My deleted games are being played

[reyman1969]

So, I noticed that some of the games on my list of owned but uninstalled games are being played by someone. How is that possible? When I say "played by someone" I obviously don't think they are in fact being played, but something is activated. It says, when hovering over one of the titles, that it has been played for 4 minutes during the last 3 weeks. Another one says 8 minutes. Or 11 minutes. And so forth.
What's up with that? I mean, the games have been deleted?

[invision2212]

It’s just an error. It happens to all of us

[Kargor]

It's 2 weeks, not 3 weeks.

Also, the license is still there. Are you using Family Sharing? Do you have some bot that might be playing games?

Later on, you are talking about "deleted games". While games can't be truly removed from your account, I don't currently know whether family sharing or bots can still use them.

So, what exactly is it? And what's the timeline here? Did you uninstall/delete those games more than 2 weeks ago -- or are you just seeing your OWN game time?

[Lithurge]

Originally posted by Kargor:

So, what exactly is it? And what's the timeline here? Did you uninstall/delete those games more than 2 weeks ago -- or are you just seeing your OWN game time?

It's not hard to work out, they've got uninstalled games that are showing as being played.

By deleted they mean the files are no longer on the HDD/SDD as they've been uninstalled. After all if they were 'deleted' from the library you wouldn't be able to see the playtime.

And as Invision has said it's just one of the many random Steam bugs that doesn't really affect anything.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Old bug...

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/3546050190331497294/

[reyman1969]

Originally posted by invision2212:

It’s just an error. It happens to all of us

Yea, I guess you're right ;-)

[reyman1969]

Originally posted by Kargor:

It's 2 weeks, not 3 weeks.

Also, the license is still there. Are you using Family Sharing? Do you have some bot that might be playing games?

Later on, you are talking about "deleted games". While games can't be truly removed from your account, I don't currently know whether family sharing or bots can still use them.

So, what exactly is it? And what's the timeline here? Did you uninstall/delete those games more than 2 weeks ago -- or are you just seeing your OWN game time?

Ah yes; 2 weeks. You're right. Not 3. But when talking privacy I am the only one using my computer, so no "family sharing" needed. Also, we're talking games that have been deleted (uninstalled) for years but are of course still visible in my steam list of owned games.

[Zachopotamus]

Originally posted by invision2212:

It’s just an error. It happens to all of us

I've used Steam for over a decade and this has never happened to me.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Zachopotamus:

Originally posted by invision2212:

It’s just an error. It happens to all of us

I've used Steam for over a decade and this has never happened to me.

Doesn't mean it doesn't exist becuase it does.

Might just be some weird server thing which would explain why some get it and others might not.

I've personally seen in on my account a number of times.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Zachopotamus:

I've used Steam for over a decade and this has never happened to me.

I've used Steam for almost 20 years, and it happens to me. But that's the thing with bugs, they don't happen to everyone. It's also less likely to happen to you, you only have 138 games. But for those of us pushing 2000+ it's more likely to be noticed.

[Axe]

Originally posted by Zachopotamus:

Originally posted by invision2212:

It’s just an error. It happens to all of us

I've used Steam for over a decade and this has never happened to me.

I've used Steam for over a decade and this has never happened to me either and no one here is saying it doesn't exist!

[Kenka]

I had a similar problem with a game that tried to grab inormation and passwords form my PC. I deinstalled it but my virus software still reacted to it and playtime still went up every time. When I installed Steam new, the issue was gone.

[Psychlapse]

When all those "non-played" minutes add up to 666, you will wake up in the backrooms, then another random account will be picked.....

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Kenka:

I had a similar problem with a game that tried to grab inormation and passwords form my PC. I deinstalled it but my virus software still reacted to it and playtime still went up every time. When I installed Steam new, the issue was gone.

I doubt that the game did quite that - it doesn;t info about passwords as Valve would NEVER allow such a thing to creep through and the backlash if they did would be massive.

What likely happens IS that there was problems with this game but you either clicked on a link in Discrod or in Steam chat or something or went to one of those gambling skin sites. They are how you lose password and log in info.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by Kenka:

I had a similar problem with a game that tried to grab inormation and passwords form my PC. I deinstalled it but my virus software still reacted to it and playtime still went up every time. When I installed Steam new, the issue was gone.

It's certainly possible that games don't quit properly; usually caused by some shutdown-deadlock. This is not a particularly critical situation, but Steam doesn't see the game process ending so it keeps considering the game to be "played".

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

I doubt that the game did quite that - it doesn;t info about passwords as Valve would NEVER allow such a thing to creep through and the backlash if they did would be massive.

Yeah, such a game would be quickly pulled.

Also, note how he keeps things vague by referring to "a game", so he can't be called out.

[davidb11]

Originally posted by kitty:

Originally posted by reyman1969:

So, I noticed that some of the games on my list of owned but uninstalled games are being played by someone. How is that possible? When I say "played by someone" I obviously don't think they are in fact being played, but something is activated. It says, when hovering over one of the titles, that it has been played for 4 minutes during the last 3 weeks. Another one says 8 minutes. Or 11 minutes. And so forth.
What's up with that? I mean, the games have been deleted?

You should change your password immediately and take steps to secure your account. Someone else has access to your steam account and they are playing your games.

This is a bug. It's not a hacked account.
Did you read this thread?