Postman removed offline mode (Scratch Pad) in new versions, Is there a way to enable it?

Question

Postman removed offline mode (Scratch Pad)

https://learning.postman.com/docs/getting-started/basics/using-scratch-pad/

The Scratch Pad is deprecated and no longer supported. The Scratch Pad is being discontinued and won’t receive any updates, bug fixes, or security updates. You can use the lightweight API Client when not signed in to Postman to send API requests, including HTTP, WebSocket, gRPC, and GraphQL requests. Learn more about the lightweight Postman API Client.

Today after I opened my offline Postman it automatically updated and alerted me to sign in and didn't allow me to use offline mode. The new lightweight mode does not have a lot of features.

Is there a way to enable it?

Ephemerality

This will often be important (besides for the user-convenience) ALSO if your Postman data/config would contain anything you (or your org) consider sensitive/proprietary, that shouldn't leave your machine/network (for security): Even if your Postman requests are local or internal to your network, Anything saved to newer Postman cloud online (without old local ScratchPad) is just that - data/config transmitted over the internet to not your network/server. – Hexosan

Answer 1

I found it's possible to downgrade Postman to an older version.

Version 10.17 is the last version of Scratch Pad mode.

But it does not exist on the official Postman site, I downloaded it from filehorse, and It works for me.

I will be happy to know if you know another way to enable Scratch Pad mode in new versions.

Ephemerality

In %appdata%\..\Local\Postman, renaming Update.exe to eg. Update.exe.bak disables the auto updater so it doesn't update once you open the 10.17.0 version. – Roarke

Thanks, To disable auto update, you can also change etc/host. https://mcmap.net/q/545439/-how-to-disable-auto-update-of-postman-app @Roarke – Ephemerality

Actually, although the link to 10.17 was removed from the website, it can still be used: dl.pstmn.io/download/version/10.17.3/win64 To ensure this link is okay, you can check that the download link of v10.18 on the official site has the same domain. OR install with chocolatey (community.chocolatey.org/packages/postman/10.17.3) — internally it will download the same exe file – Either

Another issue is that even with 10.17 I was not able to use good old Scratch Pad. Maybe 9.x would work, I didn't try – Either

Here some links to old 9 version: https://community.postman.com/t/direct-download-link-for-9-x/29148 – Ratsbane

Looks like the Postman team removed old versions from their official repository. The links like this dl.pstmn.io/download/version/10.17.3/win64 response with 404 – Schaab

10.17 not work for me on Mac Os Big Sur. 9.31.28 is ok. Here is the link . community.postman.com/t/direct-download-link-for-9-x/29148 – Sibling

10.17 has no import for collection for new use. 10.13.6 was the latest. – Quinone

If you uninstall postman and reinstall an earlier version but see its updated again, then be sure to disconnect your internet. You then may need to also delete the postman data at ` %appdata%\..\Local\Postman ` and ` %appdata%\..\Roaming\Postman` (be sure to make a copy or rename the Postman folders if you are concerned of losing data) – Joshi

Answer 2

I've found rather simple way to bring back ScratchPad even on the latest versions (still works with 10.22):

1. Run Postman (considering it's in the "lightweight client" mode)
2. Open DevTools (Ctrl-Shift-I)
3. Type into the console pm.settings.setSetting("offlineAPIClientEnabled",0) - this will turn off the lightweight client and switch to ScratchPad
4. Restart Postman (you'll see briefly the ScratchPad interface but it will be hidden with a login screen then)
5. Open DevTools again
6. Type into the console pm.mediator.trigger("hideUserSwitchingExperienceModal")
7. You've done!

Now you can import back your collections etc. Also with any of luck in the folder %AppData%\Postman you can find backup-*.json files which are the backups of ScratchPad collections. You can import them too.

A drawback of this method is that you need to repeat steps 5-6 every time you start the app. Though since the console remembers its history that's not a big deal.

Another approach is to switch to ScratchPad mode the 10.17 version which is the last one without enforced de-ScratchPading. You'll just need to disable updates by removing/renaming file %LocalAppData%\Postman\update.exe.

There's another approach which can get rid of the login screen completely (involves a patching of the Postman app) but it's a bit more complex and you need to do it every time the app updates. If someone is interested I can describe it too.

NB. All this was tested only on Windows.

Fennel

Answer 3

Step-by-step instructions to revert to Postman v10.13.6 (for Windows users).

1. In the updated Postman (where Scratchpad feature was removed), go to Settings > Data and export your postman collections. This will create a .postman_dump file which consists of all your Postman Collections, Environments, i.e. your entire Scatchpad.
2. Rename %USERPROFILE%/AppData/Roaming/Postman/ to %USERPROFILE%/AppData/Roaming/Postman.old. This step prevents Postman from detecting and showing this error: "Looks like you’ve used a newer version of the Postman app on this system. Please download the latest app and try again"
3. Uninstall Postman and delete %USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Postman
4. Download v10.13.6 of Postman from: https://www.filehorse.com/download-postman/82250/old-versions/
5. Install and close the app immediately (so as to not trigger auto update)
6. Rename %USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Postman/Update.exe to Update.exe.bkup or anything but .exe
7. Run Postman and you should see "Update failed, view details".

Posting this as a community answer since this was based on everyone's comments and a little bit of googling to fix other problems like "used a newer version of Postman app".

Trombley

Answer 4

In Windows 10-11, you can use winget to download one of the available versions:

0.- If you already have installed the latest version of Postman, backup the necessary files (if any) and then delete this folders:

Get-ChildItem $env:APPDATA\Postman

and

Get-ChildItem $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Postman

1.- Getting the available versions, run in powershell:

winget search --id Postman.Postman -e --versions

2.- Then install your desired version with:

winget install --id Postman.Postman -v 10.13.0 -e --source winget

3.- Pin Postman on winget so it doesn't accidentaly get updated with winget update --all:

winget pin add --id Postman.Postman -e

4.- Finally, rename the file Update.exe to Update.exe.bkp to prevent the autmatic update when you open Postman the first time:

Rename-Item $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Postman\Upddate.exe Update.exe.bkp

5.- Run Postman and save without Sign In!

Elfland

Answer 5

MacOS: prior v9.31.28 Postman

(with auto-update prevented - no file renames/deletes/edits needed)

I settled on v9.31.28 (being the latest I have found so far) as it satisfies all of these features:

• Still has local Scratch Pad (as OP aimed for)
  • Thank You @luudis for pointing out this works in 9.31.28 in MacOS
• Still can save requests, and import Postman data, without cloud Postman sign-in (using local Scratch Pad instead)
• Auto-update (that would lose above features) can be prevented, without needing to rename, delete, or edit any Postman app files; nor anything else in OS (outside of Postman settings)
• Can be downloaded (as of writing) from an official Postman domain

Steps

1. If you want: Export any Postman data that you might have in another/prior Postman instal, to be imported into v9.31.28 Postman later.
2. If you have any existing Postman installed on your MacOS, Uninstall that old one.
3. Download v9.31.28 Postman: https://dl.pstmn.io/download/version/9.31.28/osx
   • if you want, you can see similar explanation by @N. Kudryavtsev (Thank You) of how this seems to be a Postman-official download/domain
4. [this step might not be strictly needed (along with 6-7), but just in case if you want to prior to step 6.] Disconnect your computer from the internet
5. Extract/Install the downloaded v9.31.28 Postman
6. Confirm Auto-Update setting is disabled
7. If you turned internet off in 4.^, you can turn it back on now
8. Start Saving away in your new v9.31.28 Postman ... and Import any Postman data if you would like

Hexosan

Answer 6

UBUNTU USERS

If you can work with a quite older version, you can uninstall your current installation of Postman (if you already have it) and then install it from the Snap store, selecting a version < 10.17 (typically with the dropdown menu on the top right).

Currently the latest version < 10.17 is the 9.31.30.

Tokay

Answer 7

for linux users from below link you can download postman 10.17.0-linux supporting scratch pad https://www.mediafire.com/file/itduxv8fsqryrhi/postman-linux-x64.10.17.0.tar.gz/file

in order to save your collection you have to copy related auto generated backup files form ~/.config/Postman then delete ~/.config/ folder and extract postman form downloaded gz file and later use import backup to restore your collections.

keep in mind you have to prevent postman from internet connection if it connects, it will remove the scratchpad.

also you can prevent postman from auto update in the path of postman application extraction folder edit the js file Postman/app/resources/app/services/AutoUpdaterService.js

and add below sentence after line 34 of AutoUpdaterService.js file

return false;

Garwood