Online mode>Internet goes out>Rip steam library?

[Flowernose]

If your in online mode and your internet goes out are you able to swap to offline mode? My internets going to be out soon for a week so i want to make sure i need to remain in offline mode
Everything i want installed is installed updated verified and all that

[Kargor]

Start your Steam client and select "Go offline...".

I've never used that, but that should make sure that your library is in a suitable state.

[Satoru]

if you have saved your credentials, steam will go into offline mode if it cannot connect to the internet.

[Zekiran]

As long as what you want to be playing is an offline game, the above will work just fine. Just make sure to do that BEFORE your net goes out, because sometimes it can be rather fiddly to get steam to go offline if not already told to.

[crunchyfrog]

Yup, pretty much as already stated by Satoru.

If you have Steam remember your credentials when you log in, even if your internet drops out it should simply drop into offline mode easily.

You can also pre0-empt this, as you know you're going to be offline, by simply setting Steam into offline mode, then shutting down, on the last day of connection so it's ready for you to carry on.

I do this whenever I work at festivals during the summer.

[Satoru]

Also to add, there is a pervasive misconception that Offline Mode is designed to fail, phone home, requires reauthentication after X days, etc.

this is not the case

Valves intended design for Offline Mode is it should be able to run permanently in Offline mode.

Now offline mode is complex and has bugs that may prevent this for various reasons. But the intended design and behavior is that once in Offline Mode you should be able to stay in Offline Mode permanently


This is in contrast to my old VW that absolutely had a kill switch built into the car that made nearly every expensive component on it fail one day after the warranty expired

[Zekiran]

Can attest: my laptop is running windows XP. I took Steam offline on it shortly before they deprecated the OS support for it, and play games that CAN run on it just fine still. AS LONG as there's no possible internet connection. Which is easy on that lappy because you have to basically manually connect lol.

But then I am not able to play any games that would require a connection on it via steam anyway, since it's... an XP laptop with like 2 gigs of onboard ram and absolutely zero chance to upgrade it physically...