The disclosure provides for monitoring neighbor cells while in an offline idle mode. A wireless device monitors cells during a periodic monitoring cycle while in the offline idle mode. In particular, the wireless device monitors the cells by classifying each cell of a list of neighbor cells as one of a first type of neighbor cell having valid overhead information stored in a cache and a second type of neighbor cell that is not associated with valid overhead information stored in the cache. The wireless device selects a monitoring set including an active cell and a subset of the neighbor cells including a cell of the second type of neighbor cell. The wireless device performs a pilot search of the monitoring set, during a periodic monitoring cycle while in a first idle mode state, to determine a signal strength of each cell in the monitoring set for a cell change.