap and share it with your organization's basemap gallery. For details on making the map, see Use your own basemap. For details on sharing it with the basemap gallery, see How do I make a layer available as a basemap in my organization's basemap gallery?

   Note:

   This map should only be used for offline use and not for general map viewing.

10. Open your field map in Map Viewer and use the basemap.
    • If you added it to the basemap gallery, click Basemap, and select your newly created basemap from the basemap gallery.
    • To add the layer as the basemap for only this map, see Use your own basemap.
11. Save your changes to your field map.

When you open the map in Collector, you can download it and work offline.