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Steam Help - offline mode

M

MrBean

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2008
76
0
Okay,
So I stuck my steam in offline mode when I took my MBP to my inlaws since they don't have internet. Now when trying to get into any game, a popup comes up and says, "Steam needs to be in online mode to update, but was set to offline mode"

Now I have found no way to place Steam back in online mode to have it update. Even re-installing the client didn't help.
 
with steam open go under account. the drop down menu well say "go online", and it will restart steam online.
 
bokdol said:
with steam open go under account. the drop down menu well say "go online", and it will restart steam online.
Click to expand...

That's the thing, I can't get steam to open. The dialog is a popup box with no options for Steam preferences or anything from the drop down menu.
 
I don't know whether you fixed this or not but I had the same problem and was able to fix it as follows:

  1. Go to Users->%your_account%->Library->Application Support->Steam
  2. Open registry.vdf using a text editor like TextEdit
  3. This is basically the registry hive Steam uses in Windows. Go to the Registry->HKCU->Software->Valve->Steam->Offline key
  4. Change the value from "1" to "0".
  5. Save and close registry.vdf
  6. Start Steam. It should now update itself.

Remember to change Steam back to Offline mode if so required.

Hope this helps!
 
Bugu said:
I don't know whether you fixed this or not but I had the same problem and was able to fix it as follows:

  1. Go to Users->%your_account%->Library->Application Support->Steam
  2. Open registry.vdf using a text editor like TextEdit
  3. This is basically the registry hive Steam uses in Windows. Go to the Registry->HKCU->Software->Valve->Steam->Offline key
  4. Change the value from "1" to "0".
  5. Save and close registry.vdf
  6. Start Steam. It should now update itself.

Remember to change Steam back to Offline mode if so required.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Genius! You totally nailed it!

It's a stupid bug though...
 
Bugu said:
I don't know whether you fixed this or not but I had the same problem and was able to fix it as follows:

  1. Go to Users->%your_account%->Library->Application Support->Steam
  2. Open registry.vdf using a text editor like TextEdit
  3. This is basically the registry hive Steam uses in Windows. Go to the Registry->HKCU->Software->Valve->Steam->Offline key
  4. Change the value from "1" to "0".
  5. Save and close registry.vdf
  6. Start Steam. It should now update itself.

Remember to change Steam back to Offline mode if so required.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

so how do i get to step one?

i have no idea what im doing...

gah
 
Thank You

Bugu you are awesome. Thank you for the very clear explanation of how to change the value of the offline rule. It took under a minute to solve a problem that I worked for days to try to figure out.
 
Go to Users->%your_account%->Library->Application Support->Steam

im a new mac user, currently running lion
where can i find this??? i cant find user, and i did a search in finder for steam, registry.vdf, etc and cant find anything...
 
Double check switching to Offline mode without the internet. It works for me, under Windows and Mac OSX without fiddling around with files to be able to go to Offline mode without being connected to the internet. Try it first before you start mucking things up.
 
What are you trying to do?

It means /Users/ that is the folder Users in the root of your HD. It might be named something like Usuários if you have Portuguese locale enabled.
 
It does. Macintosh HD -> Users. Just go to your home folder and look for the Library folder, then Application Support, then Steam.
 
After a bit more thought about this I discovered that I had to reconfigure Finder to display hidden files and folders via Terminal. It was only then that the folder appeared in Lion.

A bit much was being "assumed" in earlier advices. Sorry - I'm a newb to Mac.
 
In Lion, the Library folder is hidden. You can access this folder by opening the finder, holding down the Option (Alt) key, and clicking on the Go menu. The Library directory will be shown under this menu for you to select.
 
When I open registry.vdf using text edit all it says is:

"Registry"
{
"HKCU"
{
"Software"
{
"Valve"
{
"Steam"
{
"Language" "english"
}
}
}
}
}


There is nothing about an offline key, what do I do?
 
sminp said:
When I open registry.vdf using text edit all it says is:

"Registry"
{
"HKCU"
{
"Software"
{
"Valve"
{
"Steam"
{
"Language" "english"
}
}
}
}
}


There is nothing about an offline key, what do I do?
Click to expand...

Same here, can anyone help?
 
Still works.

Yay! Still works for this issue.

Note that the first post is still correct. You should not be looking for the "Offline key" in the file. You should be looking for the key called "Offline". It was an unfortunate order of words.
 
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