Sync & Offline
The Desktop app is offline-first: it keeps working without a connection and syncs automatically when one is available. You never start a sync by hand. This page explains how syncing behaves, what travels over the link, and what happens when you work offline — including the grace period for published projects.
How syncing works
While a Synced project is open, the app reconciles your Mac and the cloud continuously, in both directions:
- Changes you make locally (imports, transcodes, edits) are pushed up.
- Changes made in the cloud (new submissions, emails, settings) come down.
There is no "Sync now" button to press — it happens on its own as long as you're online and signed in.
The sync status bar
Inside an open project, a sync status bar shows the current state of the link:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Syncing… | Changes are being exchanged with the cloud right now |
| Synced | Everything is up to date in both places |
| Sync paused | You paused syncing manually |
| Offline | No connection — the app queues your changes and syncs them when you reconnect |
You can pause and resume syncing from this bar — for example, to avoid uploading over a slow connection during an event, then resume later. Pausing is a per-project control inside the open project; it isn't available on the project manager list.
What syncs
The link carries the full working state of a project:
| Item | Direction | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Videos | Desktop → Cloud | Finished, encoded videos with thumbnails and public links |
| Submissions | Cloud → Desktop | Guest form entries, used to match videos to people |
| Emails | Both | Delivery emails and their status |
| Processing config | Both | The project's transcode settings and color/editing setup |
Deletions are respected across the link: a video or email removed on one side is removed on the other at the next sync.
If the same project is changed in the cloud and on the Mac at the same time, the app detects the conflict and re-syncs from the latest cloud state rather than overwriting it silently. In practice you'll rarely see this — just let a sync finish before making large changes in two places at once.
Download a finished video on demand
A Synced project lists every video, but a finished file isn't always stored on the Mac you're using — for example when the video was produced on another machine. When that happens, you can download the processed video back to your Mac on demand from within the project, so you can review or re-export it locally.
Working offline
You can keep working with no connection:
- Importing, transcoding, and editing all continue normally.
- Your changes are queued locally.
- When the connection returns, syncing resumes automatically and pushes everything that changed.
A background connection monitor checks the link about once a minute, so reconnection is detected on its own — you don't need to refresh anything.
The grace period for published projects
A Published project relies on the cloud to confirm it's still live. To keep you working through unreliable venue networks, the app gives every published project a 36-hour grace period offline: during that window it behaves exactly as if it were online.
You're never blocked from working. The app simply keeps you informed with a banner:
| When | Banner | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Offline, plenty of time left | Offline mode | The project is working offline; a tooltip shows the time remaining |
| Less than an hour left | Reconnect before … | Reconnect soon to stay published; a Login action is offered |
| Grace period elapsed | Draft mode | The project has dropped back to Draft; a Publish action is offered |
If 36 offline hours pass without a sync, the project reverts to Draft. Nothing is lost, but new transcodes start carrying the watermark again until the project is published once more. Reconnecting restores the published status and resets the 36-hour timer, so a brief reconnection during a long event keeps you in the clear.
If you're running a long event on a flaky network, reconnect at least once within any 36-hour stretch. Each successful sync refreshes the grace period and keeps transcodes watermark-free.
Draft and Archived projects offline
- Draft projects work fully offline and always carry the watermark, online or not — there's no grace period to track.
- Archived projects are read-only everywhere, so the offline rules don't apply.
Next steps
- Managing Projects — the project manager and project states
- Import & Transcode — produce your footage
- Lifecycle & Limits — how publishing, minutes, and expiration work
Need help? Check the Troubleshooting section.