Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and UI modifications for existing applications are used to implement efficient methods for taking content offline with full synchronization, incremental synchronization, in the case of document libraries per-folder synchronization, and the like. The APIs provide support for synchronizing changes to attachments, the ability to download a document library's complete contents or only a list of the available documents, and read-only folder hierarchy replication in the case of document libraries. These abilities coupled with corresponding user interface features enable easier browsing and searching of large document library structures, making edits to those documents offline, being able to see an up-to-date version of those documents in a preview mode, and receiving reminders when offline edits remain on the local computer and need to be updated to a server.