Family Sharing - Change which account the game runs from?

[Lupus Draconis]

My husband and my son and I all game together. Our son uses family sharing to play games on our accounts.

We have a particular game that my husband and I both have purchased and both have accounts for. My son wants to play the game. My husband is using his Steam library, and thus my son can't play the game. However, I also have a copy of it, and am not using my steam library.

Is there any way to make it so he can play the game from my account instead of my husband's account? Since we have two copies and two accounts and only one is in use, it makes sense that family sharing should work, since there is an account and a license key open. However, we either can't switch or can't figure out how to switch. Does anybody know?

[Tev]

Other than to just alter the config.vdf there's PsyBlade's sfs-select:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/familysharing/discussions/0/540736965953254153

[Lupus Draconis]

Shame there's no official way to do this. Thank you for your help!

[Blackburn]

Originally posted by Tev:

Other than to just alter the config.vdf there's PsyBlade's sfs-select:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/familysharing/discussions/0/540736965953254153

sorry for necro, but I have this issue to, but link is dead. And I can't find a solution

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Blackburn:

Originally posted by Tev:

Other than to just alter the config.vdf there's PsyBlade's sfs-select:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/familysharing/discussions/0/540736965953254153

sorry for necro, but I have this issue to, but link is dead. And I can't find a solution

I've asked about the thread in question. I'll post another reply if I get an answer.

[Blackburn]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by Blackburn:

sorry for necro, but I have this issue to, but link is dead. And I can't find a solution

I've asked about the thread in question. I'll post another reply if I get an answer.

:qr:

I already found a solution.
1 close steam (!)
2 find the file Steam/config/config.vdf
3 make a backup of it
4 edit it in you favorite texteditor
5 start steam up again



to edit config.vdf find a section in it looking like this:
"AuthorizedDevice"
{
"12345678"
{
"timeused" "1399063892"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-1234567890123456789"
}
"87654321"
{
"timeused" "1400276039"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-9876543210987654321"
}
}
it's probably near the bottom

each of the sections starting with e.g. "12345678" represent one friend who has authorized your PC
the number is the steam account number of that friend

in the example above two friends have autorized that PC, 12345678 and 87654321
in adition friend 12345678 has priority over friend 87654321
i.e. games that both of them own in EXACTLY the same "edition" (steam "sub" more exactly) get listed under 12345678
(for different editions of the same game see readme.txt)



you can make steam temporarily forget about an authorization by completely removing the respective section:
"AuthorizedDevice"
{
"87654321"
{
"timeused" "1400276039"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-9876543210987654321"
}
}
for example would only list games from friend 87654321

to show 12345678's games again copy his section from the backup



you can change the priority by changing the sections order
"AuthorizedDevice"
{
"87654321"
{
"timeused" "1400276039"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-9876543210987654321"
}
"12345678"
{
"timeused" "1399063892"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-1234567890123456789"
}
}
would show editions they both own under 87654321 instead

[Lupus Draconis]

Thank you! It would be nice if there was an official way to do this, though.

[ege]

may god bless you and your family

[Vladius]

It works, my deepest thanks

[Eliasky]

Originally posted by Blackburn:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

I've asked about the thread in question. I'll post another reply if I get an answer.

:qr:

I already found a solution.
1 close steam (!)
2 find the file Steam/config/config.vdf
3 make a backup of it
4 edit it in you favorite texteditor
5 start steam up again



to edit config.vdf find a section in it looking like this:
"AuthorizedDevice"
{
"12345678"
{
"timeused" "1399063892"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-1234567890123456789"
}
"87654321"
{
"timeused" "1400276039"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-9876543210987654321"
}
}
it's probably near the bottom

each of the sections starting with e.g. "12345678" represent one friend who has authorized your PC
the number is the steam account number of that friend

in the example above two friends have autorized that PC, 12345678 and 87654321
in adition friend 12345678 has priority over friend 87654321
i.e. games that both of them own in EXACTLY the same "edition" (steam "sub" more exactly) get listed under 12345678
(for different editions of the same game see readme.txt)



you can make steam temporarily forget about an authorization by completely removing the respective section:
"AuthorizedDevice"
{
"87654321"
{
"timeused" "1400276039"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-9876543210987654321"
}
}
for example would only list games from friend 87654321

to show 12345678's games again copy his section from the backup



you can change the priority by changing the sections order
"AuthorizedDevice"
{
"87654321"
{
"timeused" "1400276039"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-9876543210987654321"
}
"12345678"
{
"timeused" "1399063892"
"description" "my-pc"
"tokenid" "-1234567890123456789"
}
}
would show editions they both own under 87654321 instead

Thanks man it works fine in 2022 now i can play one duplicate game on two of the accounts are sharing with me

[76561199407495642]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.