How to play Xbox One games offline. Don’t be discouraged by error messages and games not working. You can play Xbox One games without internet if you plan ahead. This will help you play when Xbox Live is down, during hectic gaming periods, or if you take your Xbox with you to play in your cabin, on vacation, or even in deployment.
As more and more users go online in 2020, working from home or alone, we highly recommend taking steps so you can play if Xbox Live is down or loses your Internet connection.
The only thing more annoying than not being able to play the game offline is the game installation stuck. When you try to play an Xbox One game offline without preparation, you may see an error code.
It will also allow you to play Xbox One games without updating them. But keep in mind that you won’t be able to use multiplayer and some updates do improve the quality of the game.
Two settings allow you to play Xbox One games without internet access to prevent this from happening. There are situations where you want to play but can’t connect to Xbox Live. What if you’re on vacation and just want to finish the single-player game you started? What if your internet access is not working properly and you just want to spend time away from your friends and family? Here’s how to play Xbox One games offline.
What you need to know before playing Xbox One games offline
Before you get too keen on playing games without internet access, there are a few caveats about playing Xbox offline that you need to be aware of.
Firstly, without the Internet, you can only play single-player games and Xbox One games with the possibility of playing together. Batman: Arkham Knight is for one player only, so the game will work without an internet connection. Fallout 4 will work just fine. Destiny 2, for example, needs to connect to servers. You cannot enjoy this without an internet connection.
Xbox games that feature both single player and multiplayer play share the difference. You can access their single player game without any problem. Their multiplayer experience won’t work. Recently, some games require a single player connection, but not all.
Play Xbox One games offline
Start by installing every Xbox game you’d like to play offline. It doesn’t matter if the game was on disc or if you bought it from the Xbox store. Note that downloading digital games can take several hours, so make sure you have enough time to download and install all the games you want to play from the internet.
Next, you need to set the console you want to play games on as your home console. Press the Xbox logo on your controller to open the Xbox Guide.
Use the joystick on your controller to select the cog settings in the upper right corner of the Xbox manual.
Select settings from the pop-up menu.
Welcome to the Settings app. Choose an Incarnation from the menu on the right side of your display. This is the second option at the top of the list.
Select My Xbox Home in the center of your screen.
At the bottom of the screen is a button with one of two messages. If the console is already your home Xbox, this button will say “This is not my home Xbox.” Do nothing else on this screen if you see this message. The button says: Make This My Home Xbox ”If you haven’t installed the Xbox, then you are using it as your home console. Select this button if you see it.
Now it’s time to disconnect your console from the internet for offline play. Press the B button on your controller to return to the settings menu.
Now select a network from the menu on the left.
Select Network Settings,
Select Go Offline,
At this point, your console will stop trying to connect to Microsoft servers and the Internet. Any games you save will be kept on your console’s hard drive until you next connect to Xbox Live. Again, multiplayer and games that require servers will not work without an internet connection.
Be careful when unlocking achievements. Xbox One only has a limited cache for storing achievements you’ve unlocked. As such, Microsoft encourages users to periodically connect their consoles to Xbox Live to avoid losing achievements they unlocked when their console was disconnected. Unfortunately, the company doesn’t say how many achievements the console can save.
