Having Trouble Connecting to Octopi via web browser

What is the problem?
The first time I tried setting up Octoprint I was not able to connect to it. I had a feeling the issue was dealing with the captive portal in my housing complex because I did not sign into it the first time I set it up.

I erased everything off the Pi and started over by first redownloading noobs, when I set it up I was able to connect to the wifi and sign into the captive portal. I then flashed Octoprint onto the RPi and was finally able to access octoprint by typing the IP address into my web browser. I turned off the RPi and went to bed and then tried to use it the next day and was once again unable to connect. Now I get " This site can’t be reached octopi.local ’s server IP address could not be found." I get the same message when I try to use the IP address. I connected a keyboard and monitor to my RPi and it tells me that I'm able to access Octoprint from a web browser and gives me an IP address.

What did you already try to solve it?
I tried to access the desktop envionment by doing sudo /home/pi/scripts/install-desktop but I'm still not able to access the desktop. (I wanted to see if the captive portal pops up on the desktop version"
Tried to SSH via Putty (I use windows)
Tried to ping the IP address (tells me request timed out)
I've tried everything on the face of the internet for the past two days and I've hit a wall with this.

Logs (syslog, dmesg, ... no logs, no support)

Additional information about your network (Hardware you are trying to connect to, hardware you are trying to connect from, router, access point, used operating systems, ...)

I have a feeling this has to do with the captive portal

You're probably right - how often do you have to accept the message on the captive portal welcome page?
Just the first time you're using a new device or every few hours?

Usually it's only the first time but when I tried to install the desktop package I can see the captive portal link open, it says failed to fetch. I've been researching to see if there is a way to download the dekstop package to my computer so I can put it on the mcirosd but I've had no luck

Yeah downloading it on you computer and putting it on your sd would not work with the desktop install script.
I suggest you try it with the full raspbian image and install octoprint yourself
32 bit image
64 bit image
(the 32 bit image is more stable and the 64 bit image is still beta but the 64 bit is snappier (or more snappy? idk :smiley: ) on the desktop. You need a pi 3 or higher for the 64 bit image though)

then if everything works and you don't need the desktop anymore I would suggest to disable it again for better performance

run sudo raspi-config in ssh
There you go to Boot Options, B1 Desktop, B1 Text console