Patent ID: 7720920

Claim:
A method for operation of a client computing device running client software for performing client side based data synchronization and storage, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, at a first client computing device, an item stored on a server store of a server managing an account accessible by the first client computing device, the item having at least one attachment; off-lining a copy of the at least one attachment onto a client store of the first client computing device; storing the item with the at least one attachment in a folder in the first client computing device; sending an off-loading instruction by the first client computing device to the server wherein the off-loading instruction instructs the server to delete the at least one attachment from the item stored on the server based on a predetermined off-loading policy; and synchronizing a sync post folder of the first computing device with a sync post folder of the server; receiving, at the first client computing device, a request message from a second client computing device, the request message requesting the at least one attachment stored in the folder in the first client computing device; posting, at the sync post folder of the first client computing device, a response to the request message received from the second client computing device, wherein the response includes the at least one attachment; and synchronizing the sync post folder of the first client computing device with the sync post folder at the server, wherein synchronization includes posting the response to the request message received from the second client computing device.