How to disable updates completely and play games without updating?

[Rings]

This is a real inconvenience for me. Steam seemingly refuses to launch games unless they are fully updated. If a game has a pending update, it won't let me launch it until the update is installed. Setting a game's auto update rule to "update on launch" doesn't help.

How can I trick steam into thinking a particular game is fully updated even if that isn't the case? I don't want to launch my games in offline mode.

[Chompman]

You will need to check on the games forum if you can do this as online only games will require you to be running the latest version usually to play the game with others.

If this is something the game allows then see if it has items similar to skse for skyrim for instance to prevent old mods from breaking.

You can also check if it has the beta option to load certain versions.

Every game can be different and your best option is to check on their forums but remember that one of steams main features was to keep games updated and it falls on you to figure out how to prevent it.

[Rings]

Originally posted by Chompman:

You will need to check on the games forum if you can do this as online only games will require you to be running the latest version usually to play the game with others.

If this is something the game allows then see if it has items similar to skse for skyrim for instance to prevent old mods from breaking.

You can also check if it has the beta option to load certain versions.

Every game can be different and your best option is to check on their forums but remember that one of steams main features was to keep games updated and it falls on you to figure out how to prevent it.

I mostly play single player games on Steam, but I also want this to apply to Palworld, which can work perfectly fine without being on the latest version. The only thing is I still want to be online so my steam friends see what game I'm playing, it keeps track of the time I unlock achievements, keeps track of my play time, etc.

My question was how I can achieve this. I don't think this would be game specific, at least not in this case since I'm not playing online-only games. With all due respect, telling me that "it falls on you to figure out how to prevent it" is probably the least helpful thing you could have said. I'm literally asking exactly that. Hopefully someone else can help me.

[tintingaroo]

We can have Steam consider a game up-to-date by editing the game's appmanifest file.
Some stuff regarding that here:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/592890004252946931/?tscn=1740385891#c592890004252952258

[Rings]

Originally posted by tintingaroo:

We can have Steam consider a game up-to-date by editing the game's appmanifest file.
Some stuff regarding that here:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/592890004252946931/?tscn=1740385891#c592890004252952258

Thank you for this. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to work. I followed the steps, namely using the tool, clicking the game, copying the command to clipboard, running it in the steam console, and copying the output there, but clicking on "Scan info from clipboard" doesn't do anything. Any advice?

[tintingaroo]

I tried it out and encountered the same issue. I'll ask Tharon about it.

I'm testing this on Win 11 24H2. Which OS are you using?

[Rings]

Originally posted by tintingaroo:

I tried it out and encountered the same issue. I'll ask Tharon about it.

I'm testing this on Win 11 24H2. Which OS are you using?

Thanks for trying to get to the bottom of this! I'm on Win 10 21H2.

[Tharon]

I have published an updated version (same link). The problem was caused by a change in the appmanifest layout in one of the latest Steam version.
It should work now, give it a try.

[tintingaroo]

Nice, worked for me Thanks Tharon! :D

[Rings]

Originally posted by Tharon:

I have published an updated version (same link). The problem was caused by a change in the appmanifest layout in one of the latest Steam version.
It should work now, give it a try.

Thanks a lot for fixing it! The instructions don't quite work anymore as it says to select all from the Steam console before clicking "Scan info from clipboard". Selecting all still does nothing when clicking the Scan button. It appears that selecting all (which cannot be done via right-click anymore, only Ctrl-A works) only selects what is currently visible on the window.

I thought the issue was that the command being included was breaking this, but it's because of the aforementioned issue. In case anyone else was having trouble like I was at first, you need to manually highlight everything with the cursor before copying.

[Tharon]

Unfortunately Valve borked the console when transitioning to a web app. Now the selection and the copy had to be done manually.

[Rings]

Originally posted by Tharon:

Unfortunately Valve borked the console when transitioning to a web app. Now the selection and the copy had to be done manually.

Yeah, truly unfortunate. In the instructions of your program, it would be beneficial if you specify this so people don't Ctrl-A and wonder why your program isn't working.

[tintingaroo]

This was my process to capture all content: click on console output -> Ctrl-A -> Home/scroll to the top of the console output -> Ctrl-C.

Think if I was giving instruction I'd swap the order of Ctrl-A and Home though.

[Tharon]

There is another issue with the console.
For games with a lot of manifests the console hang badly when trying to highlight all the text. I had it happen with Resident Evil 7 and Batman Arkham Knight.

I was investigating the newer client version and iirc there is a way to retrive the information from the console log, but i need to check if it's a viable method.