So is there a reason you can't exit Big Picture mode without closing Steam?

[Cavemanner]

Genuinely curious if there's an actual, plausible UX explanation for why it's possible to enter BPM from the regular launcher, but not vice versa. It's just a very slight annoyance, but it seems like such a weird decision from the app development team.

[_I_]

alt+enter is your friend

[Yujah]

And so is "Steam Menu" -> Power -> "Exit Big Picture Mode".

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Yujah:

And so is "Steam Menu" -> Power -> "Exit Big Picture Mode".

This^. Bottom left corner.

[Cavemanner]

Y'all didn't get what I was saying. Using any method (alt+enter, menu dialogue) closes the steam window completely, rather than simply switching back to the standard Steam app. That's what has me confused lol.

[Yujah]

No; what are you on about? It does exactly as you say: it switches back from BPM to the "normal client mode".

[Cavemanner]

Originally posted by Yujah:

No; what are you on about? It does exactly as you say: it switches back from BPM to the "normal client mode".

except it doesn't, it closes the Steam window completely. I'm wondering why it does that rather than simply changing back into the normal client mode in a window.

[Komarimaru]

I mean, not sure how you miss it, it's right here...

https://i.imgur.com/hiK3A5J.png

You simply Exit Big Picture Mode.

Then to starts the normal Steam Client again.

[Yujah]

Originally posted by Cavemanner:

except it doesn't, it closes the Steam window completely.

Last time: No. It. Does. Not.

If it somehow for you does not do as it does for the other few hundred million users, i.e., switch Steam back to normal client mode from big picture mode, then you have a personal, unrelated issue of the client crashing.

.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by Yujah:

Originally posted by Cavemanner:

except it doesn't, it closes the Steam window completely.

Last time: No. It. Does. Not.

If it somehow for you does not do as it does for the other few hundred million users, i.e., switch Steam back to normal client mode from big picture mode, then you have a personal, unrelated issue of the client crashing.

.

Yeah, sort of true. It doesn't close Steam, but it does minimize the client and resets to our default store view.

Doesn't seem like much of an issue to me, but then I don't have crash issues when Steam is minimized, so I'm sure that gets frustrating - the solution is proabably to never use BPM (which I personally think is an abomination) but I've heard stories about it starting when using a controller, so I suppose that's Steam for you.

[ezwip]

Mine closes then reopens so everyone is right.

[Cavemanner]

Originally posted by Yujah:

Originally posted by Cavemanner:

except it doesn't, it closes the Steam window completely.

Last time: No. It. Does. Not.

If it somehow for you does not do as it does for the other few hundred million users, i.e., switch Steam back to normal client mode from big picture mode, then you have a personal, unrelated issue of the client crashing.

.

Lmao I must be wording this wrong for all of you pedants according to the other guy's reply. It minimizes the client to the background when I exit BPM and I have to click the Steam icon to open the client again. Is that not what happens for you? You're saying that when you exit BPM it closes and there is a Steam client window already open? Because that's the issue that I'm encountering.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Cavemanner:

Originally posted by Yujah:

Last time: No. It. Does. Not.

If it somehow for you does not do as it does for the other few hundred million users, i.e., switch Steam back to normal client mode from big picture mode, then you have a personal, unrelated issue of the client crashing.

.

Lmao I must be wording this wrong for all of you pedants according to the other guy's reply. It minimizes the client to the background when I exit BPM and I have to click the Steam icon to open the client again. Is that not what happens for you? You're saying that when you exit BPM it closes and there is a Steam client window already open? Because that's the issue that I'm encountering.

The source of confusion is the wording. You said "closing Steam", not closing Steam window". Steam itself isn't closed, Steam is still running.

With that out of the way, yes, I have experienced this phenomenon.

[Yujah]

Originally posted by Cavemanner:

Lmao I must be wording this wrong

You were, although upon you insisting this hard on being a, let us say, "nonpedant", I verified that also if indeed you were asking the wrong question the answer was still the same. That is: I start with a normal Steam client; I use the BPM-icon to switch; I use Steam -> Power -> "Exit Big Picture Mode"; I'm back in my same, normal, opened, focused Steam client window (both on Windows 10 and Linux).

If not for you: no idea why not nor really any further interest I'm afraid to say.

[Yujah]

Well, some interest then. Seems that (on Linux, but undoubtedly same on Windows) entering/exiting BPM is basically relaunching Steam in the appropriate mode and that as such, you not finding the Steam client window open on BPM-exit likely means you have tweaked startup to start minimized ("-silent" and friends, Google tells me).

You would of course in that case need to be, let us say, "extremely nonpedantic" to not realize that that may be involved, but my money is on it...

[Cavemanner]

Originally posted by Yujah:

Well, some interest then. Seems that (on Linux, but undoubtedly same on Windows) entering/exiting BPM is basically relaunching Steam in the appropriate mode and that as such, you not finding the Steam client window open on BPM-exit likely means you have tweaked startup to start minimized ("-silent" and friends, Google tells me).

You would of course in that case need to be, let us say, "extremely nonpedantic" to not realize that that may be involved, but my money is on it...

Alright, I apologize for the name calling, I just felt attacked for whatever reason when I read the thread back that day.

So if what you're saying is the case, then I have no idea how that happened. I might be looking in the wrong place, but I just went through all of the client settings (accessed from the Steam menu in the top left) and there's no place to even set that preference. Plus, when I login to Windows, Steam starts on the desktop, not minimized.

This is so bizarre, and I wish I knew enough about app dev to investigate it further. I appreciate you taking the time to come back and offer advice even after being insulted.