Deleting a Second Account

[cobb_iane]

Good day to all,

I am having some difficulty getting Steam Support to satisfy an inquiry into the potential risks of deleting my second account.

For some background, my father has been an amateur formula car engineer and driver for over twenty years. However, a shoulder injury, SARS-COVID economy, and ever-rising SCCA prices have led him to consider retiring--at least temporarily. In spite of his general fear of computers, he has decided to give sim racing a try.

His inexpensive laptop isn't even close to capable, so I cobbled together a decent little gaming machine for him and set about creating a Steam account. As hinted to, he's not much for computers; I, however, am a hobbyist builder and Linux enthusiast. I do most of the technological caretaking for my family (obnoxiously insisting they all go open-source so that I can boast that my octogenarian grandmother runs Linux).

As such, I have his email login credentials; however, I prefer not to use them unless he and I are in the same room. (Privacy and all that...) Whenever I am performing system maintenance--which in my father's case is usually cleaning spilled cereal off his laptop or turning it off/back on again because he doesn't understand how driver updates work--from my home, I tend to use my email where needed and then register his when he returns to pick up the machine.

This is what I did in this instance. Since I used my existing email, Steam provided me with two options: password recovery or creation of new account. I selected "Create New Account" with the expectation that it would... well, create a new account. Instead, it seems to have created what I would call a new "user ID" that is linked to my existing library.

(Now, I suppose some of you might say this is an oversight on my part, and you might be right. For my part, I look at it like this: if you went to a bank to set up a new savings account for your adolescent child and then provided the bank with his/her address--which is, understandably, the same as yours--you might be surprised if your child's new savings account reflected your checking account's balance.)

Anyway, the semantic issue is trivial and not the point of my discussion here. My problem--and the reason I am posting here--is that Steam Support is seemingly reluctant to provide me with answer regarding whether or not deleting the second account will have any effect on my account proper. Instead, I have received unwarranted warnings about ToS and information on how to remove the account (which I had already read in the publicly available documentation).

While I am 98% confident it would be just fine to delete it, I was also 99.5% sure that I knew what "Create New Account" meant. My library has a little over 200 games; that is hardly impressive, but it's at least a couple grand worth of titles that I cannot afford to replace. I would be quite upset to reach the 30-day point only to find out that my main account's library was cyber-vaporized due to its connection with the second.

Can anyone confirm or dismiss my concerns?

Thank you for your time,



I. Cobb

[Spawn of Totoro]

... you can't create a second account with access to the game like that.

If you created another account, the it will show the games that are installed, even if from the first account. Unless you went through the steps of Family Sharing, then the buttons should all show as "Buy" and not play.

[Satoru]

You seem to be really really confused

1) Making a new account makes a totally new account
2) emails are only for communication, your account names are entirely different
3) account names cant be email addresses, steam removed that years ago

Note its not even clear WHY you're trying to delete an account. What problem are you trying to solve?

If you delete your account it will DELETE EVERYTHING

Are you trying ot make a new account for your dad?

Like its not even clear what you're trying to do and why, despite like multiple paragraphs.....

You don't have a 'second account' unless you actually created one



If you go through the account creation process, and assuming you're putting in an email address you already used for a different account, you will get 2 options in the email

1) Find my account - used for account recovery
2) create my account - used to create a NEW account with a diferent account name but the same email contact


It sort of sounds like you're confused what the two options mean. If you just want to make a new account but want to use your email as the contact point, just clikc "Create My Account" and then the sign-in window will forward you to making a NEW account. Where you will choose a NEW account name and password.

[Silicon Vampire]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

... you can't create a second account with access to the game like that.

If you created another account, the it will show the games that are installed, even if from the first account. Unless you went through the steps of Family Sharing, then the buttons should all show as "Buy" and not play.

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what is going on here.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

... you can't create a second account with access to the game like that.

If you created another account, the it will show the games that are installed, even if from the first account. Unless you went through the steps of Family Sharing, then the buttons should all show as "Buy" and not play.

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what is going on here.

Might be better to make a separate account and put a Family PIN on it and buy games directly on the father's account

[Silicon Vampire]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what is going on here.

Might be better to make a separate account and put a Family PIN on it and buy games directly on the father's account

Probably better to sort out this account business before muddling the situation further...

[cobb_iane]

Originally posted by Satoru:

You seem to be really really confused

1) Making a new account makes a totally new account
2) emails are only for communication, your account names are entirely different
3) account names cant be email addresses, steam removed that years ago

Note its not even clear WHY you're trying to delete an account. What problem are you trying to solve?

If you delete your account it will DELETE EVERYTHING

Are you trying ot make a new account for your dad?

Like its not even clear what you're trying to do and why, despite like multiple paragraphs.....

You don't have a 'second account' unless you actually created one



If you go through the account creation process, and assuming you're putting in an email address you already used for a different account, you will get 2 options in the email

1) Find my account - used for account recovery
2) create my account - used to create a NEW account with a diferent account name but the same email contact


It sort of sounds like you're confused what the two options mean. If you just want to make a new account but want to use your email as the contact point, just clikc "Create My Account" and then the sign-in window will forward you to making a NEW account. Where you will choose a NEW account name and password.

To clear up any confusion, let me first explicitly state the following:

1. I am not very, very confused

2. I am not attempting to share my library or any games therein with my father.

3. I am attempting to create an account for him to be used solely by him. He will be required to purchase his own games.

4. Family Share is not enabled on this computer.

I followed the "Create New Account" path just as "Satoru" has suggested with the expectation that a new, independent account would be created. What followed were two options exactly as noted. I chose the second option: "Create New Account".

I was given the options to input a username and password for the new account. I gave a unique username and password for said new account. As a result, I now have two login IDs that both access my account as follows:

1. Logging into "Account A" shows my username, my user profile, my user history, and my library. This is what one would expect.

2. Logging in with "Account B" shows Account B's username, a blank user profile with my account's username, no user history, and my library... my whole library of 200+ games, not simply the half-dozen I have installed at the moment.

I am not sure if this is some sort of cache/unique ID mix-up that will resolve itself. But, at the moment, it's weird and concerning.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by cobb_iane:

This is what I did in this instance. Since I used my existing email, Steam provided me with two options: password recovery or creation of new account. I selected "Create New Account" with the expectation that it would... well, create a new account. Instead, it seems to have created what I would call a new "user ID" that is linked to my existing library.

When you were logged into the new account on that computer, Steam was showing you the library of games available on the computer. Your new account doesn't have access to those games. If you should have your new account deleted permanently by Steam, they will not affect the ownership of your games on your original account.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by cobb_iane:

I am not sure if this is some sort of cache/unique ID mix-up that will resolve itself. But, at the moment, it's weird and concerning.

Because another account on the computer can install those games, so in way the new account could have access to them as well.

[rawWwRrr]

Trust me, I know this because I have two accounts and when I log in with my 2nd I see the same thing you do.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by cobb_iane:

I followed the "Create New Account" path just as "Satoru" has suggested with the expectation that a new, independent account would be created. What followed were two options exactly as noted. I chose the second option: "Create New Account".

I was given the options to input a username and password for the new account. I gave a unique username and password for said new account. As a result, I now have two login IDs that both access my account as follows:

1. Logging into "Account A" shows my username, my user profile, my user history, and my library. This is what one would expect.

2. Logging in with "Account B" shows Account B's username, a blank user profile with my account's username, no user history, and my library... my whole library of 200+ games, not simply the half-dozen I have installed at the moment.

I am not sure if this is some sort of cache/unique ID mix-up that will resolve itself. But, at the moment, it's weird and concerning.

No, that is how Steam works. If you see the ones you have installed, then they say "Buy" and not "Play". It just displays them due to the app manifest files from your first account.

You can delete the second account with no issues.

[cobb_iane]

Okay. Thank you.

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

Originally posted by cobb_iane:

I followed the "Create New Account" path just as "Satoru" has suggested with the expectation that a new, independent account would be created. What followed were two options exactly as noted. I chose the second option: "Create New Account".

I was given the options to input a username and password for the new account. I gave a unique username and password for said new account. As a result, I now have two login IDs that both access my account as follows:

1. Logging into "Account A" shows my username, my user profile, my user history, and my library. This is what one would expect.

2. Logging in with "Account B" shows Account B's username, a blank user profile with my account's username, no user history, and my library... my whole library of 200+ games, not simply the half-dozen I have installed at the moment.

I am not sure if this is some sort of cache/unique ID mix-up that will resolve itself. But, at the moment, it's weird and concerning.

No, that is how Steam works. If you see the ones you have installed, then they say "Buy" and not "Play". It just displays them due to the app manifest files from your first account.

You can delete the second account with no issues.

Okay. Thank you. I understand why installed games would show up, but why would all of the games in my library that aren't installed show up? And why would the user ID be for the wrong account?

[Muppet among Puppets]

Just let the new account stay in peace.
Keep the details, but dont log in.
Nothing will happen.

[Gforce98]

to avoid this problem, maybe have separate windows login first. Not sure though never tried it with steam.