A little concerned that I have no recovery backup plan.

[Haruspex]

My account is nearly 18 years old. I got it around the time Half Life 2 came out, and in fact that's the reason I got it.

I keep seeing these people who lose access to their accounts via phishing and such. This has never been a problem for me, and I don't plan for it ever to be a problem, but I got to thinking, "What will I do if it happens to me?"

I've seen the account recovery steps. Those are fine. Where I get concerned is that support will sometimes ask for a CD key for the first game you activated. I actually do have the original disc for the Half Life 2 collectors edition, but the packaging, and of course the CD key are long gone. It's been a long time.

If I go into my product activation history, it's all there, but I can't get the CD key for a lot of the games I originally activated between 2004 and 2007. Some of them show up as "complimentary", and others as "retail". Even the ones labeled "retail" don't give me an option to view the original key.

I was hoping to get those keys copied down somewhere for safekeeping for account recovery purposes, if I ever need them. Now I'm worried that in the unlikely event of account loss, I may be SOL if support asks me for decades-old information I no longer have.

Anyone maybe been in this situation know what else I can confidently use in case of necessary account recovery?

[Cathulhu]

Even if you could write them down, Steam Support would require an actual photo of the original product key.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Even if you could write them down, Steam Support would require an actual photo of the original product key.

So I'm wasting my time trying to find these keys through Steam. Fair enough. Does Valve take into consideration very old accounts like mine when asking for proof of ownership? Who, realistically, has old PC game packaging from nearly 20 years ago?

[nullable]

Originally posted by 8bitbeard:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Even if you could write them down, Steam Support would require an actual photo of the original product key.

So I'm wasting my time trying to find these keys through Steam. Fair enough. Does Valve take into consideration very old accounts like mine when asking for proof of ownership? Who, realistically, has old PC game packaging from nearly 20 years ago?

Sure. Or rather I hope so. My account is that old anyway.

In lieu of that I just make sure my account is secure. I have the appropriate Steam Guard backup codes stored in my password manager. And I otherwise have good security habits. Unique passwords (because password manager). I'm not prone to engaging in risky behavior or using my Steam credentials to access other sites or make money with my Steam account. And I'm familiar with scams and the social engineering behind them. So I consider my risk rather low.

The good thing with having an old account and lots of purchases is there's lots of opportunity to provide proof. Original CD keys would be slam dunk of course. But I'm sure I can prove my account is mine in nearly any other way Valve requests. In the worst case scenario, you or I would just have to work through the process.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

The good thing with having an old account and lots of purchases is there's lots of opportunity to provide proof. Original CD keys would be slam dunk of course. But I'm sure I can prove my account is mine in nearly any other way Valve requests. In the worst case scenario, you or I would just have to work through the process.

Yeah. Might just be paranoia on my part. I imagine this scenario where they say, "No 18 year old CD key? Oh well. Tough luck.", and that's it. I'm stuck.

[Satoru]

Note it’s far far easier to just not get hijacked in the first place.

However if you’re paranoid there are lots of easy ways in which you can protect your account

1) use a unique password on steam
2) use the steam mobile Authenticator
3) generate steam backup codes and store them somewhere accessible

Steam already provides several ways to recover your account such as via backup codes, and email where you can locki the account when changes are made, recover via SMS.

[B-o-B]

For the record some of us do actually still own all the DVD's and CD/DVD key's from that far back.
Back when we just had email verification for account security.. shock-horror.
Strong got stronger, c0s K1dz...

Originally posted by 8bitbeard:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Even if you could write them down, Steam Support would require an actual photo of the original product key.

So I'm wasting my time trying to find these keys through Steam. Fair enough. Does Valve take into consideration very old accounts like mine when asking for proof of ownership? Who, realistically, has old PC game packaging from nearly 20 years ago?

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Note it’s far far easier to just not get hijacked in the first place.

RIght. Hasn't happened in 18 years. Probably won't happen. My thought was "Better safe than sorry."

Originally posted by B-o-B:

For the record some of us do actually still own all the DVD's and CD/DVD key's from that far back.
Back when we just had email verification for account security.. shock-horror.
Strong got stronger, c0s K1dz...

I was saving that stuff. I had a whole bookshelf full. Living space was pretty cramped, so I was trying to streamline things some years back. I have a lot of my old discs in one of those 200 disc CD binders with the zipper edge you could get. Some good stuff there too you can't get today, like "No One Lives Forever 1 and 2". But boxes, manuals, disc sleeves, jewel cases etc, all gone. I think I had the items containing keys in a box somewhere, but either it got thrown out at some point or disappeared during one of my moves.

[jamesglen7]

Your nightmare situation can become a reality to anyone who can't keep a secret or trusts a stranger with a powerful message. I'd have difficulty just informing Support that I took the bait so I cannot allow this to happen since the subscriber is responsible for confidentiality. Don't burden yourself with recovery and report every weed growing in the garden.