Rage Panda Oct 9, 2018 @ 7:04pm
steam taking forever to start for account switch
so this one is interesting, I have 2 steam accounts because i have different games on my other one, so depending on who i'm playing with and what game we want to play, i'll switch to my other account. The other day, when I logged out of one account, steam took a really long time (90+ seconds) to boot up again. it's happened since then so i googled it, this is what happens and what i've done.
Steam starts the client bootstrapper, it runs the update and installation verification fine, then it just sits there in background processes and does nothing for ages until finally all the other processes start and it starts up, since the account switch it does this whether i've quit steam, whether it boots automatically or whether i run as administrator or from folder .exe

I deleted everything from my steam folder and let it update itself, it started instantly. then when i swapped accounts, it once again took forever to start up no matter how i tried.
I got rid of my anti virus (mcafee) and tried again, same issue, still takes forever.
I completely reinstalled steam, it started instantly, but again, as soon as i logged out of one account, it takes forever to open again.

I booted in safe mode, even in safe mode, same issue, 90+ seconds after install verification to launch the login.

For some reason, logging out of a steam account breaks something in my steam and it takes a really long time to load. this never used to happen this is a recent issue and i'm stumped. any ideas?
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
Jaunitta 🌸 Oct 9, 2018 @ 8:49pm 
Did you install one game in one account and the other game in the other account?
You might have to resign the idea of 2 accounts for playing different games with different users and use family sharing instead
Can two accounts play a game only bought on one account, on the same computer?
https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/13045/can-two-accounts-play-a-game-only-bought-on-one-account-on-the-same-computer

Steam Account Use
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8963-EIKC-3767#onemachine
Demon Jan 1, 2019 @ 1:56am 
This has been happening to me lately as well.
Dr.Shadowds 🐉 Jan 1, 2019 @ 2:04am 
Depending on the game in question, you can do family share.

What it does is enable you to share games between accounts, but only one Library can be active at a time, since it's only you, then you can basically set up family share between your two accounts, and you can basically have access to your games on both your accounts, and wouldn't need to switch accounts either, you can stay on one account the whole time.

To do this. Steam > Settings > Family, check the box a new box will appear in the same window, make sure the box is checked for the account, repeated the same thing with the other account, now you should see your games across both accounts, and wouldn't need to switch accounts, and can play them on the same account.

Do note not all games are supported under family share, and it's normally VAC games that not supported.

Also I suggest defrag your HDD, and don't try to fill your storage up to the max you want at least 20% free storage of the storage size, if 1TB, then leave 200gb free space.
Last edited by Dr.Shadowds 🐉; Jan 1, 2019 @ 2:06am
thoreberlin Feb 24, 2024 @ 8:10am 
Acount switching to my daughters account or back to mine sometimes takes over 10 minutes. Most time spend on shutting down steam. What the heck is wrong here? Got the feeling it gets worse and worse.
Dr.Shadowds 🐉 Feb 24, 2024 @ 1:38pm 
Originally posted by thoreberlin:
Acount switching to my daughters account or back to mine sometimes takes over 10 minutes. Most time spend on shutting down steam. What the heck is wrong here? Got the feeling it gets worse and worse.
- If using 3rd party app that messing with permissions, and files, or hooking into the app that might be the issue.

- If have corrupted file, head to where steam installed, delete everything except for "steamapp" folder, and "steam.exe" file, once done run Steam and test.

- If you have newer AMD Ryzen CPU, if you have a dedicated GPU in the system, just disable AMD iGPU as for unknown reason it causing issues for slow client.
thoreberlin Feb 28, 2024 @ 2:26pm 
It's the steam deck. Everything on there is managed by Valve. They have to fix this.
alozta Apr 10 @ 3:44am 
I also have the same issue. I don’t understand what’s the blocker here. Even turning off and on the device is faster.
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Date Posted: Oct 9, 2018 @ 7:04pm
Posts: 7