Trouble with multiplayer (updated)

[roymaster45]

Earlier this week, I was trying to host online multiplayer with a friend. Unfortunately, the Steam servers went completely down as we were getting started (not sure whether it was routine maintenance or an accident); when we managed to get back online, the "invite friends" and "show invite code" options were gone from the options menu in-game. The only button shown in the multiplayer section was "start local co-op".

I've run through pretty much all of the fixes listed in the pinned troubleshooting guide, with no success... does anybody have any other suggestions for how I can fix this? (During the time when the servers were down, I got a "the game cannot sync with Steam Cloud" error message when I tried to boot it up, so I think that might be the main cause of the problem.)

[roymaster45]

Bumping this since I'm still trying to solve a couple issues.

I did manage to get a fix for the local vs. online co-op problem mentioned above, but it involves restarting the game and adjusting the remote play settings every single time I want to host a farm, which is obviously cumbersome. So, if anybody has a more long-term fix, I'd appreciate that.

More importantly, however, the game keeps freezing up on my end (after like 45 seconds) whenever I try to host multiplayer. I've tried loading my single-player games, and those work fine.

Any suggestions? (I did find a Reddit page about the subject, and I think it might be an issue with the processor on my new MacBook: https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/lowb7b/multiplayer_on_m1_mac_keeps_freezing/)