Steam thinks my PC is a Steam Deck

[Ygdrad]

I went through support and they couldn't resolve the issue and pointed me here. For months now steam has shown me as on the deck 24/7 even when it is turned off, I love me some deck, but not THAT MUCH. At first I thought something glitched out with the online status of my deck, but more recent testing by loading steam community/chat in a browser with and without the pc steam client connected showed that steam is actually recognizing my computer as a steam deck.

Potentially-related, I have played with my deck while at the computer by using VirtualHere to use it as a controller and the steam client sees the usb device as no different than when setting up controls on the deck itself. This issue did not start after first doing this, but at some unknown time later.

Also, I installed Garuda Linux as dual boot some time back, but I believe it was after the issues started. Garuda Linux is based on the same Arch Linux core as the steam deck so I figured I'd drop this here in case it matters. I did install and run steam on the Linux OS, but the issue happens when on windows 11, which I spend most of my time on.

This is affecting both my own and Steam's steam deck play stats given hundreds of hours of play are being logged on the deck, including for games people would generally not play on deck. My steam replay said I spent something like 95% of my time playing with a deck in my hands and that simply isn't true.

PS: No I won't stop, you named it that way and the deck jokes are value-added to fully enjoy as far as I'm concerned :P

[wiktor]

i have the same issue :v

[Ygdrad]

Originally posted by wiktor:

i have the same issue :v

Did you happen to do any of the things I did? Did you use the steam deck with VirtualHere as a controller? Did you install linux?

[wiktor]

Originally posted by Ygdrad:

Originally posted by wiktor:

i have the same issue :v

Did you happen to do any of the things I did? Did you use the steam deck with VirtualHere as a controller? Did you install linux?

I did indeed use my steam deck w/VirtualHere as a controller, maybe thats the problem?

[Ygdrad]

Originally posted by wiktor:

Originally posted by Ygdrad:

Did you happen to do any of the things I did? Did you use the steam deck with VirtualHere as a controller? Did you install linux?

I did indeed use my steam deck w/VirtualHere as a controller, maybe thats the problem?

Definitely seems like a common thing. I wonder if some drivers get installed on the pc for it or steam link to the steam deck it sees

[Mario119]

Same issue here after using my steam deck as a controller via virtualhere

[Ygdrad]

I really wish a dev or someone in the know could chime in to let us know what is causing it to be identified as a deck after the use of virtualhere. Is it a driver in our computers? is it something in a steam local file we can get rid of? Is it something server-side with steam that forever brands a certain mac address as a steam deck if it sees it as one once?

[KuroiNox]

So I wanted to chime in here. Figured out the PC thinks its a steam deck because of the config.vdf file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config or wherever you have steam installed.

Find it, open it in notepad, search for deck, and you'll find a line

"IsSteamDeck_01" "1"

Change that to "IsSteamDeck_01" "0", save and restart steam to fix. PC steam will no longer think its a steam deck.
Connecting the controller/deck again to PC will change that back to 1, but I don't think it applies until steam restarts again.
So just make sure to reapply the 0 again if your computer thinks its a steam deck again.

This should hopefully also mean that play time tracking should go back to normal, but I have no idea. I just know the steam icon or on steam deck no longer shows up(while steam deck isn't on) after I changed that setting.

I do hope this puts everything back to normal but unsure. Just hope at least this bit of information helps for everyone who used VirtualHere.

[Ygdrad]

Originally posted by KuroiNox:

So I wanted to chime in here. Figured out the PC thinks its a steam deck because of the config.vdf file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config or wherever you have steam installed.

Find it, open it in notepad, search for deck, and you'll find a line

"IsSteamDeck_01" "1"

Change that to "IsSteamDeck_01" "0", save and restart steam to fix. PC steam will no longer think its a steam deck.
Connecting the controller/deck again to PC will change that back to 1, but I don't think it applies until steam restarts again.
So just make sure to reapply the 0 again if your computer thinks its a steam deck again.

This should hopefully also mean that play time tracking should go back to normal, but I have no idea. I just know the steam icon or on steam deck no longer shows up(while steam deck isn't on) after I changed that setting.

I do hope this puts everything back to normal but unsure. Just hope at least this bit of information helps for everyone who used VirtualHere.

This worked for me. Hopefully steam devs read this and fix it permanently.

[wiktor]

Originally posted by KuroiNox:

So I wanted to chime in here. Figured out the PC thinks its a steam deck because of the config.vdf file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config or wherever you have steam installed.

Find it, open it in notepad, search for deck, and you'll find a line

"IsSteamDeck_01" "1"

Change that to "IsSteamDeck_01" "0", save and restart steam to fix. PC steam will no longer think its a steam deck.
Connecting the controller/deck again to PC will change that back to 1, but I don't think it applies until steam restarts again.
So just make sure to reapply the 0 again if your computer thinks its a steam deck again.

This should hopefully also mean that play time tracking should go back to normal, but I have no idea. I just know the steam icon or on steam deck no longer shows up(while steam deck isn't on) after I changed that setting.

I do hope this puts everything back to normal but unsure. Just hope at least this bit of information helps for everyone who used VirtualHere.

You're the goat man, fixed the issue for me aswell. Thank you