[BUG] OFFLINE MODE - "Unable to cloud sync" warning pops up 100% of the time even if cloud sync is disabled.

[Mithrax]

SUMMARY:
When Disabling Steam's cloud support, warning messages pop up upon the initial boot of every game in offline mode. After a reboot, warning messages persist again.

STEPS:
1. Launch Steam in online mode.
2. Go to Settings and turn off Cloud Sync. (View > Settings > Cloud > Uncheck Enable Cloud)
3. Relaunch Steam in offline mode. (Steam > Go Offline)
4. Launch any game.

5. --> [Large & Small Mode] A warning box appears "Unable to sync" for Steam Cloud even though it's disabled. This happens for the first launch of that game upon reboot.

6. --> [Big Picture Mode] A warning box appears "Steam Cloud Error" for Steam Cloud even though it's disabled.

7. --> [Steam Deck] Steam deck launches WITHOUT a warning or prompt in Offline mode. This is behaving correctly, please have other steam clients behave this way!

EXPECTED RESULT:
Disabling Steam Cloud should suppress warning messages and toasts about Steam Cloud features. Move the warning to when the user re-enables Steam Cloud under "View > Settings > Cloud > Enable Cloud". This would make the warning far more user friendly when playing offline. Warning messages that are accepted should be applied globally and not return upon a cold reboot.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
There's no client memory of accepting this warning after a reboot. Rebooting the system and launching the same game again will prompt another warning.

OS - Windows 10 - latest

This is highly problematic with Front Ends to launch games directly as any unexpected warning message steals focus from the expected game, and I'd be grateful if this could be fixed.

Thank you for reading!

[Dusk of Oolacile]

The issue appears unconditionally. If you're online, and cloud sync happens, it still reports a failure. Super annoying when going back and forth between devices, you you have to click "play anyway" every time.

[Mithrax]

+1 to this for fixing <3

[Mithrax]

This is still active in the 9/22 build and latest beta.

[Mithrax]

It's pretty clear to me their priority is on the steamdeck client right now. Bugs like this are being broken by steamdeck development and are being excruciatingly slow to fix on the PC side. The "Unable to Sync" error message was fixed on Steamdeck a month ago and is still live on PC.

I've decided to stop updating steam all together.

0. Revert to a working copy of steam via live (or a saved version that hasn't been updated on one of your computers). I'm always keeping a LKG (Last Known Good) version of Steam now handy to roll back to if necessary.

1. Create a steam.cfg file in Steam's root directory with
2. BootStrapperInhibitAll=Enable
3. --> Steam will no longer update

This way, you can update your games online while keeping steam from updating and breaking features. You can update your LKG build by testing and verifying features yourself in something like a VM or a PC where it won't matter before you roll it out.

[Kuei]

Hello,
Which version is not impacted by this bug ? I have this issue since several months.
Now I have to run my steam as online mode. Like some of you it is for a pincab, it's a pain to see Steam updating wheras Bigbox is starting !
@Valve could you please fix this basic bug ?

[Mithrax]

check the latest full version and see if its fixed

[Kuei]

Hello,
Yes it is true, it is fixed (at last). My pincab run like a charm.
Now I block the Steam update client.