How to get back the Old Family Sharing.

[not.skelly]

Im sure everyone is mad about the new Family Sharing, since with the new one if you have a friend from another country, then you will not be able to share you games with them anymore. So heres a step by step tutorial on how to downgrade your Steam client which reverts the Family Sharing back to its old version.

1. You will need to close Steam

2. Go to where the Steam.exe is located, the default location is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam"
Create a shortcut for steam.exe and go to its properties

3. At target, press space at the end, and paste this text in:

-forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl http://web.archive.org/web/20240414011627if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam

The full text should look like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl http://web.archive.org/web/20240414011627if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam

5. Click Apply and run the shortcut. Its gonna open the update menu, just wait for it to finish and it should close automatically.

6. Before you launch Steam normally, you will need to prevent it from updating, which you can do by creating a "Steam.cfg" file and the same place steam.exe is located at and paste the following text into the cfg file:

BootStrapperInhibitAll=enable

7. Save the cfg file and launch steam.exe (not the shortcut), once its loads in you should have the old Family Sharing option.


Keep in mind that this wont last forever, because at early 2025 Steam will get rid of the old Family Sharing completely.

[not.skelly]

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Originally posted by not.skelly:

not sure why some of yall lying while the guide for downgrading is right here and you can literally use it, im still using it to this day

You're assuming that guide will work forever. It will not. It'll be patched out sooner rather than later.

im not sure if you are blind or something, i literally mentioned it in the post that this will not last forever

[KarmaKrazi]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by KarmaKrazi:

Yup, it's something that I warned a lot of people about prior to the update. If you abuse a system like this, it gets restricted. Abuse it more, it just gets removed all together.

That's pretty much the summary of most of the features on Steam. It always starts off lenient & hands-off, then ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ start abusing it then more restrictions get put into place then people find new ways to abuse it then new restrictions get put into place and so on and so forth.

Yup, then every time they add more restrictions the people abusing it have a giant surprised Pikachu face and lash out like they have a right to these unpaid features. It's quite a cycle.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by not.skelly:

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

You're assuming that guide will work forever. It will not. It'll be patched out sooner rather than later.

im not sure if you are blind or something, i literally mentioned it in the post that this will not last forever

Oh rest assured I am not blind and I am reading. Which leads me to wonder why people keep propagating this guide. Trying to keep the old family sharing. It was being abused and that's why they changed it. Do you honestly think they're going to leave this loophole available forever?

[imaginecatchynamehere]

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Originally posted by not.skelly:

not sure why some of yall lying while the guide for downgrading is right here and you can literally use it, im still using it to this day

You're assuming that guide will work forever. It will not. It'll be patched out sooner rather than later.

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Originally posted by not.skelly:

im not sure if you are blind or something, i literally mentioned it in the post that this will not last forever

Oh rest assured I am not blind and I am reading. Which leads me to wonder why people keep propagating this guide. Trying to keep the old family sharing. It was being abused and that's why they changed it. Do you honestly think they're going to leave this loophole available forever?

You sure you're reading?

"Keep in mind that this wont last forever, because at early 2025 Steam will get rid of the old Family Sharing completely."

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by imaginecatchynamehere:

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

You're assuming that guide will work forever. It will not. It'll be patched out sooner rather than later.

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Oh rest assured I am not blind and I am reading. Which leads me to wonder why people keep propagating this guide. Trying to keep the old family sharing. It was being abused and that's why they changed it. Do you honestly think they're going to leave this loophole available forever?

You sure you're reading?

"Keep in mind that this wont last forever, because at early 2025 Steam will get rid of the old Family Sharing completely."

Once again, I am.

Why use something that you know is going to get patched out very soon? Have you been here long? Can you imagine the replies to this thread if it is still active when it does get patched out?


"OMG This used to work, why won't it work anymore?"

So yes, I am reading. The majority of users however do not.

[imaginecatchynamehere]

It's fascinating watching the things people will double down on.

OP: it won't last forever
Doesn't read: You assume it will last forever.
OP: I said it won't last forever:
Can't read: Do you think this will last forever?

You can't make this ♥♥♥♥ up.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

You can keep saying that I didn't read but that is not the case.

It's not like the first post of the thread is very long. In fact, by your reply, it looks like you didn't read my post lol

[Wolfpig]

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

Originally posted by Ontrix_Kitsune:

involve whomever you want, they will tell you the same thing, you can use older steam clients, people have been purposely doing it for years, guides have been made, even boat loads of info, videos, ect.. on the internet, steam, you name it.

I'm 100% correct in everything I have said, you are 100% wrong in everything you have said, no one is falling for your misinformation.

btw, here is a guide to using older steam client versions, check it out, it has some great info you might want to read.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967855237

bye, have a nice day :gk_smile:

Even if you move to an older client, features which rely on the server backend wont work the same as before.

Did not bscktrack the thread to see why that was even mentioned and assume it has to do with the topic.....

[Ontrix_Kitsune]

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

Originally posted by Ontrix_Kitsune:

involve whomever you want, they will tell you the same thing, you can use older steam clients, people have been purposely doing it for years, guides have been made, even boat loads of info, videos, ect.. on the internet, steam, you name it.

I'm 100% correct in everything I have said, you are 100% wrong in everything you have said, no one is falling for your misinformation.

btw, here is a guide to using older steam client versions, check it out, it has some great info you might want to read.
bye, have a nice day :gk_smile:

*Sigh* I see you're still lying in public, AGAIN. Why even bother? Everyone knows what you said isn't true. You're completely making up crap for no reason. Old steam clients don't work and can't be used. It's a fact and everyone (at least everyone but you) knows all about it.

[Ontrix_Kitsune]

Originally posted by imaginecatchynamehere:

It's fascinating watching the things people will double down on.

OP: it won't last forever
Doesn't read: You assume it will last forever.
OP: I said it won't last forever:
Can't read: Do you think this will last forever?

You can't make this ♥♥♥♥ up.

It's the same thing with other people:
"THE OLD STEAM CLIENTS LAST FOREVER"
Literally everyone: No they stop working eventually.
"BUT I WANT OLD STEAM CLIENTS! I'LL USE IT FOREVER!"
Still everyone else: Nope. They can't be used and we all know it.
"MAH OLD STEAM CLIENT!"
Everyone else: LOL!

[MonkehMaster]

sorry, but that's false, you can use old steam clients, everyone including valve knows this and no amount of misinformation you claim, will become anything less than utterly false, nice try.

bye, have a nice day

[MonkehMaster]

Originally posted by Wolfpig:

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

involve whomever you want, they will tell you the same thing, you can use older steam clients, people have been purposely doing it for years, guides have been made, even boat loads of info, videos, ect.. on the internet, steam, you name it.

I'm 100% correct in everything I have said, you are 100% wrong in everything you have said, no one is falling for your misinformation.

btw, here is a guide to using older steam client versions, check it out, it has some great info you might want to read.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967855237

bye, have a nice day

Even if you move to an older client, features which rely on the server backend wont work the same as before.

Did not bscktrack the thread to see why that was even mentioned and assume it has to do with the topic.....

this is why it got brought up and then again by same person months later (this issue is a reoccurring thing, has been for a year+ now throughout the forums).

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/634541868951066390/#c634541994529584173

yes that's right, dec 2024 on page 1 in this thread, posted guide and mentioned old clients, backend changes, ect...

then someone comes in and makes claims that I'm lying, posting misinformation, insults and more, along with threats of moderation if I "keep doing it", amongst other things seeming to be complained about by said individual (like people using win 7).

anywho, correct... could be month(s) to years (maybe longer), before backend server changes even cause older client(s) to have issues and later be fully non-working before they have to move on.

[Ontrix_Kitsune]

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

lies and nonsense

You can keep trying and try all you want but no one will listen to your lies and BS.

[Ontrix_Kitsune]

Originally posted by sajtyka:

The people saying you cannot use old clients are lying

It may appear to work now but it will stop working later. At some point it always stops working. You may get a few months of extra usage out of it before it stops working but it will stop working some day. You can NOT use old steam clients forever. There's no reason to try.

[MonkehMaster]

Originally posted by Ontrix_Kitsune:

Originally posted by sajtyka:

The people saying you cannot use old clients are lying

It may appear to work now but it will stop working later. At some point it always stops working. You may get a few months of extra usage out of it before it stops working but it will stop working some day. You can NOT use old steam clients forever. There's no reason to try.

first you claim I'm lying and say you can't use old clients, then when replying to others you say old clients can't be used for long.

gotta love when people out themselves for all too see.

now that you have confirmed me correct and yourself lying, you can move on.

so like I have been saying.. you can use/run old steam clients and that guide has loads of great info.

bye and have a nice day