Offline mode without internet

[Cirative]

So, my buddy is part of the 7% of Americans without internet access. He's in his 30s now, which is mostly irrelevant, but he just got his first laptop/PC since... well, I think this is his first ever non-console gaming rig, so he's like most people's grandparents when it comes to computers.

Regardless, he got Steam and I bought him $40 worth of games via the winter sale, and he brought it over my place to download games and we set it to Offline Mode after. We then disconnected the WiFi and tested it to make sure it launched, and it worked fine. Cool beans.

But now, only 2 days later, he just started up his laptop and it says an internet connection is required ("Steam needs to be online to update. Please confirm your network connection and try again.").

So... what to do?

[MancSoulja]

He has no internet what so ever not even a mobile phone?

[Cirative]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

He has no internet what so ever not even a mobile phone?

His phone has access to the internet but no hotspot, if that's where you were going.

[nullable]

Well I found this. But registry editing is bound to be a few levels above your friend's pay grade.

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/346858/how-to-keep-steam-in-offline-mode

I mean on some level online digital distribution systems that also function as DRM aren't the best choice for someone who doesn't have internet. He's just not the target demographic for online services.

Generally speaking he should have been fine for longer than two days, so I'm wondering what he did to trigger the need to login. Restarted the PC, or shut Steam completely down maybe? It's hard to say because being a middleman for someone who doesn't know what they're doing is really difficult.

[Cirative]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Well I found this. But registry editing is bound to be a few levels above your friend's pay grade.

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/346858/how-to-keep-steam-in-offline-mode

I mean on some level online digital distribution systems that also function as DRM aren't the best choice for someone who doesn't have internet. He's just not the target demographic for online services.

Generally speaking he should have been fine for longer than two days, so I'm wondering what he did to trigger the need to login. Restarted the PC, or shut Steam completely down maybe? It's hard to say because being a middleman for someone who doesn't know what they're doing is really difficult.

This is probably a dumb question but would restarting his laptop reset the Offline Mode setting? I'm the opposite of him, considering I've always had internet access since the late '90s and never had to use Offline Mode. I thought I read somewhere it only had to reconnect once every 15 days, similar to Xbox's Game Pass requirements.

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by Cirative:

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Well I found this. But registry editing is bound to be a few levels above your friend's pay grade.

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/346858/how-to-keep-steam-in-offline-mode

I mean on some level online digital distribution systems that also function as DRM aren't the best choice for someone who doesn't have internet. He's just not the target demographic for online services.

Generally speaking he should have been fine for longer than two days, so I'm wondering what he did to trigger the need to login. Restarted the PC, or shut Steam completely down maybe? It's hard to say because being a middleman for someone who doesn't know what they're doing is really difficult.

This is probably a dumb question but would restarting his laptop reset the Offline Mode setting? I'm the opposite of him, considering I've always had internet access since the late '90s and never had to use Offline Mode. I thought I read somewhere it only had to reconnect once every 15 days, similar to Xbox's Game Pass requirements.

Steam's offline mode is meant to be indefinite. Games themselves may have to sync to various DRM servers every now and again, but offline mode is just meant to keep working until you switch it off.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-offline-mode-designed-be-indefinite-valve-are-working-make-it-more-robust

[Jaunitta 🌸]

The message states>Steam needs to be online to update.

If its games you should be able to play without if its Steam also. Just add a straight through cable from his to yours and he can update via your internet.
Or add a wireless network adapter and use for updating. Then unplug.

[Cirative]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by Cirative:

This is probably a dumb question but would restarting his laptop reset the Offline Mode setting? I'm the opposite of him, considering I've always had internet access since the late '90s and never had to use Offline Mode. I thought I read somewhere it only had to reconnect once every 15 days, similar to Xbox's Game Pass requirements.

Steam's offline mode is meant to be indefinite. Games themselves may have to sync to various DRM servers every now and again, but offline mode is just meant to keep working until you switch it off.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-offline-mode-designed-be-indefinite-valve-are-working-make-it-more-robust

That article is ancient in the tech world, too much could've changed since 2013, but I believe you nonetheless.

[Cirative]

Originally posted by Jaunitta 🌸:

The message states>Steam needs to be online to update.

If its games you should be able to play without if its Steam also. Just add a straight through cable from his to yours and he can update via your internet.
Or add a wireless network adapter and use for updating. Then unplug.

We live about an hour apart, so it's not like he can just drop by my place for me to take a look at it. The best recommendation I can come up with for now is to head over to a local McDonald's and tap into their free WiFi to get it back to Offline Mode.

[lukaself]

DRM issues are a pain to any offline gamer on PC. Only somewhat helpful advice I can give here to people on the go or held by limited infrastructure would be to focus on buying DRM-free games which will still perform without the need to start the client. While designed to be indefinite, Steam's offline mode is unfortunately not perfect.

Steam itself has a good selection of games that you can start without the client. GOG, with its catalog (mostly) focused on DRM-free titles is the best friend of the offline gamer as well and the Epic Game Store, with half its catalog DRM-free is also a suitable mainstream option.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

Good luck

[♥♥tutor♥♥tαrα♥♥]

Originally posted by Cirative:

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Steam's offline mode is meant to be indefinite. Games themselves may have to sync to various DRM servers every now and again, but offline mode is just meant to keep working until you switch it off.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-offline-mode-designed-be-indefinite-valve-are-working-make-it-more-robust

That article is ancient in the tech world, too much could've changed since 2013, but I believe you nonetheless.

A few years ago I didn't have an internet connection for 5 months. I had no problem opening Steam in offline mode for the entire 5 months, and I was able to play all the games that I had planned to play.

Every game that he wants to play offline will need to be started once while he has an internet connection for the first-time setup before he can play them in offline mode.

Is he using some program to "clean" his computer? That might be removing Steam's cookies.

Did he check the setting in the login screen to save his login information? Offline mode requires login information saved while he is online.

And he should click on Steam in the top left corner, select Settings from the drop down menu, and make sure that he did NOT put a check in this box:

☐ Don't save account credentials on this computer

This option is recommended for public computers.
Note that this will disable 'Offline Mode.'

After he is done setting that all up again when he has an internet connection, tell him to make sure he disables the wifi network connection again.

[Cirative]

I figured it out. You have to modify the Steam shortcut to include "-noverifyfiles -nobootstrapupdate -skipinitialbootstrap -norepairfiles" in its run path.