Steam is in Off-Line Mode.

[Sir Taffsalot]

When I try to open steam it starts to update and halfway through it stops and a message comes up saying "Steam needs to be in online mode to continue." The Steam website says that when you have this problem you have to delete everything in the steam folder except Steam.exe and restart your computer and re-install steam with the Steam.exe. I still get the same problem. Steam tries to update and then says it needs to be in online mode.

 

Any ideas how I can fix bloody Steam?

[Sir Taffsalot]

Some internet searches told me to go to regedit and go into the steam folder and set "offline" to 0 instead of 1. I can see no "offline" option under steam in regedit.

 

God I hate Steam!

[stumpy]

it used to be you deleted one of the blob files and relogged onto steam and then it asks if you want to go into online mode.

[Serpentine]

The good ol' "delete ClientRegistry.blob" cure-all.

 

It's sad that it does seem to fix 99% of the problems I run into with Steam.

[Fidcal]

Perhaps it's just a firewall problem. Maybe its downloaded a new installer which your firewall sees as a new program requiring new permission. I used to get that problem with Dark Mod but its fixed these days.

[Professor Paul1290]

The good ol' "delete ClientRegistry.blob" cure-all.

 

It's sad that it does seem to fix 99% of the problems I run into with Steam.

 

I remember a while back one of the Steam staff gave a more detailed explanation of what the heck "ClientRegistry.blob" did while trying to resolve someone's issue.

 

I don't quite remember the whole thing, but from what I remember they mentioned that "ClientRegistry.blob" was part of Steam's older authentication system from before it got as big as it is now. It's no longer used in more recent games due to the problems it had, but it's currently still present in Steam because there are still older titles in Steam's library that use it, so they can't remove it otherwise those titles would suddenly stop working.

Apparently before it can be removed entirely they have to go through every single game that uses it and switch them over to the new system, which given the size of Steam's library is slow as hell.

 

There was other stuff related to that regarding how it adversely affects Offline Mode for some people as well, though I don't remember the specifics. In any case it sounded like they've been trying to get rid of it for a while.

[Serpentine]

Yeah, I have delved into it before. It's one of those ideas which sound good until you notice that the lack of limits results in more problems than its really worth.

 

It's similar to the windows registry in a way, a sort of general purpose store. But where you could easily mangle the data since it had no real fixed way of being used.

[Lux]

http://www.giantbomb...ne-mode-464740/

 

Post #14 and further down. You tried that?

 

Also from this thread Post #8

 

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1669920

Edited October 25, 2013 by Lux

[Sir Taffsalot]

Thanks guys. Will try those recommendations when I get home.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Anyone know where I can find registry.vdf? I can't see Application Support in my Library folder. I'm using Vista if that helps.

[Sir Taffsalot]

I've got Steam working again. Many thanks for your suggestions guys!

[Lux]

Is this how?

 

 

Windows 7, so my Users file didn't have Library in it, but I found a way to solve that one too:

"windows key + r, then type "regedit" using the folders that pop up, navigate to: "HKEYCURRENTUSER/Software/Valve/Steam" then double click the offline option that will appear on the right, and set the value to 0"

[Sir Taffsalot]

I just turned my computer off. When I turned it on today Steam was working.

[Lux]

haha NICE. First troubleshooting step always, restart!

 

Glad you got it worked out.