Steam Offline Mode: It's been a while, but I'm afraid I'll have to use it, then lose it.

[Mad_House]

So here's my current ordeal. I'm going to have to switch internet providers where I live, and the current plan with my current provider is ending and rolling over into limited-data connections. With an access rate of 700Kbps, AT&T is pathetic (feel free to throw alternative service suggestions at me, people) and I'm going to have to find another provider. In the meantime, I'm planning on disconnecting my gaming computer from the internet since I've got about 150 Gbs worth of games with regular Gb updates coming in, and that'll eat up the family data limitations and possibly finances, unnecessarily. AT&T is already rich enough, as far as I'm concerned.

With that said, I enjoy single player games, so playing offline doesn't bother me. What does bother me, however, is that the last time I used Steam Offline, the program would continuously log me out at random points in time, and if I don't have internet, that means I don't have the games, which translates to wasted money.

Now. I've heard of people and possibly even staff suggest making a backup folder of the files associated with Steam when in offline mode in case it fails, and I'm wondering how exactly that might work.

If I pull up C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam, and I start looking through the files, I find that there are a few that are "modified" whenever I log in or out, and it's my guess that these files deal with account information. The file folders with the most recent changes relating to when I log in are:

"config"
"depotcache"
"appcache"
"logs"


As far as the other folders are concerned, they haven't seemed to have changed for months (since I put Steam on my new computer).

If I back up these four folders as soon as I enter offline mode, and re-paste them if offline mode ever fails, will that re-enable my Steam offline mode allowing me to play my games, or will this not work? (Now as a side note here, there is no need to be defensive of Steam policy or it's offline mode here, I love it all. I just want to make sure that it works while I can't use the internet for this uncertain period of time, and I'd like to think that the people behind these systems took into account the idea that we might need to be without the internet for a while.)

[Out Of Bubblegum]

Did not read your complete post, but I think you do not need to do all that. Steam offline has improved since a few years ago. I use offline all the time because I only play single player. I have had no problems. Even if I have not gone online with Steam in a couple of months. I disable my internet access in Windows before running Steam. It sees there is no internet and asks if I want to be offline. I say yes and all is good. You can also go offline when you do have internet access by selecting offline from the Steam menu. (upper left corner) I think that selecting offline this way will keep Steam from going online until you change the selection.
PS: tou probably should also disable logging into friends, Steam overlay and cloud storage.

[Tux]

a few extra things.

If you are online and playing and then not online it will boot you from game. However, if you start the game offline then you are fine assuming the game itself doesnt require online.

Now some games like 7 Days to Die default to you using 'anti cheat' which requires online. but in that example you just start 'without anti cheat' and your good offline. I am not sure if other games use similar add ons but they should be easy to find/disable at game start up.

Also, games download on your box are download regardless of internet provider so you will not have to download them again. I am not 100% sure on that but prettty sure

[PsydeFX]

He's wondering the same thing I am. I'm on a new HDD with Win 10 instead of 7, but this happened to me a few times on 7, most recently in feb. At random, when you try to start steam, your stored credentials are gone/cleared. So, you can't log in at all, because to go offline mode, you need to log in first, and you can't log in because of no internet.

He's wondering if you can back up those credentials and then replace them with the copy in case they're cleared.

*EDIT*
I believe that even if you're set to offline mode, steam still checks for internet and may even perform actions, such as verifying those said credentials.

[Out Of Bubblegum]

PsydeFX: that is not my experience with Win 7 or Win 10. I always start Steam first before starting a game. If I have no eithernet connection then when I start Steam it will say no internet is available and asks to retry or start offline. I just select offline and all is good. I do not have my password stored. When I know that there is no internet I just type anything into the password field. I have never tried to also type junk into the user name. I have never lost my local credentials (user name). I can go online any time I like (like right now :).

[PsydeFX]

Yea, what I mean is that steam still connects to the internet even in offline mode, or it seems so anyway. I've gone months offline sometimes, and it eventually just loses credentials. So, none of that works once it loses the credentials. So, you can't even choose to start offline when the net is gone because to get that option, you need stored credentials