Autosave and syncing

OurSpace uses an offline-first saving system. While you write, the app keeps a local copy on your device and sends changes to your account in the background when a connection is available.

What happens while you write

You normally do not need to press a button after every sentence. OurSpace updates the current story locally as you work, then syncs changes to the cloud after a short pause. If the cloud save cannot finish because the network is unavailable or temporarily failing, the change is placed in a local queue and retried later.

This is why you may see one of these status messages:

• Offline — the app currently cannot reach the server.
• Offline · N pending — you have N local changes waiting to sync.
• Syncing N changes… — the app is sending queued changes.
• A brief synced state — queued work has finished uploading.

When the app is online and there is nothing pending, the status indicator stays out of the way.

Autosave versus Save

Autosave and the Save action serve different purposes.

Autosave protects the latest working state and keeps local and cloud copies in sync. Save also creates a restore point for the current chapter’s Version History. Version History keeps up to 20 saved versions per chapter.

A useful habit is to let autosave handle ordinary writing, then tap Save at meaningful checkpoints—for example, before a major rewrite, after finishing a scene, or before deleting a large section.

Before closing the app or changing devices

If you have been writing offline or on an unstable connection:

1. Reconnect to the internet.
2. Keep OurSpace open.
3. Wait until there is no pending count and no active syncing message.
4. Only then continue on another device.

If you close the app while changes are pending, OurSpace is designed to keep those queued changes locally, but the safest cross-device workflow is to let the original device finish syncing first.

What not to do during a sync problem

Do not immediately:

• clear browser cookies, site data, or app storage;
• uninstall the PWA or Android app;
• reset the browser profile;
• delete the affected book or chapter.

Those actions can remove local copies that have not synced yet. If you need to troubleshoot the website itself, first confirm that all writing is synced or exported.

If syncing seems stuck

1. Confirm the device has a working internet connection.
2. Keep the affected device awake and OurSpace open for a few minutes.
3. Watch whether the pending count changes.
4. Close and reopen OurSpace without clearing storage.
5. Open the affected story again and check its latest text.

If the pending count never clears, contact support and include the device, browser/app, approximate time of the last edit, story/chapter name, and the exact sync message you see. Do not include your password or OTP.