Offline website guide

How to download a small website for offline use on Mac

An offline copy is most useful when you know its boundary. Decide which origin is allowed, cap the work before the first request and keep skipped or broken resources visible in the result.

1. Choose one public origin

Start with the canonical HTTP or HTTPS URL. Do not add credentials or a private session. Treat other schemes, ports, subdomains and hosts as different origins unless your capture tool explicitly proves otherwise.

2. Set hard limits first

Choose page, file and byte limits before capture. A small-site snapshot should stop predictably rather than discover after the fact that it downloaded an unbounded archive.

3. Respect the site's policy

Read robots.txt before the page crawl when robots handling is enabled. If an existing policy cannot be interpreted safely, stop or fail closed instead of guessing permission.

4. Review the offline result

Open the local entry page, check rewritten links and retain a list of captured, skipped, unsupported and broken resources. Static HTML and assets can work offline; JavaScript applications may not replay.