cant play any games while family sharing

[yKolja]

I family shared a friend my games and she is playing Fallout 4 and because you cant play the same game I started playing another Game but then she got the notificatipon that I want my games back and she only haves 5 Minutes left play. Is this new or a bug?

[Crazy Tiger]

That's intended, only 1 account can access a library. You can get around it by you playing in offline mode and your friend in online mode.

[my new friend]

The borrower has always had 5 minute warnings to quit out before being disconnected so you can play your library.

[yKolja]

thats ♥♥♥♥ back then you just couldnt play the game the other person was playing and not the entire libary

[my new friend]

Originally posted by Katyusha:

thats ♥♥♥♥ back then you just couldnt play the game the other person was playing and not the entire libary

Only if the game does not have any type of DRM, including Steam's own. There are many games that still do this, like The Witcher games.

[Cathulhu]

Always was this way. Even back on Day 1 where family share was introduced people complained about it.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Katyusha:

thats ♥♥♥♥ back then you just couldnt play the game the other person was playing and not the entire libary

Family sharing hasn't changed since its introduction. What you say is only possible with games that are DRM-free or that people also owned themselves.

[yKolja]

oh okay but I never had this problem before

[[N]ebsun]

There are ways to work around it like making a new steam account for each game you buy, or using the sharing account in offline mode

[Haruspex]

Used to be each "family member" could play a different game in your account at the same time. I don't think that lasted very long though. Now only one person at a time can be playing on the whole account. It's to cut down on abuse of the feature and prevent you from, say, renting out your Steam account.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Originally posted by Katyusha:

thats ♥♥♥♥ back then you just couldnt play the game the other person was playing and not the entire libary

No. It was designed this way specifically so people aren't loaning/renting their libraries out.

[JACKET]

So if she play offline wouldnt that problem be solved

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by 8bitbeard:

Used to be each "family member" could play a different game in your account at the same time. I don't think that lasted very long though. Now only one person at a time can be playing on the whole account. It's to cut down on abuse of the feature and prevent you from, say, renting out your Steam account.

No it did not, it NEVER worked that way. From day 1 it was always designed to only allow one person on at once.

Here is the press announcement when it came out
https://store.steampowered.com/oldnews/11436#:~:text=Once%20a%20device%20is%20authorized,his%20games%20at%20any%20time.

Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by brian9824:

Originally posted by 8bitbeard:

Used to be each "family member" could play a different game in your account at the same time. I don't think that lasted very long though. Now only one person at a time can be playing on the whole account. It's to cut down on abuse of the feature and prevent you from, say, renting out your Steam account.

No it did not, it NEVER worked that way. From day 1 it was always designed to only allow one person on at once.

Here is the press announcement when it came out
https://store.steampowered.com/oldnews/11436#:~:text=Once%20a%20device%20is%20authorized,his%20games%20at%20any%20time.

Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.

Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but I'm almost certain I had Steam family sharing set up for my wife and son for a very short time during the Beta, and it allowed them to be playing a different game while I was playing.

Maybe it's the Mandela Effect at work here, since a lot of people seem to remember simultaneous use of a library as long as users were playing different games, but nothing I can find on the Internet seems to suggest this was ever the case, even during the beta release.

Doc and Marty been messing with the timelines again.

[Black Blade]

Originally posted by 8bitbeard:

Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but I'm almost certain I had Steam family sharing set up for my wife and son for a very short time during the Beta, and it allowed them to be playing a different game while I was playing.

Maybe it's the Mandela Effect at work here, since a lot of people seem to remember simultaneous use of a library as long as users were playing different games, but nothing I can find on the Internet seems to suggest this was ever the case, even during the beta release.

Doc and Marty been messing with the timelines again.

The only thing I think changed from then is that they took it from 10 Family members and 10 PC's to 5 family members and 10 PC's
As much as I remember from the beta it was one user can access the library at a time
A lot of request to allow it per a game where made then and come every so often even that its not likely to change