Cannot Enter Offline Mode (Error 500 & 401)

[WytchCrypt]

HI all, I've been away from DCS for many months and decided to get back on.  I'm running 2.9.6.58056@openbeta and since the replay mode is rock solid (a feature that's very important to me) I wanted to startup DCS and enter offline mode and stay with this release.  I didn't want to upgrade as I thought I had read some users reporting replay problems had returned in later versions (though I could be wrong).  I removed all mods, ran cleanup & repair.  Everything starts up just fine but when I click the  Offline Mode icon, I get a popup window showing: "can't enter offline mode: error 500".  When I try again to activate offline mode I get the popup window showing "can't enter offline mode: error 401".

FYI: Manually set system time and date so that's not an issue.  Attached most recent dcs.log (I'm guessing the important entry is:  

2025-09-06 18:30:12.471 ERROR   ASYNCNET (10472): Entering offline mode failed because server returned an invalid reply.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Dennis

dcs.log

Edited 4 hours ago by WytchCrypt

[MAXsenna]

HI all, I've been away from DCS for many months and decided to get back on.  I'm running 2.9.6.58056@openbeta and since the replay mode is rock solid (a feature that's very important to me) I wanted to startup DCS and enter offline mode and stay with this release.  I didn't want to upgrade as I thought I had read some users reporting replay problems had returned in later versions (though I could be wrong).  I removed all mods, ran cleanup & repair.  Everything starts up just fine but when I click the  Offline Mode icon, I get a popup window showing: "can't enter offline mode: error 500".  When I try again to activate offline mode I get the popup window showing "can't enter offline mode: error 401".
FYI: Manually set system time and date so that's not an issue.  Attached most recent dcs.log (I'm guessing the important entry is:  
2025-09-06 18:30:12.471 ERROR   ASYNCNET (10472): Entering offline mode failed because server returned an invalid reply.
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Dennis
dcs.log

Yeah, this is an issue with connection with the validation servers. Either it's on your end, or the servers has hickups. That is the exact error people get when they are kicked off for no reason.

Cheers!

Edit: Run the DCS icon and not the Updater, and it will ask you to update, which you can cancel anyway. It will NEVER force you to update.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[WytchCrypt]

Thanks for the tip.  Unfortunately just tried running DCS.exe directly rather than DCS_updater.exe but same result when I got in.  Offline Mode Icon lead to Popup window error code 500 then 401.

[MAXsenna]

Thanks for the tip.  Unfortunately just tried running DCS.exe directly rather than DCS_updater.exe but same result when I got in.  Offline Mode Icon lead to Popup window error code 500 then 401.

Apologies! I wasn't clear. You have some network issue. Probably DNS or the routing from your ISP to the validation servers. Except: You don't seem to get the 3 days grace period, which is strange.
If you're scared of updating, just don't update. You're not forced, and if you use the other icon, you will never be asked to update. So, if you want to play before you solve the connection problems, (or if the problem is on ED's side, until they fix it). Just stay online, and it will never be updated until you want it to.
I'd do a traceroute to see where it stops.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[WytchCrypt]

Thanks for the reply MAXsenna.  Followup...as I was searching the forums for an answer I found I posted the exact same problem July of 2024 in this thread (and you posted in it as well!):

 

 

After many people reported the problem BIGNEWY ended up thanking everyone for their feedback and locking the thread with no resolution.  BIGNEWY if you read this, can you please tell us what the final resolution of this is for those of us trying to run offline with no success???

I just tried to submit a new support ticket and after finishing the submission process I was directed to a DCS splash page saying "Website Under Maintenance.  We are making updates please check back soon".  Did my ticket get submitted or not?  Why has this issue not been resolved since July of 2024 when it was first reported?  What is going on?  Has offline mode been disabled or something?