Steam Offline Mode - 'Unable to connect to the Steam network'

To be fair mate, if it works perfectly fine on your PC, but not on your laptop, logic dictates that the problem is with your laptop, not with Steam. While I know Steam has it's issues, and they are documented, considering how many million people use it every day without problems, I would always question those who are having problems, and wonder whether they are unknowingly causing the problem.

If I were you, I'd restart the laptop in Safe Mode (with Networking), and try getting Steam into offline mode there. If it works, you have a problem with your laptop configuration, either a startup program or service is causing Steam to fail. If it continues to cause you issues, even in Safe Mode, I'd uninstall Steam and do a completely fresh install.

This isn't coming from a fanboy by the way, but from an IT Technician with near 15 years of experience, and that experience is telling me that the problem is likely with your laptop :)
 
I've gotten rid of Steam and the games on it now and just procured, erm... alternatives. :p

Your advice seems pretty solid though, but the lappy is Vista Service Pack 2, absolutely barebones as far as installed programs go and it's on a pretty fresh format too. The only usage it gets is as a media player so I really can't see the issue it would have. I took the winui.gcf file from my PC's steamapps and put it on my laptop as it didn't even have one and it didn't fix it, it couldn't read the login information that was stored for some bizarre reason and no fix worked. Kinda wish I could try it all out in safe mode now to see if it fixes it, but there's no point as I'm leaving pretty soonish for holiday, but I appreciate your time chap! :)
 
Did you try setting it to run as administrator? And I assume you went in any if the steam betas? They can can often mess with a fair few things.
 
Or maybe this is all a sign that you shouldn't be sitting playing games on holiday :p

I have had steam offline mode work on pc and laptop just fine. Guess I'm one of the lucky people that never seems to suffer from any major issues with pc gaming.
 
Omaeka said:
I've gotten rid of Steam and the games on it now and just procured, erm... alternatives. :p

Your advice seems pretty solid though, but the lappy is Vista Service Pack 2, absolutely barebones as far as installed programs go and it's on a pretty fresh format too. The only usage it gets is as a media player so I really can't see the issue it would have. I took the winui.gcf file from my PC's steamapps and put it on my laptop as it didn't even have one and it didn't fix it, it couldn't read the login information that was stored for some bizarre reason and no fix worked. Kinda wish I could try it all out in safe mode now to see if it fixes it, but there's no point as I'm leaving pretty soonish for holiday, but I appreciate your time chap! :)
Click to expand...

Fair enough, if you've not got time then I understand going for the quick fix ;)

I'd be interested if you could try and install it again after you come back from your holiday. I'm a stubborn git, so I kinda want to know what's causing it :D
 
I have the exact same problem as the op. I installed Hitman Absolution yesterday. I have auto login selected and have tried most things to get steam to work offline but still no luck. I will try again today and report back if I find the solution.
 
I have always had intermittent problems with steam offline mode. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Steam has always had a problem. Obviously, the majority of the user base don't have an issue, but that's no reason to asusme no-one has this problem. you only have to search offline mode problem on steams own forums to find many, many users who often have problems with it.

The various suggested solutions - remove network cable, go online first then start offline, save a particular login config file, keep all games updated all of the time, etc - work for some people, but for some users, there's no combination of fixes that works all the time.

Why do people who have no problem with this insist on trashing a thread, when they have no contribution that is actually helpful?
 
Well today I have tried safe mode with networking, uninstalled and reinstalled steam.
Made sure save password is on. Tried unplugging cable, then disabling network card. Still not working. Sent an email to steam.
 
I had the same issue abit ago.

Go into settings and at the bottom it says save/store info on this pc, you need to check the box so it stores your login info for when your in offline mode otherwise it just gives the can't connect message.
 
I've rarely ever got Offline working either. I just make sure I get games without Steam/Origin/Uplay etc where ever possible.

Unfortunately it's a rarity to find standalone games nowdays.

Not saying Steam's particularly bad. I like it! Just my connection dies occasionally and it's frustrating not to be able play my games.

Glad I still have all my old games still :) (and a console! One of their advantages...)
 
Davey_Pitch said:
I hope you're not referring to me with that comment, considering I was actually trying to be helpful.
Click to expand...

No, I really wasn't. You were being helpful, thank you for that, and there were others who have been helpful in this thread too.
I didn't want to name names, since it's not unique to this thread. Whenever offline mode problems crop up, there's always some who do the kinds of things I described, and it just gets irritating after a while.
 
my pc does this about every two to three weeks, it's did it again last night.

i've noticed one thing though:-

1...it does it if you shut down the pc too quickly after gaming, you have to finish gaming, go to the taskbar and then exit Steam as well, dont let the PC do a forced Shutdown for you, or it'll loose Steam files.

unfortunately i didn't do a forced shutdown two days ago !!!!!

i've researched this online and STEAM also does this if Windows asks you to update, windows doesn't like you being offline and this seems to be if you've been offline for two weeks, whatever it is, it is bloody annoying...i couldn't game at all last night
 
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