Steam Offline Mode Poll

[Wulf]

I can start up Steam in offline mode and play games. I can do this with my Internet connected fully, partially, and with my router switched off. I can do this even if the router is switched on when I close Steam, and switched off when I start Steam. Do I get errors? Occasionally, yeah. But this is a persistent bug where you have to start Steam twice.

It kind of doesn't surprise me really that most people wouldn't think of trying again after receiving an error, but I do, and it always works. Every damn time. I've mentioned this in the past, too. Because there was one point where restarting Steam twice was actually necessary to get into offline mode, whereas these days it's just a rather rare bug. But really, just close Steam completely, then restart it and try to get into offline mode. Does it bug out on you, then? It probably won't. Deleting files is not necessary.

I haven't had a problem getting into offline mode since Steam's launch, and I haven't magically started having issues today, either. I've spent months in offline mode for various reasons, and it's never failed me.

So I'm just baffled as to what everyone else is doing wrong.

Unless it's really true that no one knows about the double-restart thing.

[somini]

It has worked for the last couple of years, but in the last month it stopped working suddenly and I had to manually enter Offline Mode while connected to be able to take my laptop to places with no internet. I tried to do that and it worked, so for me it works most of the times, but lately it has some problems with turning off the PC while online and when turning on again it with it offline.
Pretty sure it was after a patch about a month ago.

[DigitalSignalX]

Worked fine offline for me, credentials are saved.

[The Innocent]

Need two votes. One for yes it worked on my laptop and one for no it didn't work on my desktop. Which is strange, since my desktop is the one that's most up-to-date and it's the laptop that I've had problems with in the past.

The problem was that it says that no login information was saved. But it was saved, and had been authenticated. Replicated the problem once after the initial fail.

[Grizzly]

Whoops - So much for answering polls before reading the original post.

So, it did work fine for me this time 'round. It did NOT work for me last time round, where I was off the internet for a week - and steam did not want to start because it wanted to download the update.
Bloody unreliable bugger...

[J.B.]

Worked fine for me too, credentials are saved.

[GothicEmperor]

It works if I switch to Offline mode before I lose my internet; that always saves credentials. It's how I keep my Steam working when I'm on holiday with my brother in Bumfuqville, Southwestern France, were there's no real internet connection to speak off and the only thing to do there when it's raining is to play Battlefield 2 over LAN.

[ColdSpiral]

Not voting, as mine's a "yes, but..."

I've just moved house and suffered through the week of waiting on internet setup. While that was happening I had some time to get used to offline mode. It signed in reliably for me every time, and my credentials were saved. However, I did grow tired of my limited selection (running on a 120gb ssd, can only keep a few things installed at a time) so tried pasting back a game I'd archived on my second hard drive (a process I'm used to with online mode). This is apparently not allowed in offline mode. I assume that this is a function of Steam's DRM, but when it's something I owned before going offline, you'd think Steam would have a record of it.

[aldo_14]

Only works if I manually disconnect the internet connection (pull out ethernet or disable wifi) after being connected. Otherwise selecting 'start offline' results in an error prompt along the lines of 'cannot perform this action without an internet connection'.

[Kadayi]

Not voting, as mine's a "yes, but..."

I've just moved house and suffered through the week of waiting on internet setup. While that was happening I had some time to get used to offline mode. It signed in reliably for me every time, and my credentials were saved. However, I did grow tired of my limited selection (running on a 120gb ssd, can only keep a few things installed at a time) so tried pasting back a game I'd archived on my second hard drive (a process I'm used to with online mode). This is apparently not allowed in offline mode. I assume that this is a function of Steam's DRM, but when it's something I owned before going offline, you'd think Steam would have a record of it.

Put your games directory on a separate drive dude, there's zero point trying to shove Steam and your OS onto 1 SSD and juggle games.

[deathcarrot]

Attempted it last week, so I hope it's still valid. Credentials saved, attempting to start in offline mode gives the "cannot perform this action..." message and quits steam.

[Kadayi]

Attempted it last week, so I hope it's still valid.

The point of a test now is to not rely upon a memory of what happened last week, last month, or last year and to deploy the same approach in order to determine if there are any anomalies.

[The Innocent]

Tried what aldo_14 said, and it changes my results. So long as I prep Steam by specifically putting into offline mode from online mode prior to performing the test, it saves the credentials just fine and all works. However, if I don't go that route by just booting without internet, then it fails.

So an interesting result, to be sure. It means that if I were a persnickety Steam-offline-or-bust kind of gamer, I would likely be fine since my Steam would be set to offline anyway. But it doesn't much help me in the instance of internet failure (not a common thing where I live). As I said in the other thread, the only time this has really caused me problems was while traveling and not having access to the internet connection. I'll try to replicate the same issue on my laptop later this week, and see if just ensuring it's in offline mode to begin with will help the problem.

[XisLoose]

Haven't tried it with the latest updates on my PC, but on the laptop while travelling it didn't work.
The credentials were saved, yet it gave me some error... :/

[deathcarrot]

The point of a test now is to not rely upon a memory of what happened last week, last month, or last year and to deploy the same approach in order to determine if there are any anomalies.

After the update and prep it's all fine and dandy again, so my vote can be discounted (sorry about that). I just hope it stays that way.

[othelios]

Worked fine for me. Was quite quick as well.

Although there have been a couple of occasions where my internet was down and it would bring up a message saying it couldn't connect where it then promptly quit. Not sure why, and I never bothered to find out as I've always had an offline. non-Steam, game installed to play.