Games won’t launch in offline mode

[NimrodX]

When I connect to the “personal hotspot” with the steam deck, web sites load but the deck “can’t connect to the steam servers”. This is a separate problem that may be the carriers fault and may be unsolvable.

However I should be able to turn off wifi on the deck and go into offline mode, and still launch games.

But this is not working. The spinner just spins forever.

This thing is useless if it won’t work when there’s no internet connection.

I would give you the model number but the stupid thing says an internet connection is needed to view model number. Insane. How did this kind of nonsense pass testing?

It’s the “non oled” 1TB model with the latest os 3.5.7

[Mahjik]

You do have the launch games "the first time after install" while online. Have you launched the games at least once since your install on the Deck while online?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

You do have the launch games "the first time after install" while online. Have you launched the games at least once since your install on the Deck while online?

This^. Offline Mode...

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/0E18-319B-E34B-B2C8

[NimrodX]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

You do have the launch games "the first time after install" while online. Have you launched the games at least once since your install on the Deck while online?

Yes, both games I’ve tried have been launched while online. The first one I was playing last night.

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by NimrodX:

Originally posted by Mahjik:

You do have the launch games "the first time after install" while online. Have you launched the games at least once since your install on the Deck while online?

Yes, both games I’ve tried have been launched while online. The first one I was playing last night.

Which games?

There are some games you might think will work offline, but might not.

[nephalim]

Are you in desktop mode? It spins for a very long time before loading if so.

[NimrodX]

Originally posted by nephalim:

Are you in desktop mode? It spins for a very long time before loading if so.

No, not in desktop mode. Not trying to do anything unusual. Seem like insufficient testing was done on this even after all this time.

[NimrodX]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

Originally posted by NimrodX:

Yes, both games I’ve tried have been launched while online. The first one I was playing last night.

Which games?

There are some games you might think will work offline, but might not.

The ones I tried were Dave the Diver and Astebreed. Neither should need the internet.

The other thing is there is no warning about licensing errors. Steam knows it is in offline mode. The games never launch so they are not generating their own errors failing to connect. It’s just spin until after some number of minutes the launch process crashes back to the Steam app.

If someone wants to collect debugging info I can try launching more, or retrieving logs, but I don’t want to bother if no developers will investigate.

[Mahjik]

Just to verify you put the Deck into Offline Mode and then rebooted?

[NimrodX]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

Just to verify you put the Deck into Offline Mode and then rebooted?

No, I meant the application launching process (where you see the steam logo surrounded by a spinner) would just spin for some number of minutes, then die and go back to the steam app screen for the particular game I was trying to launch.

It seemed to go into offline mode ok. I had also shut off the wifi just so it couldn’t get confused.

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by NimrodX:

Originally posted by Mahjik:

Just to verify you put the Deck into Offline Mode and then rebooted?

No, I meant the application launching process (where you see the steam logo surrounded by a spinner) would just spin for some number of minutes, then die and go back to the steam app screen for the particular game I was trying to launch.

It seemed to go into offline mode ok. I had also shut off the wifi just so it couldn’t get confused.

I am aware of what you said. There are a few things people have experienced in this space with the symptoms you are describing:

* Offline Mode doesn't seem to register unless you reboot after enabling it (hence the question)
* If you enabled a new "Wake Movie".

[NimrodX]

Ok, sorry was traveling and didn't properly get what you were asking.

Yes I did try rebooting a few times. I'm sure one of those I rebooted in offline mode.

I did install some unofficial "wake" movies a while back. Perhaps there's an issue with that somehow that I can't imagine......

[TehCookie]

I've noticed I've had a 50/50 chance of a game booting. It's a pain in the ass but usually restarting and giving it another try does with eventually, I've never gone past 4 tries. You can tell when you got the steam button and can see the game in the background but when you hit resume it goes back to the spinner.

However a lot of games that can run without internet still freak out without wifi making it an unreliable hunk of plastic. Granted steam in general is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ without internet and the offline mode is a joke, I've had similar issues on my laptop.

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by NimrodX:

I did install some unofficial "wake" movies a while back. Perhaps there's an issue with that somehow that I can't imagine......

Try disabling the custom wake movie and try loading your game again.

[NimrodX]

ok will do. there are several custom wake movies. it's set up to randomly select one right now.

it seems very ood that this would have anything to do with offline mode though.....

[Mahjik]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/6348431004268742880/