Start Steam offline without being online first?

[General Crespin]

Sure, Steam has an offline mode. But you have to be online first.

What happens if Steam is closed, and I lose my internet connection for whatever reason. Now I can't open Steam because it wasn't put in Offline mode first.

Am I wrong?

Is there any way around this without putting Steam into Offline mode every freaking time I close it?

 

[Tekara]

You are pretty much SOL until you can get online. Thinking about it, I have rarely ever gotten the offline mode to work for me, even after setting offline mode, on next restart it fails and demands I connect. Worst times are when updates to popular games come out and even though I have internet, because Steam can't connect, I can't play any of my games.

No real answer other than it's the one thing to consider with buying physical media versus purchasing through steam.

 

[aFive]

IT used to work at launch, used it all the time on shitty DSL. Now though, I have yet to get it working when I was trying to game at school's library where every freakin port is blocked.

 

[vicaphit]

I find you have to update EVERYTHING to get offline mode to work correctly, then don't play online until you are ready to update everything again. If you start to update steam and then stop the update half way through, you are not going to get offline to work.

After many years of fighting with steam, I have gotten offline mode to work perfectly by updating and installing games only when I am at a LAN with a broadband connection. Nothing works on my dialup connection.