In Our Test, Ollama Went Online Before We Typed a Word. One Setting Stopped It, by The Output on YouTube. 5 min 22 s.
- Video length
- 5 min 22 s
- Time to do it
- 10 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Quit Ollama completely before you change anything. On Mac, use the menu bar icon and choose Quit. On Windows, right-click the tray icon and exit.
Open your home folder and find the hidden.ollama folder. On Windows, the equivalent data folder is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Ollama.
Create a new file inside.ollama named server.json. Make sure your editor does not add a.txt ending.
Put exactly this text in the file and save it: {"disable_ollama_cloud": true}. No extra commas or comments.
If you start the server yourself with ollama serve, you can instead set the environment variable OLLAMA_NO_CLOUD=1 before launching it. Use one method, not both.
Restart Ollama so it reads the new setting. The change only applies to the new process.
On Mac, run cat ~/.ollama/logs/server.log in Terminal and look for the line Ollama cloud disabled: true.
On Windows, open %LOCALAPPDATA%\Ollama in File Explorer, open the newest server.log and check for the same line.
Tips and common mistakes
Local does not mean offline: Ollama still downloads models and updates from the internet unless you block it.
Turning off the cloud removes cloud models and web search, so plan to use models stored on your own machine.
A JSON typo silently breaks the setting, so copy the line exactly and check the log after restarting.
Updates on macOS and Windows download automatically, so check the setting again after an Ollama update.
Questions
Does Ollama send my prompts to its servers?
Ollama's FAQ says it does not see your prompts or data when you run models locally. The connection it makes by default is for refreshing model recommendations and checking updates.
Will I lose anything by turning off the cloud?
Yes. Ollama's FAQ says you lose cloud models and web search. Local models you already downloaded keep working the same way.
How can I check that no connection is being made?
Watch the server log for the disabled line, or list the server's network connections with lsof on Mac. A single check is not proof, so repeat it over a few minutes.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
