How to share a local-only space?

Help
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1

What do you need help with?

My desktop has a local-only space, and now I want to collaborate from my phone (which already has other Anytype data). I’d like the two devices to only talk over p2p - not the cloud.

I see the buttons for Invite, Copy Link, and QR Code are grayed out.

How do I invite my phone to collaborate on the space?

I have also tried creating a new, normal space from my phone and inviting the local-only desktop, but the desktop says the link doesn’t work.

My goal is just to have my desktop content never touch the cloud, but still collaborate with my phone on some of my data.

OS

Android, Windows

Anytype Version

Android 0.47.3, Windows 0.55.5

Network Mode

local-only

Technical Information

OS version: win32 x64 10.0.26200
App version: 0.55.5
Build number: build on 2026-06-02 16:45:57 +0000 UTC at #5e888f1b9b8590575ea81da218e95c472daf0fdf
Library version: v0.50.8
Anytype Identity: A6HfFfMo5dVh9z92C9W8ExVph7uTDCPT7NHXcNwWKzk3fvPX
Analytics ID: McmkdV4fLhKC9ZoY7Ca75p2D2W8dyDMFLQ2FYXkM7S6R4eoA
Device ID: 12D3KooWSbcEZGbjV225pem7vpjcnbV3WyCBaDSzXraEZUAq8iKQ
Ethereum Address: 0xc64Be00E59770c4Ec2113547E4B3dbD9cA5BFA50

2

This is not with the ‘collaborate’ function, as this is when you want to work with other users. In this case, you are simply wanting a multi-device setup. You can follow the instructions here.

To reiterate, local-only mode is not recommended as it can be prone to data-loss for which there’d be no recourse. Please make sure you have manual backup routines in place.

3

Don’t you think, then, that offering a local mode that’s prone to data loss is problematic?

It seems to me that the “offline-first” feature promoted by Anytype should logically, in users’ minds, imply the ability to operate without needing an internet connection.

4

We’ve addressed this conversation from multiple angles in the past, but I’ll try to do my best to summarise here:

Local-only vs. Offline-first

Anytype is a local-first product, which is a term that’s part of a broad software movement and often referred to as ‘offline-first’. In short, this means your data lives on your device and uses the (cloud) network to sync with end-to-end encryption. In other words, the goal is to give you the real-time collaboration benefits of cloud without the loss of data sovereignty, security, privacy, etc. You can use it offline.

Offline-first does not mean that it’s designed to be an ‘old school’ software product where you buy it on CD, install it on device, and never use it with the internet. That’s ‘offline-only’ and is what the local-only experience is more aligned with. The issue with local-only mode is obvious, your data only lives on the device you create it on and does not sync to your other devices unless you setup a local/peer-to-peer network. If something happens to your device, you lose your data—just like it happened back in the day. This has become more of a problem in modern times with our multi-device setups.

The important distinction is that local-first is designed to sync online. Even if you can perpetually use it offline, that’s not the problem it’s designed to solve. There is no real point to architect complex e2ee, CRDTs, seed phrase login, etc. if you are a solo user without any plans to connect to the internet or collaborate with others. Building local/offline-only software is already a solved problem, it’s just not a popular piece of (PKM) software for obvious reasons.

Why do we enable local-only?

To be frank, it actually causes a lot of pain to Anytype because the product was never built from the beginning to be a local-only product—it’s a local-first product. Many issues, support tickets, etc. that we get are from users in local-only mode who experience data loss. We enabled this feature (with experimental feature warnings) because it’s possible to use Anytype that way and some users want it.

Should you use local-only?

For the ‘average citizen’, we don’t believe there are meaningful security benefits to using local-only vs. the default local-first solution (connecting to Anytype network for sync). Because all data is end-to-end encrypted, it is practically impossible for your content to be compromised via the network sync. However, there are notable convenience and data-loss disadvantages that you can regularly experience using local-only mode. This is why we recommend local-first, it’s what it’s designed for.

That being said, everybody needs to make their own decisions on what security precautions they want to take based on their own threat profile. If you’re really needing a high security option, then I think device level security (air-gapped device) makes more sense.

5

Ah sorry - this is actually two identities: the local-only desktop has one identity and the Any network phone has another. That’s deliberate but I need to be able to share some data between them (a new Channel is okay, even if the phone syncs it up to Any network. It’s the desktop’s normal Channel I need to protect.)

6

You cannot change your sync mode on a per-channel basis. It’s set for your entire vault.

7

Can my local-only vault & my cloud vault sync a shared Channel over p2p?

This is what I’m shooting for:

                   Any network                
                        ▲                     
                        │                     
   local-only           │        Cloud vault  
 ┌───────────┐         C│       ┌───────────┐ 
 │           │         l│       │           │ 
 │ Personal  │         o├────── │ Personal  │ 
 │  channel  │         u│       │  channel  │ 
 │           │         d│       │           │ 
 ┼───────────┤          │       ├───────────┤ 
 │           │          │       │           │ 
 │ Group     │          └────── │ Group     │ 
 │  channel  │◄────────────────►│  channel  │ 
 │           │        P2P       │           │ 
 └───────────┘                  └───────────┘
8

Yes, this should work. The only exception may be files—which may only sync on the vault connected to Any network.

9

Ah, excellent! What do I need to do to set it up?

Here’s what I’ve been trying, and the errors I’ve run into:

(I rotated that secret link after recording :wink: )

10

Apologies, I wasn’t specific enough. This should work if the two vaults are already in the same shared channel. But to establish this shared channel (sharing of encryption keys for the ACL), you can’t do it in a local-only vault—as that’s not designed to interact with anybody else (and you never want that vault to touch the internet).

I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish with this setup with a local-only vault collaborating with another user on the network, but maybe you’d be more suited to self hosting.

11

Alright, I understand, thanks.

For product feedback purposes:

  • I have a work laptop with stuff that should never touch the cloud*
  • I have several personal devices where I just want to do things the normal way, collaborate with my wife, etc.
  • I want work & personal devices to collaborate on select data (update a shopping list, write down notes from a doctor phone call, write down the itinerary for my work trip flights).

*I understand Any Network data is encrypted. But there exists a long history of encryption algorithms being broken, or applications implementing strong algorithms incorrectly. I only need my work data on one device, so from an opsec perspective it makes sense to lock it down and cut risk from ‘low’ to ‘zero’. That’s also a much easier sell to my IT team, who approves all software I install.

12

I see. That makes sense. In short, you want to use your work device for some personal usage, and they are conflicting here in needs.

13

Bingo! That’s exactly what’s happening.