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Steam Deck without internet is a complete POS handheld system

calistan

calistan

Gold Member
Just got back from a week on holiday with internet of dialup quality. I could download files of maybe 4-5 MB, but it would take the best part of a day and multiple disconnections.

Knowing this, and knowing how Steam Deck loves its bandwidth, I made sure to update it before I went away. Every patch, every shader update, until there was nothing left in the download queue.

First game I try: Update required. Second, third, fourth, same thing. So I make sure to disable wifi and set it to offline mode, but that in itself requires an update.

I get Geometry Wars 3 to start without updating, but it crashes before loading. Weird, since I bought it exclusively for the Deck, and I played it just fine a year or so ago. Maybe a Steam OS update broke it, so I should try forcing a different Proton compatibility mode. I switch it in the settings, and that puts it into update mode, demanding a 100+ MB download. Can't switch it back, can't switch to any other setting.

I play Bioshock 2 Remastered for about an hour, until something starts making it crash. I can only get a couple of minutes past a certain point before it dumps me back to the Steam menu. Is it Proton? Is it the game? If I still had internet, and the will to live, maybe I could troubleshoot that.

Love the Steam Deck at home, but it is an absolutely shit portable machine if you have no internet. Next time I'll just take a book.
 
64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
RIP. Most of the places I go to have internet (and my phone has data) but I can imagine for off grid scenarios it can be a pain in the ass
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
I think the key is to put Deck in Offline mode before traveling and after all updates. Then it’s pretty good and I haven’t had many issues.

If you do not do that, it’s kind of crappy. It’s also a good idea to click through (in Steam) the games you are planning to play as it will ensure the cloud sync is there and Steam “acknowledges “ it.

Better yet, start the games before doing all of that in case there is any additional stuff that needs to be downloaded it.

From Windows side, ROG Ally works fine as well in offline mode. That includes GoG games which are even better for offline.

Any of the handhelds also run emulators like a champ without any internet access.
 
Švejk

Švejk

Member
It's funny how there's the whole PC MR, but also the Physical forever folks. Guess it's clear that the Physical Forever folks are not PC users at all. Just Friday shower thoughts.
 
ReBurn

ReBurn

Gold Member
When I'm going to be away from home I update mine and just leave it offline whIle traveling. Occasionally a game that requires a third party launcher will refuse to start without internet but most of the time it's fine.
 
Lunarorbit

Lunarorbit

Member
That sucks. I really like my portal but it's a paper weight any where but at home for me. Work wifi doesn't like it or my switch
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Always prepare any games before travel. Hell, take your thumb drive or portable SSD and load it up with a terabyte of media.

Be prepared when doing travel with a device like that. I'm emulation alone, you should have 345 years of entertainment.
 
calistan

calistan

Gold Member
WhamBamThankYouMaam said:
Why didn’t you just put it in offline mode?
Click to expand...
Was I supposed to do that before I went away? Like, if I switch it to offline mode right now, will it download the offline files for all my stuff and be good to go?

I put it in offline mode on holiday, in an attempt to persuade it to let me play all the fully installed games I'd downloaded and updated, but it didn't have the desired effect.

Geometry Wars 3 was updated, but because the default Proton setting no longer worked, changing it to Proton Experimental required a big fat download. That sort of thing is trivial at home but impossible away from the internt. If the solution is to load up all 60+ games I have installed on this thing, and test them with and without wifi before leaving the house, I think Steam Deck fundamentally fails at its job as a portable system.
 
Hugare

Hugare

Member
I think you've answered my question about some of the issues that I could face with an offline Steam Deck

I've always wondered about it 'cause Steam Offline sucks. Over the years I've faced so many issues when trying to play Steam games offline.

Thats why I always try to keep things offline with my portables. I've been using my Odin 2 a lot lately and I keep everything offline.
 
Dr.Morris79

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
Yeah. This is complete bullshit.

Never had any problems using a Deck offline. Infact, one of them I never put online.

On a network, put it in offline mode, that's it. It's offline.

Sounds like a duff unit or you've ballsed something up.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I’ve never ran into this because I’m usually at home, but I did turn it offline to skip an update for a game I was playing. They wanted to patch a skill that was obviously more powerful than it should have been. I kept it offline long enough to finish the game.

I might suggest Proton DB for the games you want to play. There you can get an answer from someone whose put X amount of hours into a game and what Proton they’re running it under.
 
Puscifer

Puscifer

Member
calistan said:
Was I supposed to do that before I went away? Like, if I switch it to offline mode right now, will it download the offline files for all my stuff and be good to go?

I put it in offline mode on holiday, in an attempt to persuade it to let me play all the fully installed games I'd downloaded and updated, but it didn't have the desired effect.

Geometry Wars 3 was updated, but because the default Proton setting no longer worked, changing it to Proton Experimental required a big fat download. That sort of thing is trivial at home but impossible away from the internt. If the solution is to load up all 60+ games I have installed on this thing, and test them with and without wifi before leaving the house, I think Steam Deck fundamentally fails at its job as a portable system.
Click to expand...
Yeah, put it offline mode and you basically never have to go online again
 
calistan

calistan

Gold Member
Dr.Morris79 said:
Yeah. This is complete bullshit.

Never had any problems using a Deck offline. Infact, one of them I never put online.

On a network, put it in offline mode, that's it. It's offline.

Sounds like a duff unit or you've ballsed something up.
Click to expand...
Well, it's clearly not bullshit, but I'm glad you've never had any problems with yours.

I have no idea if the trouble is that I'm mostly playing older games on it. I basically gave up tinkering with it a long time ago, so it is just a stock Steam Deck now.

The thing that makes me frustrated with this is that the games are installed. I have no internet. Steam Deck should know that, and should absolutely not give me an Update button instead of a Play button. But that's what it does. You can switch off the wifi and it will behave like it's downloading at 0 Mb/s. That for me makes it a failure as a portable. Even my phone, which is the very definiton of an always online device, will allow me to load an app without any data.
 
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Quasicat

Quasicat

Gold Member
I took my Steam Deck on a work trip to Washington DC last year and had the same issue. This year I took my iPad full of movies and the Delta emulator. Played an entire run through Actraiser for the SNES. Would I have liked to play Mass Effect instead? Sure, but this was a decent substitute.
 
Dr.Morris79

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
calistan said:
The thing that makes me frustrated with this is that the games are installed. I have no internet. Steam Deck should know that, and should absolutely not give me an Update button instead of a Play button. But that's what it does. You can switch off the wifi and it will behave like it's downloading at 0 Mb/s. That for me makes it a failure as a portable. Even my phone, which is the very definiton of an always online device, will allow me to load an app without any data.
Click to expand...
I honestly have never seen this happen with any Deck I've had (I've got four)

Are you sure you're actually putting it into offline mode and not just turning off Wi-fi? You need to do that before turning off Wi-fi.

I play most pc games on it, old and new on both versions, OLED and standard

I wasn't trying to be an arse to you personally, I meant the Deck works perfect offline, sorry if it came across as an attack :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Could be a bum update or somethings corrupted :unsure:

I'd have to play with the unit to find out.
 
ZehDon

ZehDon

Member
I took my Steam Deck on a cruise earlier in the year, and had little to no issues with it in offline mode. I put into offline mode before I went on the trip, which might the differentiator here. Sorry you didn't have a good time.
 
El Muerto

El Muerto

Member
You were halfway there. Offline mode works fine when you have no internet. I've taken it places with no internet and was able to play on it.
bS4WGTJ.png
 
F

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
calistan said:
Love the Steam Deck at home, but it is an absolutely shit portable machine if you have no internet. Next time I'll just take a book.
Click to expand...
It basically requires you to just stay offline once you go offline - but indeed you need to 'prep' for it.
And worst part is - Steam is 'the best' case scenario of the 'big stores'. Less likely you'd use it on Deck - but on Windows handhelds if you use Epic, EA, Ubisoft or... god forbid - XBox launchers - oh boy it gets much worse.
XBox store literally has a pre-requisite to set every game into offline mode, and then launch it once while online - before you can use it offline (For... whatever time limit MS imposes in DRM, so plan ahead if you're gonna be offline for awhile). But that's not all - you also need to create yourself a launcher-shortcut because the app itself won't work at all when you're offline - so you can only launch stuff from the desktop. This latter problem applies to most other stores too.
Prime Gaming didn't work at all - but I mean - it's Amazon - I didn't expect anything better.

And no I didn't forget GoG or Humble launchers. DRM free right? Except stuff you get from The Vault will not work offline, and GoG modern releases are also - unpredictable when offline...
 
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newtypepilot

newtypepilot

Member
You have to make sure the games are updated BEFORE enabling offline mode. Trying to update your games with a shitty connection only compounds the problem.

And if you are games are crashing, it's not connection issue then.
 
D

DeltaPolarBear

Member
Most PCs these days are much less useful offline. This is not the fault of PCs, but the fault of software developers who don't seem to care for offline users.

Also, many PC games have online content when they didn't need it. Once again that is the fault of the software developers.
 
ShadyAcshuns

ShadyAcshuns

Member
There seems to be a niche group of players who like using handhelds in their home only. I usually play handhelds out in the field so Switch Lite or 3DS is my preference while away from home with physical cartridges so you don't need internet to play.
 
calistan

calistan

Gold Member
Magic Carpet said:
Do you at least have pictures of you enjoying your away time?
Click to expand...
I had a great time (Steam Deck not pictured). Who needs games when you have waves?

Next time I'll try setting offline mode before leaving the house - I was reacting to previous advice I'd received (here) to update everything before leaving. That's obviously not quite enough to get the Deck working without its delicious data.

MBQxiJF.jpeg
 
AndrewRyan

AndrewRyan

Member
Like everyone says after updating everything then put it in offline mode before going leaving on a trip. Also wanted to add that even after doing this it's on a game-by-game basis since some still require an internet connection to play.
 
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