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Choose Local AI and leave Personal Sync off. In that setup, your documents, questions, answers and chats stay on your computer. Elephas still goes online for a few account and app tasks, listed below, and none of them carry your content.

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Before you start

  • Local AI needs enough memory and disk space. Models range from about 1.2 GB to 5.3 GB. See Choose a local model.
  • Downloads need a connection once. The first-run models and the Local AI model must be downloaded before you go offline. See First-run downloads.
  • Personal workspace. In a Team workspace, the Team Owner’s AI policy decides which modes are allowed. See Team AI policy.

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Steps

1

Set up Local AI

Open Settings › AI. Under How Elephas answers, choose Local (on this computer). Pick a model or keep Choose for me, then confirm the download. Wait until the status reads Local AI ready. Full steps: Run Local AI.
2

Check that every download is finished

Open Settings › Downloads. When everything is present, it reads “Everything is downloaded. Elephas works offline.”
3

Leave Personal Sync off

Open Settings › Sync. If Sync is on, see Turn off Sync. Sync is off unless you turned it on.
4

Turn off usage reports (optional)

Open Settings › Privacy and turn off Send anonymous usage and error reports. Reports never include your documents or questions, but this stops them too. See Usage reports.
5

Check an answer

Ask a question. The answer’s badge reads Answered by: This computer.
The steps are the same on Mac and Windows.

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How it works

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What stays on your computer

Indexing happens on your computer. Always. In every mode, reading your files, OCR, the search index and finding passages run locally. In Local AI mode, answering does too. The model runs on your computer, through a local engine that only accepts connections from your own computer. Your question, the passages it reads, your chat history and the answer are not sent to any AI provider. In the app: “Answers are generated on this computer. Nothing is sent anywhere.”

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What still goes online, and why

With Sync off, nothing is sent to the sync service.

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Working with Wi-Fi off

Turn off your Wi-Fi after Elephas has confirmed your plan, and Local AI still answers from your documents. Elephas keeps a confirmed plan check in memory for up to an hour. After that hour, or after you restart Elephas, it needs to reach the Elephas service again before the next Local AI answer. If it can’t, it shows: “Elephas could not confirm your plan right now. Check your connection and try again.” Your documents, Brains and chats stay available to browse.

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Troubleshooting

Elephas needs to reach the Elephas service about once an hour, and after each restart, to confirm your plan for Local AI. Reconnect briefly, then ask again.
The model has not finished downloading or setting up. Open Settings › AI and check the Local AI status. See Local AI troubleshooting.
Local models are slower than cloud AI, especially on computers with less memory. A smaller model answers faster. See Choose a local model.

Run Local AI

What data is sent to AI

Where your data is stored

Usage reports