Man, let me tell you. I know this sounds simple, but when you’re traveling or just stuck somewhere with weak-ass Wi-Fi, the thought of losing hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 progress because the cloud decided to take a nap is pure stress. I had to figure this out. I mean, I had to. I was on a trip, staying in a place where the Wi-Fi was maybe a strong 2 out of 10. Enough to check emails, but definitely not enough to reliably keep Steam’s Cloud Sync happy while I was battling the Githyanki.

I thought, “Okay, I’ll just yank the cable, or turn off the Wi-Fi after the game launches.”

The Great Disconnect Disaster

Wrong. Dead wrong.

My first attempt was just pure brute force. I fired up Steam, let BG3 start rolling, and then I just straight-up disconnected the laptop from the internet. I was feeling like a genius, like I had tricked the matrix. I played for maybe three hours. Found some insane loot, leveled up, made some crucial story choices—the works. Then I hit the “Save Game” button.

The game saved locally, no problem. I quit. I was all smug. I reconnected the internet, and what happened?

Steam absolutely freaked out. It saw the saved file, but it immediately started yelling at me about conflicts. It said my local file was “different” than the cloud. It wasn’t different; it was just newer. The system didn’t know how to handle the sudden jump in playtime that happened while it was blind. It wanted me to choose between the fresh three-hour save I just made or the old one from yesterday still sitting up in the cloud. My heart sank, I won’t lie. I chose the local one, and it worked, but that massive red warning screen was not a confidence booster. I realized I needed to play by Steam’s rules if I wanted to be stress-free about my progress.

The Proper Way to Go Dark

I spent maybe an hour digging around in forums—not the official ones, but the messy, real-talk ones—to figure out the actual process. It’s not about disconnecting after the launch; it’s about telling the platform beforehand that you are going on a solo mission. You need to put it to sleep gracefully.

Here’s the breakdown of what I finally did, step-by-step, the way that actually kept my files safe.

• First, Sync Up: I made sure I was online, and I launched the game one last time. I just loaded my last save, confirmed everything was there, and quit out. This forces Steam or whatever platform you’re using to grab the absolute, most recent save and put it safely on the cloud. You want the cloud to have the latest copy before you go dark.

• Second, Hit the Big Switch: This is the key. While the platform app is running, I found the setting. For Steam, it’s usually in the main menu up top. You click it and you select “Go Offline.” The whole client switches over. It restarts sometimes, and suddenly, you are completely isolated from the internet, but the app is still running, knowing it’s supposed to be offline.

• Third, Launch BG3: With the client in full Offline Mode, I launched Baldur’s Gate 3. It didn’t even try to check for updates or connections. It just loaded up. I played for like five straight hours this time. I was anxious, but I kept saving. Every time I saved, that little icon flashed, confirming the save was local.

• Fourth, The Anxiety Check: I am a paranoid person when it comes to game saves, especially after the first hiccup. While the game was running, I used the file explorer to physically locate the BG3 save folder on my machine. I watched the file dates and sizes. They were updating in real-time. This was the moment I finally relaxed. I knew, no matter what the cloud did later, those files were physically sitting on my hard drive, safe and sound.

• Fifth, The Grand Reunion: When I was done, I quit BG3 normally. Then, and this is important, I went back to the platform client and manually switched it back to “Go Online.” The app chugged for a second, then immediately noticed the local files were newer than the cloud files. This time, instead of throwing up a crisis warning, it just started uploading. The sync process kicked off automatically, silently pushing my five hours of offline progress straight up to the cloud. No fight, no choice, just syncing.

I had to do this whole dance four or five times on that trip, and every time, it was flawless. The platform needs your permission, needs you to follow the rules of its Offline Mode. Don’t just pull the plug; you have to politely tell it you’re stepping out for a few hours. That way, when you come back, it treats the local files as the one true timeline. Your files are safe. Your game progress is safe. Just follow the steps, and you can play BG3 wherever your travels take you, even if the Wi-Fi is powered by a hamster on a wheel.