Seriously Steam...

[General Twinkletoes]

Yes, woe is you. You need to go online ONCE to enable the offline feature.

Damn Steam.

Spoiler: Eugh

In most situations where you want offline mode, you can't get online in the first place, like on a train or in a sudden power outage.

 

[Ledan]

I thought if you closed steam from the steam drop down menu in the top left corner each time before you shut down your PC it would be ready to boot up in offline mode if it cant connect to the internet, I've never had any problems booting steam up in offline mode when I need to.

????
Why should that matter? Ive tested it and see that it works, but why isn't this a recomended thing? And why should this specific way of closing steam be different from clicking the x button?

I'm so confused......

EDIT: Maybe it's a bug they haven't fixed?

 

[Vigormortis]

I use Steam's offline mode quite often. Both by choice and because my internet, while (at times) fast, can be very unreliable. Thanks Comcast!

But anyway, besides a few times wherein I screwed up or there was some bug present because I was using the latest beta build of Steam, I've never really had issue with Offline Mode. At least, not within the past few years.

It's not hard. If you know you'll be wanting to play a game, just make sure it's up-to-date with the Steam Client version. Easily achieved by just running the game once while Steam is online. Then, the next time (and frankly, every time) you shutdown Steam, make sure it actually closes out and syncs with your account BEFORE you shutdown your computer or unplug from your network/internet connection.

Then, the next time you open Steam without a viable internet connection, it will (with few exceptions) open into offline mode. At which point, any games that were up-to-date and synched with your client version will open and run like usual. Sans online features, of course.

Is it a perfect system? Hell no. Not even close. It needs a LOT of work. But the amount of trouble I hear some people have with it tells me that, more often than not, these people don't fully understand how Offline Mode works.

As a side note: The idea that you have to go online to set yourself to offline mode is ridiculous. Does that method work? Sure. Sometimes. But it's the needlessly convoluted way of doing it.

 

[ThirtySilver]

OK WOW. Please log into steam, click on Steam in the top right corner, click settings,
UNCHECK "Don't save account credentials on this computer. This option is recommended for public computers. NOTE THAT THIS WILL DISABLE 'OFFLINE MODE'. Facepalm at this entire thread.

 

[SpAc3man]

This may seem a bit harsh but in a first world country not having an internet connection is very abnormal. These are modern times where you should get your shit together and admit we live in a networked world. Get a lan over power setup (homeplug) or get a better access point.

 

[Ledan]

I use Steam's offline mode quite often. Both by choice and because my internet, while (at times) fast, can be very unreliable. Thanks Comcast!

But anyway, besides a few times wherein I screwed up or there was some bug present because I was using the latest beta build of Steam, I've never really had issue with Offline Mode. At least, not within the past few years.

It's not hard. If you know you'll be wanting to play a game, just make sure it's up-to-date with the Steam Client version. Easily achieved by just running the game once while Steam is online. Then, the next time (and frankly, every time) you shutdown Steam, make sure it actually closes out and syncs with your account BEFORE you shutdown your computer or unplug from your network/internet connection.

Then, the next time you open Steam without a viable internet connection, it will (with few exceptions) open into offline mode. At which point, any games that were up-to-date and synched with your client version will open and run like usual. Sans online features, of course.

Is it a perfect system? Hell no. Not even close. It needs a LOT of work. But the amount of trouble I hear some people have with it tells me that, more often than not, these people don't fully understand how Offline Mode works.

As a side note: The idea that you have to go online to set yourself to offline mode is ridiculous. Does that method work? Sure. Sometimes. But it's the needlessly convoluted way of doing it.

Why, after years of complaining, am I only hearing of this now? Shouldn't this be the standard advice to people who have problems, rather than "Well, sucks to be you. Steam is awesome and you are lame because you have no Internet. I don't have this problem, but don't you dare complain about steam". (not this thread in particular, but as said I've had this problem before and that was all i got)

 

[Vigormortis]

EDIT: oh! Forgot to mention that I hate that I can't play my games when they are updating. I can on impulse/gamestop online, so why not steam? It breaks a game when you have slow internet connection (say like in Kenya), and haven't turned of automatic updates (because you are new to steam and there is no tutorial or something to warn you), and then you can't play your game at all. If you turn off the update, well then the game has an unfinished download so bollocks to you.

Because Impulse actually uses a rather inefficient method of updating most of the time. It doesn't directly update your game files. It, more often than not, downloads an update patcher that, once download, then has to run to update your games. This can lead to glitchy update installs and will often leave files on your harddrive that need not be there.

Steams updater directly patches your game files while the update is downloading. This way there's fewer steps and fewer chances of something going wrong in the process. It's also a much faster method of patching. I've seen Sins of a Solar Empire patch at least three times faster on Steam than it ever did on Impulse. And believe me, I've owned the game on both platforms.

This is why you can't play a game while it's updating. You're basically expecting to be able to run your game files while they're being patched. That's just not doable.

I will say, though, that even Impulses updater is better than Blizzards. Dear God is their updater a pile of ****. If you do a fresh install of, say, Starcraft 2, when you go to update, it will download every update and patch released since launch....ONE AT A TIME. And, it won't move onto the next patch until it's finished installing the last one it downloaded.

It's ridiculously stupid.

 

[Vigormortis]

I use Steam's offline mode quite often. Both by choice and because my internet, while (at times) fast, can be very unreliable. Thanks Comcast!

But anyway, besides a few times wherein I screwed up or there was some bug present because I was using the latest beta build of Steam, I've never really had issue with Offline Mode. At least, not within the past few years.

It's not hard. If you know you'll be wanting to play a game, just make sure it's up-to-date with the Steam Client version. Easily achieved by just running the game once while Steam is online. Then, the next time (and frankly, every time) you shutdown Steam, make sure it actually closes out and syncs with your account BEFORE you shutdown your computer or unplug from your network/internet connection.

Then, the next time you open Steam without a viable internet connection, it will (with few exceptions) open into offline mode. At which point, any games that were up-to-date and synched with your client version will open and run like usual. Sans online features, of course.

Is it a perfect system? Hell no. Not even close. It needs a LOT of work. But the amount of trouble I hear some people have with it tells me that, more often than not, these people don't fully understand how Offline Mode works.

As a side note: The idea that you have to go online to set yourself to offline mode is ridiculous. Does that method work? Sure. Sometimes. But it's the needlessly convoluted way of doing it.

Why, after years of complaining, am I only hearing of this now? Shouldn't this be the standard advice to people who have problems, rather than "Well, sucks to be you. Steam is awesome and you are lame because you have no Internet. I don't have this problem, but don't you dare complain about steam". (not this thread in particular, but as said I've had this problem before and that was all i got)

Sorry? I've been saying this for years, actually.

I guess I've just never seen your particular complaint. Either way, hope this helps.

If, however, it doesn't, feel free to contact me. I can usually help people with their Steam woes.

Not all, mind you. Some issues are simply systemic. (like the God damned friends network always going down lately) But, for everything else I can usually lend a hand.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

Why do you people not simply launch the .exe file in the steamapps folder of your game? It works for most games, to my knowledge.

Also, if you want to play games offline, then maybe you shouldn't buy them on a digital platform.

 

[Naeras]

It's not that bad a system. It's only preventing you from playing if the internet is going to be down when you don't know about it. That's one scenario. In your case steam isn't stopping you, it's just 1) you didn't prepare for the internet to be down by switching to offline mode beforehand and 2) you have to move your computer to connect it to the internet temporarily.

If you're so used to playing offline one wonders why you were online at all. Was it perchance to take advantage of the steam sales?

Yeah. Anyone who goes on, say, a cabin trip and wants to play Steam games on their laptop during the trip should obviously turn on Offline Mode when they're at home, then bring the laptop with them and not turn the laptop off for the next week. I mean, that's entirely reasonable, right?

 

[Doom-Slayer]

Impulse, Gamer's Gate, GoG, Desura, and Capsule are all direct competitors to Steam, and they all have one thing in common: No platform specific DRM. In fact, Steam and Origin are the only two DD stores that have heavy DRM. DRM is unnecessary. It only punishes paying customers, never pirates. Heavy handed DRM is even worse.

As for the bug: the functionality you're describing is the bug. The workaround I found gets it to work in the situations you're saying it shouldn't.

GoG for one is not a direct competitor. Why? It does not offer a comparable product or even a comprable service. It sells reprogrammed classic games with a sprinkling of AAA games.

Desura I have never even heard of but I downlaoded it and made an account(just for you) it has 23 "AAA" games, only a tiny handful of which of which I have even heard of and the rest appear to be Indie games. So to call that competition is laughable.

Lets see Capsule..Oh a cool feature to trade in games? Oh...all the larger games cant be traded in, and the trade in price is about 1/5 of the purchase price, around 1-2 dollars per game.

Gamers Gate? Just another online store of which there are hundreds.

Impulse? Now its just the Gamestop app, essentially a mini version of Steam.

The problem with all of these bar GoG(which is different to all of these anyway) Im sure they are perfectly fine services but what possible incentive is there for me to choose them over Steam? This is the same problem with Origin, and it is the same problem with any digital distribution service that can exist that isn't Steam, why should I choose it over the most established service on the market.

Steam quite simply has the most games, the best prices and better features. In contrast to the DRM, a HUGE majority will favor the benefits over the DRM because quite simply, that kind of DRM is becoming basically irrelevant now, and soon enough it is going to become common place.

And how is offline mode working offline..a bug? That is what it is designed to do...

I still find it slightly laughable that you call DRM as taxing as checking my email "heavy handed". Always on is heavy handed, because it cannot be expected that you will have internet ALL the time. Requiring you to have it for a mere 30 seconds to set up playing games for 2 months, is not in any way hard to do.

 

[NLS]

Just buy a 25 meter long Ethernet cable and do some handywork while mounting the cables up around walls and corners. It was the first thing I did before moving in to my new apartment, buying a proper router with good WI-FI, and buying an ethernet cable long enough that I wouldn't personally have to use that WI-FI.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I see this problem come up with people from time to time but I have no idea why it happens. I've played games offline on Steam anytime I want, and I've never had an issue. I assume because I am logged on most of the time and only play offline when net drops and such?
It has just never been an issue for me. Sadly, stuff like this is always going to be a problem when you involve an outside client. Hopefully it'll be fixed someday.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

It's not that bad a system. It's only preventing you from playing if the internet is going to be down when you don't know about it. That's one scenario. In your case steam isn't stopping you, it's just 1) you didn't prepare for the internet to be down by switching to offline mode beforehand and 2) you have to move your computer to connect it to the internet temporarily.

If you're so used to playing offline one wonders why you were online at all. Was it perchance to take advantage of the steam sales?

Yeah. Anyone who goes on, say, a cabin trip and wants to play Steam games on their laptop during the trip should obviously turn on Offline Mode when they're at home, then bring the laptop with them and not turn the laptop off for the next week. I mean, that's entirely reasonable, right?

Why would you go on a cabin trip just to sit inside and play video games the whole time!? Go outside, man!

 

[ThirtySilver]

Why isn't offline mode automatically available. What if I had feck all internet and I could never access steam until i returned to uni. Has anyone else suffered this problem and am i crazy or a couple of years ago you never had to do this?

First of all, just let me say that you're allowed to swear on the internet. If it gets to where you write "feck", then just write "fuck" please. Fuck fuck fuck, fucking motherfucking fuck. There.

All right, on to Steam: Offline mode is automatically available if you've allowed Steam to store your account information on your computer.

That is, this checkbox must not be checked
(and maybe Steam Guard has something to do with it too, but I've never not had it since it exists so I'm not sure...):

That's it. And it makes sense too.

You can start offline mode easily if you are online, but if Steam can't connect to the internet you get this:

"Retry Connection" or "Launch in Offline Mode"

Naturally you press "Launch in Offline Mode" if you know your internet is dead. Guess what:
"Your computer has to be online to perform this action".
Just.. What? And when I did get online and try to go offline it says "Your account credentials are not stored on this computer, so you cannot go in offline mode".

That's funny, when I hit that button, Steam launches in offline mode...
What I'm trying to say is that your post is as anecdotal as the one you were criticising.

Yes, it couldn't be easier, you couldn't have made it easier. But still some people will post in this thread thinking you need to be online to go into offline mode, because they will take 20 minutes to ***** about something they don't understand, instead of doing 2 minutes or research.

 

[Louis Martin]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned that you can't use the full Offline mode on a shared computer. If you tell Steam to store your credentials and then switch to Offline mode then yeah, you can be offline indefinitely, but those details are stored independently of user profiles on your computer, meaning that anyone you share the computer with who also uses Steam will not be able to log in.

 

[Naeras]

It's not that bad a system. It's only preventing you from playing if the internet is going to be down when you don't know about it. That's one scenario. In your case steam isn't stopping you, it's just 1) you didn't prepare for the internet to be down by switching to offline mode beforehand and 2) you have to move your computer to connect it to the internet temporarily.

If you're so used to playing offline one wonders why you were online at all. Was it perchance to take advantage of the steam sales?

Yeah. Anyone who goes on, say, a cabin trip and wants to play Steam games on their laptop during the trip should obviously turn on Offline Mode when they're at home, then bring the laptop with them and not turn the laptop off for the next week. I mean, that's entirely reasonable, right?

Why would you go on a cabin trip just to sit inside and play video games the whole time!? Go outside, man!

I'd rather not go outside when it's pouring down, so it's nice to be able to play something if the weather turns to shit and we go tired of board games. Or we might want to do some rounds of Worms in the evening for family time(which is GREAT family time, by the way ).

Except we can't, because there's no offline mode now that we actually need one.

 

[Dr Jones]

All I hear is whine, log in once a month, play offline.

That is entirely an untruth, way to go chastising OP and showing you know nothing of Steam's "offline mode".

Explain.

And when I did get online and try to go offline it says "Your account credentials are not stored on this computer, so you cannot go in offline mode". I log off and on, and it gives me the same message.

Sounds like you need to disable the "Don't store account credentials on this computer" option from Steam's settings.

By this point I don't even bother with offline mode, I just turn my laptop on, start Steam online, and whenever I have to go somewhere with no internet, I just have Steam open.

Ok, I'm confused..

1. Says all OP is doing is "whining" when OP has legit points.

2. Might be the case, but makes no sense to me I should disable it, when it is asking me to have it enabled.

3. Fixed it.