Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to file system placeholders. In aspects, placeholders may be used by a client to represent remote file system objects. The placeholders may include metadata and may also include none, some, or all of the content of the represented remote file system objects. In conjunction with local file system metadata, the placeholders allow a file system namespace to be navigated and may also allow other operations to be performed on the file system objects even when the client is offline with respect to the remote file system. After connectivity is re-established with the remote file system, the placeholders may be used in synchronizing changes.