Steam Offline mode -clutching at straws..

FishPolice

FishPolice

FishPolice

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Just moved into a house with no internet & foolishly didn't bother to put my Steam into offline mode first.

I have been trying to get into steam so that I can configure it to run in offline mode.

I have now managed to tether my pc to my phone & can surf etc but Steam just won't open for me. I now get a message that it's updating but there's no progress bars & 3 mins later I get a message saying that I possibly have network issues and steam exits.

My question: Is it possible for me to download & install steam on my work pc and set it to run in offline mode so that my own pc will work in offline mode too? Maybe there are some config files or .blob files or something that I can copy from my work pc to my home pc steam folder to fool my pc into thinking the steam client is up to date or whatever else it was trying to update?
 
That's what got me about the offline mode. You need to actually set it to offline whilst online. I mean what if there's a sudden internet problem which won't get resolved for weeks or something like in your case.. means you can't play. :/
 
When I moved into my house, I had no internet for a few weeks. I played and finished metro 2033 and that was fine. The only thing it didn't do was record how long I have played that game for. I can't remember if I played any other games. I didn't set anything to anything.
 
No you don't...

You just start steam without an internet connection and it'll ask if you want to start in Offline Mode instead.

There's no need to be online to go offline.

However to play any games you will need to have played them at least once while online (at some point) so that they are unlocked for use in Offline mode.
 
HeX said:
No you don't...

You just start steam without an internet connection and it'll ask if you want to start in Offline Mode instead.

There's no need to be online to go offline.
Click to expand...

Only if you're very lucky. It's a real issue the OP is experiencing, and there's no easy way around it except to cart your PC to a house with an internet connection and set it to offline. My one major gripe with Steam, the offline mode thing is bugged to bits.
 
I can honestly say i've never had a problem with Steam Offline mode.

When going to LANs and what not, the night before i'll fire up steam, make sure i've ran all the games I intend to play the next day, then shutdown.

At the LAN i'll turn on my PC, launch steam, it pops up 'cant connect, do you want to play in offline mode', I press yes, and that's it.
 
Like I said, lucky you. Do a google on steam offline mode not working and look at the pages of results. I think it depends on how your connection to your ISP is set up (or at which point it fails) but I've never been able to get it working unless I go offline first while I'm still connected to the internet.
 
Its a pretty common complaint, I've had to use it a time or two in the past, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Luck of the draw I guess.

As far as OPs question goes, it might be an issue with tethering. Does your phone have a hotspot mode? Might want to try that if you can.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far.

I think I'm gonna probably end up just carting the pc round to my old address & connecting back up to the net & setting it to offline mode.

I have just installed steam on the work pc, logged in, changed settings to offline mode & to enter login details manually. I then copied the complete folder (no games installed though) to a flash drive & will see if I can use these folder contents to jumpstart my existing steam install at the new house. Not very confident that this will work but I do like a challenge plus it's made my day go nice & quick so far what with all the googling etc :D

It's the first time I've ever tethered a phone. I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S. Old 2.1 software version so had to use EasyTether to get online. Very impressed that it worked so well for browsing etc. Paid for the upgrade to EasyTether Pro as well to see if it was the Lite version that was hindering my steam connection. Only £6 ish so not a major waste of money.

I have had steam working once before in offline mode at my old address so I know it used to work -but that was set up from within steam when i had a connection. Having said that, I know some of my games were not fully updated so that could mean other problems...

When I first tried to boot up steam at the new house, steam said there was no connection & it suggested I choose offline mode. Then I would get an error message.
When I try to load steam when tethered, steam immediately tries to update itself (looks like the client itself is trying to update) but no progress is made & it then suggests I have network issues.
 
HeX said:
No you don't...

You just start steam without an internet connection and it'll ask if you want to start in Offline Mode instead.

There's no need to be online to go offline.

However to play any games you will need to have played them at least once while online (at some point) so that they are unlocked for use in Offline mode.
Click to expand...

If you have any update pending - be it a steam client update, a game update you've not bothered to install yet, possibly even games you've purchased and not downloaded (not sure on that one) you can't go into offline mode without an internet connection - its something they really should work on as theres plenty of stuff that should work fine as it requires no DRM or online content even if it does mean blocking individual applications within steam once its launched.

AFAIK you need to go into offline mode on the same PC as you intend to use offline as well won't work by copying the folder over from another PC.

One thing I did find tho quite a few (tho not all) games will work fine in singleplayer/offline mode if you start steam up and leave it at the error then try and launch the game from its own folder (the application "sees" steam "running" and continues).

A lot of mobile networks seem to block something that steam needs - I've found that tethering on a lot of networks won't let me launch steam :(
 
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Rroff said:
One thing I did find tho quite a few (tho not all) games will work fine in singleplayer/offline mode if you start steam up and leave it at the error then try and launch the game from its own folder (the application "sees" steam "running" and continues).
Click to expand...

Another simple one to try. Thanks Rroff :)

I think I'm doomed though -the rest of your post seems to tally completely with what I've researched so far :/
 
I tried hotspotting from a Galaxy S on hols too, and it didn't work. Like you said, something Steam needs seems to be blocked by most mobile networks.
 
Rroff said:
If you have any update pending - be it a steam client update, a game update you've not bothered to install yet, possibly even games you've purchased and not downloaded (not sure on that one) you can't go into offline mode without an internet connection - its something they really should work on as theres plenty of stuff that should work fine as it requires no DRM or online content even if it does mean blocking individual applications within steam once its launched.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely accurate.

As long as the game you want to play is up to date and has been run at least once it'll work.

Steam client updates won't effect it unless you haven't restarted steam since you applied one. As long as you've run it once it'll start in offline mode.

Uninstalled games, or partially downloaded games won't effect offline mode, you just won't be able to use those particular games.
 
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