---
title: "Offline PDF annotations with automatic sync"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/pspdfkit-instant/offline-support/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/pspdfkit-instant/offline-support.md"
last_updated: "2026-05-28T01:45:38.686Z"
description: "Create and edit PDF annotations offline, with auto-sync on connection. Perfect for unreliable connections and seamless collaboration."
---

# Effortless offline PDF annotation and sync

Nutrient Instant is designed to be fully functional while a device is offline or a connection is unreliable. Users can continue to create and edit annotations, and Instant will automatically sync these later when a connection is available.

Instant stores annotations in a local database on the device and then synchronizes this with your Document Engine instance as soon as a connection is available.

If two or more users edit the same annotation while being offline, this creates a conflict. In such situations, Instant applies a first-come-first-win resolution strategy and will only accept the annotation changes of the first client that submits them to the server. All other clients will discard their local changes to the annotation and will apply the changes submitted by the first client.

If Instant is trying to sync but the device is offline, it will report the error[`InstantErrorCode.REQUEST_FAILED`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.instant.exceptions/-instant-error-code/index.html). Your app can respond to this in whichever way you find appropriate. This is typically done by updating the user interface to indicate that annotations cannot be synchronized.

Since there’s no way to know for sure if a connection is possible without first trying, Instant may still attempt to synchronize annotations when there’s no connection. If you present synchronization errors as alerts to the user, we recommend filtering out this error code, because users are familiar with connectivity problems and they expect apps to sync data automatically when a connection is available.
---

## Related pages

- [Authenticate your Android app with JWT](/guides/android/instant-synchronization/authentication.md)
- [Frequently asked questions](/guides/android/instant-synchronization/faq.md)
- [Adding Instant comments to PDFs on Android](/guides/android/comments/introduction-to-instant-comments.md)
- [Efficient PDF annotation syncing on Android](/guides/android/pspdfkit-instant/syncing.md)
- [Instant sync and document state on Android](/guides/android/pspdfkit-instant/instant-document-state.md)
- [PDF collaboration library for Android](/guides/android/instant-synchronization.md)
- [Create and manage PDF annotation layers on Android](/guides/android/pspdfkit-instant/instant-layers.md)
- [Instant usage on Android](/guides/android/pspdfkit-instant/usage.md)
- [Integrating real-time collaboration into your Android application](/guides/android/pspdfkit-instant/getting-started.md)