Use of Quicken offline...is the internet now required?

I often travel and use quicken to enter expenses while traveling--often when not online. Until recently this wasn't a problem...but now it is. Long story short, Quicken seems to throw a (childish) temper tantrum when it can't get to the internet, and secondly punishes me after I eventually do.

When I login without internet service...before I can even login i see underneath the password prompt "Please check internet connection and try again." So quicken is no 'demanding' to go online whether I want it to or not in the latest version. Worse, EVERY time I do go online after using quicken offline...Quicken throws another tantrum and forces me to login with my Quicken ID before I can do anything. I've found no way to avoid this and it is really annoying to do this EVERY WEEK.

I have the latest version of quicken R25.18. My account is active. I have always made sure to go online once a week (almost always on a weekend). The first time I logged in after the weekend...on startup Quicken woudl through yet another temper tantrum and interrupt the start of the program to check for an update...even though it did that with my downloads over the weekend! This was annoying, but not problematic. This, plus the new stuff is problematic.

I'm going to go so far as to say this will be the end of my use of Quicken if this is not fixed. I don't care about internet access except for 1 thing--to download quotes. I can do everything I want in Excel...except automatically download quotes, which I only do once a week. Not only do I have no interest in an "online" program...I have a strong disinterest. If i wanted to live on the web...there are plenty of other options. Quicken was my primary option offline...but no more?

I am asking...is there a setting or tweak or something to stop quicken from going online unless I ask it to (when I am actually online)? Is there some way to keep Quicken from harassing me if I "dare" to try to use it offline? What are my options here?

When I first started seeing this problem I tried several things to no avail. I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled. I have 'audited' the file (was the only advice I could find about repeated forced account logins) repeatedly. Noting I've tried has worked.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.