I use both modes, mostly Online mode because it takes me several minutes (~5m) in my laptop to sync my space, which is not that big:
857 total pages in space.
I use Silverbullet online mode almost exclusively because I move workstations regularly and need to be able to access both my tasks (through Todoist) and notes (through Silverbullet) quickly wherever I am. Having to wait 5-10 mins for a sync as opposed to accessing information immediately makes the tool not useful for me due to the pace of my work.
If Sync mode was able to download the rest of the space in the background while prioritising what I’m trying to view at that moment - that would probably be fine. But I’m not sure how practical that is and I appreciate I’m an edge case.
I use Sync Mode to check my notes at the office, the domain I’m using is blocked in the office’s network, I sync everithing once I’m in my house, but for my personal devices (phone and tablet) I like to use Online mode since I don’t want to download everything on my mobile devices, actually my reason to move away from obsidian was that I couldn’t access to my notes without sync everything to a computer.
I have a laptop and desktop that access the same notebook and its trivial for me to keep a server up that both reach all the time.
I don’t need nor expect to access them from a foreign device.
Would be OK adopting a sync mode if I could be assured of what happens when there’s a conflict.
I run the server locally on my mini-pc, the same one that I use to access it, so I don’t ever need to sync, even though I’m accessing it over http (on the same machine).
Alright. Let’s keep both modes for now 
14 Likes
I love using SilverBullet and have saved lots of important data with it. I’m currently using online modes. I like the flexibility and the ease of using the PWA across devices.
To keep it secure, I use Cloudflare Zero Trust for the online mode and back up data with Syncthing. it’s encrypted and synced to my computer in case anything crashes.
A little late to the party here but just chiming in because I am one of the “Online Only” people and I feel we need to be vocal just because from this post it’s clear that the function may be at risk.
While in general I’m somewhat ambivalent, as long as everything is working, I am a very intermittent note taker and I am easily distracted. I access via Tailscale on my phone whenever it occurs to me. I might be mid-sentence when I switch to my laptop or close the browser because I got a notification about something else. This has created problems in the past with sync mode and even if those things have been addressed I’m sure I could find a way to break them by just being a chaotic user.
At some point I completely borked the whole notebook clicking the sync button at the wrong time and rather than deeper troubleshooting I just reinstalled and copied over some .md files from back up. Since then I ONLY go to sync mode when I know I won’t have internet which is very rare.
I use online-mode, but primarily as part of the “Read-only public site” workflow/use-case. I would be very sad if it was removed without a workaround for this because the sync-mode is not very good for sharing notes with non-SB users
Sync-Mode did destroy my note, basically, twice now already. I enabled Sync-Mode on my mobile, updated it to reflect recent changes.
Then I did some changes in online-mode on my computer. I did rename some pages, though. Then I visited the site on my mobile again and suddenly my mobile created the older pages again and overwrote my custom index page …
That’s why I do not like to use the sync mode at all. )=
2 Likes
This may be an issue foregone but I use online mode for two primary reasons:
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my day to day has me between multiple devices sporadically. To sync when I change device would break my workflow.
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I’ve switched my phone to sync when I know I’ll be out of data coverage. When I’ve attempted to reconnect, I’ve lost data.
I use both, mostly online. But sync is more critical.
Online:
- faster and more secure on new devices as I have to check notes on foreign devices (faster and won’t download all my stuff on this device)
- easier to use / no sync issues at work (we’ve been using SB in a small team, and online mode is easier to manage)
Sync:
- at work it is essential to have your network and security notes available without a connection (spotty warehouse wifi, emergency, network outage, etc) (one of the most important selling points)
That said, I just read that removing the online mode would make it easier to implement E2E encryption and multi-tenet functions - I think I’d trade it 
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Online mode only. It’s the simplest mental model, supports multiple devices easily, and since I’m self hosting I don’t worry about lack of Internet. I also like that I can just make changes to the markdown files in a text editor in one place and it’ll get picked up everywhere.
My two cents obviously, but I chose SB because it had an online mode. I naturally don’t control the software but I don’t like the “sync-centric” model of Obsidian & AnyType.
6 Likes
I’m using online mode only. Because I always have access to my silverbullet service, either through my home WLAN or through a Wireguard VPN (when not at home).
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I am using online mode in a private browser on the work computer. I was an obsidian user who got tired of maintaining two vaults, one for work and one for everything else. The main reason I switched to silverbullet is because of its online mode, so that I can manage them in the same space, but never load personal stuff on work devices. No online mode means no silverbullet for me.
That being said, I don’t want to block progress either. I can keep using a version of silverbullet that fulfills my needs.
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Sorry to be so late to the party. My vote, if we’re only allowed one client mode, is for online. Reasons:
- I don’t want personal stuff in my SB space which I’m not viewing/editing passing through work proxies, which I think would be the case with sync mode, nor do I want data left on every client device I access
- Sync seems intrinsically more complex than online and will inevitably fail
- Instant access on a new device is very high priority
- I don’t want my phone with its limited resources (storage, memory) to be doing what a server does better
- High speed Internet is ubiquitous. That said I see the use case for preserving access of networks down in some situations
Most of these are probably based on misunderstandings but these are my thoughts!
Nick
3 Likes
Those would be my arguments too, but offline access seems to be a hard requirement for some silverbullet users, which is only solvable using sync mode. Don’t ask me why exactly.
My space is only accessible via my VPN, but on my work device I’m not allowed to configure Wireguard. So I sync my space at home and use it offline in the office.
In general it’s nice to be able to read and take notes even if there’s no (good) internet connection (e.g., in a plane, boat, rural areas with poor cellular connection).
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I’m one of those users for who offline capability is an absolute must have. And since I kinda started this whole thing, I think my requirements matter a lot 
Why I need offline (or sync) mode: while in theory Internet connectivity is prevalent, in reality it’s not, and this is especially relevant in the mobile use case. I’m sometimes in mobile dead zones, in trains, on mountains. I need access to my content, it’s a hard requirement for me.
This particular conversation has been superseded by this: Real talk: SilverBullet 2.0 - #36 by zef
Whereas before I thought “it would be nice” to just have one mode to support, I’ve since figured out, doing so is a key factor to keep myself sane. Therefore, from v2, sync mode will be the primary option. I’m contemplating still adding a lite online mode, with all the fancy features (that require all content to be synced) disabled, for those who don’t want to sync their entire content database locally to a particular device.
2 Likes
Understood.
This is a bit painful though, I have been developing some space-lua using VSCode working on the source space files, working happily all day.
I switched to Sync and after a while lots of files disappeared missing; I tried reloading System: Reload and Reload UI, hard reload. Had to reset all browing data which was a pain. The files were on the server, but not accessible via the Lua code.
There is probably a good lot of user cockup in this 
and you might reasonably say that this isn’t an intended use case (although the direct mapping to folders is a major plus for me) but there are going to be more of these issues with Sync only.
That said, it’s your project, I understand the decisions you have to do to keep the project manageable (and awesome)
Nick
1 Like