Dynamics 365 Mobile offline has some of the features that the web and mobile online client offer, but these are limited. The features available on the web client that are not available on the mobile client online include:

• Quick View
  
• Ad-hoc email generation
  

Further restrictions apply to the mobile client offline, and these include:

• Relevance Search
• Charts on Dashboards

In this blog, we'll explore what features are not available on the mobile while offline.

Searching for records

The key difference between online and offline mode is availability of Relevance Search. Relevance Search requires users to be online using the Azure web services to return relevant search results when called upon. As Relevance Search requires a consistent internet connection, this feature is not something that will go offline.

Alternatively, Categorized Search can be used offline allowing the user to search across multiple entities – but this search is limited to one entity at a time. It is also worth noting date fields do not work well offline hence it is recommended these are removed from 'Find Columns' in the systems quick view configuration.

Charts

Charts are used on system and personal dashboards but while the user is offline, they will be greeted by an offline message. Users who are primarily working offline should consider using lists or have an alternative dashboard for offline mode that they can switch to.

Knowledge Base Articles

Knowledge Based articles primarily used within the Cases area will not go-offline as of yet. The ability to configure KB articles is not yet available from the system solution area within an entity. Users will be presented with an offline message within the KB article section.

Voice Recognition (IPAD)

Voice Recognition can be used to populate text fields by speaking in to the tablet microphone. Although this is a very useful feature, it is not yet available on tablet devices while the tablet is offline.

Workflows including Rollup Fields

Workflows require an Asynchronous Service to run the triggered job, which currently is only available while the user is connected to the Dynamics 365 server. As a result, all changes that occur offline will trigger all relevant workflows once the changes have synchronised back to the online database.

Rollup fields will calculate once the user is back online as similar to the above, this feature requires the online service to start to roll up the relevant data.

Auditing

Auditing of fields within the configured entities will occur but only when the user goes back online. As there are no offline auditing tables to record the change when it happens, the actual date/time stamp will display the time the user goes back online as opposed to when the actual change occurred.

Document Storage via SharePoint

Documents that are uploaded to the SharePoint library will only be accessible once the user goes back online. Currently, there is no offline storage to take documents offline on the various mobile devices.

Assigning Records

The ability to assign records while offline is temporarily disabled until the full list of users/teams is made accessible when back online.

With Assign

Without Assign

SLAs

The engine that powers the 'Service Level Agreement' functionality is only available online, and like workflows, once the tablet goes online the system will work out the correct SLA duration by looking at the 'Created On' date and working out the remaining time left before a warning or failure occurs.

Auto Number

All entities that are configured to use the out the box Auto Number functionality will have to wait for the mobile device to go back online before the number can be generated.

Hopefully this helps you navigate what features are and are not available on the mobile version of Dynamics 365 while offline so you can plan accordingly! If you're looking for tips about Dynamics 365 be sure to check out our blog.

Happy Dynamics 365'ing!