Disable Skyrim SE autoupdate? How?

[anjenthedog]

It's probably been asked before, but I didn't see anything pinned, so I'm asking ?again?

 

Background: I'm new to Skyrim (relatively speaking) and have only been playing for a couple of months, since I recently (Feb 2019) purchased a new computer that can run it. In addition, although I've played computer games on-and-off for almost 40 years, the level of this game, at least in terms of configuration, is unlike anything I dealt with before. (the last game that compares in even the slightest way is FFXI, which I last played back in 2012.

 

FYI, The game was purchased from steam and is run from/through steam.

 

So... I'm not exactly sure how to disable game autoupdate (nor for that matter) how to run skyrim offline.

 

Can someone please spell it out for me? I opened steam and checked in there as best I could, but it's a maze and nothing stuck out as being a suitable selection for "disable auto-update. I either missed the setting, didn't look in the right menu or submenu for the setting, it's labeled differently than what I'd expect "disable game auto-updates", or something else. (I may just be as dumb as a pile of bricks...forgive me if that's the case)

 

I don't "mind" waiting for all the updates to this newest version, but I'd rather not run into this situation again if I can help it (that is, game being potentially or actually unplayable while its constituent mods are in limbo due to a required update following the game update) . And according to quite few posts I've read due to the 1.5.80 game update, "disable game updates" seems to be the first and foremost protection against having to twiddle my thumbs or do a rollback I'm not terribly confident doing in the first place....Heck even adding mods is still a mysterious magical thing a this point in my skyrim journey, let alone rolling the game back after I dutifully updated a half dozen mods and SKSE following the failure to start following Bethesda's game update. Even updating SKSE overwrote at least a portion of the scripts folder...which I later learned is something that we also should not do, although I'm still not clear on the specifics) .

 

thanks

[Gorsha]

Open your steam program, pulldown "steam", choose playing offline mode.

Now you can play what you want but you never get an update until you want because then you can put steam back online.

[anjenthedog]

Open your steam program, pulldown "steam", choose playing offline mode.

Now you can play what you want but you never get an update until you want because then you can put steam back online.

I didn't realize it was that easy! I saw the play offline chocie but got the impression from the posts I'd read that there was some other setting involved before it was safe to use the play offline option.

 

Thanks for the reply and solution. Much appreciated.

[ralphxxxxx]

Disabling steam and playing offline is a solution. But you should be aware that other steam games are not updated, too.

[AnvilOfWar]

Steam > Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition > Properties > Updates > Change the setting to: "Only update this game when I launch it."

Thus you need to be USING the Skyrim SE Script extender and using it's exe laucher to launch Skyrim SE. This will allow you to play "online" and with your SKSE dependent mods without the game forcing an update that you might not be willing to use yet, for either SKSE and or mods that have not updated. If you launch with the standard Steam launcher any pending updates will be applied at that time. It will notify you that their are indeed updates to process in your games library view.

[TMushS]

There is also a time setting to have the updates take place. I usually set mine from 3am to 3am. Then have it "update only when I launch", then go offline. lol

Edited July 15, 2019 by T-Mush-S

[thumbincubation]

And, just because steam has been known to arbitrarily undo settings like "only update this game when I launch it," it can't hurt you to copy your SkyrimSE.exe and SkyrimSELauncher.exe to a safe storage folder, in case you get updated anyway. Then, at least you can paste them back into your Skyrim SE directory and play, until SKSE et al., are updated to match.

[thumbincubation]

Logged into steam today, saw that Skyrim SE was at 0% of an update (I'm already using 1.5.80), went to check my settings, and steam has once again reverted my settings and re-enabled sync. Not sure what was updated, but the .exes still have the correct date, so it apparently didn't touch them, but check your steam settings regularly, folks.

[anjenthedog]

Logged into steam today, saw that Skyrim SE was at 0% of an update (I'm already using 1.5.80), went to check my settings, and steam has once again reverted my settings and re-enabled sync. Not sure what was updated, but the .exes still have the correct date, so it apparently didn't touch them, but check your steam settings regularly, folks.

 

?Last night? (possibly the night before), steam issued an update for the steam program itself (not the game) . FWIW...

 

I was fortunately in offline mode already, so I allowed it to update itself. When it came back it asked me if I wanted to go online, I chose no. Skyrim still worked fine.

[thumbincubation]

Check your steam settings regularly, folks.