Downloading a game for a friend

[Blampie]

My friend has extremely slow internet. It takes him a couple days to download a game from a couple years ago. It'd guess it would take him close to 4 days to download a recent game. Guess that's what he gets for moving out into the sticks. Anywho, can I sign into his account on my computer, download a game, and give it to him on a thumb drive so he can install it on his machine?

If so, how do I go about this? Is there another, easier way? I've tried searching for physical copies of games, but they basically don't make them anymore.

Additionally, I've tried to figure out how to contact steam directly for help, but I keep getting run around in circles in their support section. Couldn't see where to submit a ticket at all. Everything I found online seemed to be using an older version of their support system, because there is no Contact Steam or Submit a support ticket button. God forbid I have an actual problem someday and need real help.

Anyway, any information would be much appreciated.

[Darren]

The easiest and safest way would be family sharing.

His account shares it's library with your account. This allows you to login to your account and download any game he or you own.

You can then backup the game once it has installed copy it over to him on a USB and he can restore it and you have handled basically all of the download.

No risk to him of you stealing his account. No hassle to you of having to log out of yours and into his for the download. If you allow downloads while playing you can even play your games while his download happens in the background seamlessly.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Family sharing only works with computers on the same network.
Basically there is no point to doing this.
first
you would be usingt his account which is bound to his slow ISP anyway and the download speed would be the same.
2nd you would be installing it to his account anyway.

Troubleshooting Network Connectivity
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1456-EUDN-2493&l=

[Darren]

Originally posted by Jaunitta:

Family sharing only works with computers on the same network.
Basically there is no point to doing this.
first
you would be usingt his account which is bound to his slow ISP anyway and the download speed would be the same.
2nd you would be installing it to his account anyway.

Troubleshooting Network Connectivity
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1456-EUDN-2493&l=

Nope. You do have to come over to set it up. But he would have to do that anyway to grab the USBs.

My brother lives 8 hours drive away but have family sharing setup to share my library.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by Jaunitta:

Family sharing only works with computers on the same network.
Basically there is no point to doing this.
first
you would be usingt his account which is bound to his slow ISP anyway and the download speed would be the same.
2nd you would be installing it to his account anyway.

You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you? None of this is even remotely correct.

Yes, family sharing can be used for this. Sharing to someone is not without risk, but he's the one sharing so you don't need to worry...

[Sin]

DL the game then copy the game dir to the USB, tell him to copy that game dir to his steams game folder then run the executable and steam will detect it (assuming he owns the game too) ive done it hundreds of times between machines.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Originally posted by Darren:

Originally posted by Jaunitta:

Family sharing only works with computers on the same network.
Basically there is no point to doing this.
first
you would be usingt his account which is bound to his slow ISP anyway and the download speed would be the same.
2nd you would be installing it to his account anyway.

Troubleshooting Network Connectivity
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1456-EUDN-2493&l=

Nope. You do have to come over to set it up. But he would have to do that anyway to grab the USBs.

My brother lives 8 hours drive away but have family sharing setup to share my library.

Thanks, I tried this with my brother who is on the other side of Asutralia from me and he said that. So I just have to go to his computer? I wanted to play a game he has. Is that different.?

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Originally posted by Sin:

DL the game then copy the game dir to the USB, tell him to copy that game dir to his steams game folder then run the executable and steam will detect it (assuming he owns the game too) ive done it hundreds of times between machines.

Yes I've done it for myself as well using the same method All I did when pasting the games back into the Steam Common, in the Steam library it looks uninstalled I just r/clicked the game verified files that reinstalled them .

[Blampie]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Family sharing is not the problem. The problem is him downloading the game. We have family sharing enabled. We've used it for a couple years now to play games the other has purchased.

To make sure I have this correct, Sin and Jaunitta, I log into his account on my PC(which I can do since I have the pw), purchase and download the game, copy the dir to a USB, give him the USB when I see him next, direct him to copy the files into his steamapps/common folder, and when he executes the game steam will detect the files and he'll be able to play the game without having to download it.

Makes sense. I'll see how it works.

Again, thanks for the replies and information.

[Sin]

Yeah just download the game(s) that he has on his account, then proceed to back up the game files to a USB drive or external then give him the drive, but he must put the folders from the drive into his "common" folder in steam on his machine.

After that he can just manually open each game one at a time and Steam will do the rest. ez pz

steamlibrary>steamapps>common all the game folders will be in there, just copy the entire folder for each game and youre set.

[Snapjak]

Originally posted by Blampie:

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Family sharing is not the problem. The problem is him downloading the game. We have family sharing enabled. We've used it for a couple years now to play games the other has purchased.

To make sure I have this correct, Sin and Jaunitta, I log into his account on my PC(which I can do since I have the pw), purchase and download the game, copy the dir to a USB, give him the USB when I see him next, direct him to copy the files into his steamapps/common folder, and when he executes the game steam will detect the files and he'll be able to play the game without having to download it.

Makes sense. I'll see how it works.

Again, thanks for the replies and information.

No, you do not log in on his account. That is a breach of the SSA and can get it locked.

Let HIM log in and buy the game, then you can download it via family sharing.

Copy that to the flash drive and hand it to him.


Again, do NOT log in to someone else's account.

[Sin]

Nothing wrong with him logging into an account from a different IP on a different machine. Stop fear mongering, nothing is gonna happen.

[Snapjak]

Originally posted by Sin:

Nothing wrong with him logging into an account from a different IP on a different machine. Stop fear mongering, nothing is gonna happen.

No.

Stop telling people to break the SSA and risk getting accounts locked permanently.

[Sin]

Hes NOT using the account to play/purchase etc or "loaning the account"
Hes ONLY downloading games on another machine.

IVE done this. Nothing will happen.