You are logged in another computer already playing ...

[tungstic]

A number of people have experienced this puzzling phenomenon:

-- So I'm getting this odd error where when I'm trying to launch <your favorite game> saying "You are logged in another computer already playing "<your favorite game>". Launching "<your favorite game>" here will disconnect the other session from Steam." When I get this error, I click "Ok" then it brings me to box that says "Completing Installation %" and it stays stuck. The big problem here is that on the other PC, <your favorite game> isn't even running. What do I do? --

People have use several techniques to resolve the problem, up to and including de-authorizing computers. I have been unable to find any guidance from Steam on this, but here's what I suspect is going on:

Many games now on Steam send game saves to the Steam server, so that you can play from any computer. However, this is not a fast process - I have found that it can take minutes. If you interrupt this process, the game goes into limbo. Since Steam still thinks you're playing it from that computer, it won't let you play it or anything else from any other computer.

The easiest way to avoid the problem is to wait for the sync to finish before closing Steam or turning off your computer. (The sync progress is visible as an appendix to the game title in your Steam library.) If you discover the problem after the fact. Go back to the original computer, open Steam, and wait for the sync to resume and complete. (Not sure whether you have to actually start and quit the game to trigger this.)

If the original computer is inaccessible for some reason, things get stickier.

Playing the game offline or non-synchronized also avoids the problem. GO to the Properties of the game, Updates tab, and uncheck "Enable steam cloud sync...".

Steam: If this explanation is correct, please confirm. It would be even nicer if you could actually fix the protocol to (1) change the message to make it clear what the problem is, and (2) do what the dialog says - i.e., disconnect the other session and proceed, but only after making it clear in the warning that, if you play the SAME game, you will not have the most recent save.

[Archangel]

Killing steam on PC 2 usually works. But it's still dumb that we have to do that every single time.
Suggesting bouncing a PC regularly as a "workaround" for a software glitch is just next-level rediculous.

[Archangel]

And if you're playing a game that stores all of the data on the game server there should be NO NEED to sync. There's nothing locally to snyc anyways. I've never once noticed a negative impact from killing the sync/losing the data. So why snyc in the first place? It shouldn't take x seconds to sync if all the data is on the game server.

[999999999]

Archangel の投稿を引用：

And if you're playing a game that stores all of the data on the game server there should be NO NEED to sync. There's nothing locally to snyc anyways. I've never once noticed a negative impact from killing the sync/losing the data. So why snyc in the first place? It shouldn't take x seconds to sync if all the data is on the game server.

https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

[muckymucks]

Restarting Steam on the computer I want to play on fixes this problem for me.

[Archangel]

999999999 の投稿を引用：

Archangel の投稿を引用：

And if you're playing a game that stores all of the data on the game server there should be NO NEED to sync. There's nothing locally to snyc anyways. I've never once noticed a negative impact from killing the sync/losing the data. So why snyc in the first place? It shouldn't take x seconds to sync if all the data is on the game server.

https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

Yep, and my remote storage has no files for Path of Exile, the game about which it often complains.

[Cecil B. Demente]

Just close and open your steam account.

[FlashZA]

Cecil B. Demente の投稿を引用：

Just close and open your steam account.

Cant if the steam account causing it is opened 1214km's away from where you're trying to play your game from

[sershe]

+1 from me, I have the same issue with Stellaris. The game doesn't start after you confirm, either. So, another option is to take Steam on one or both machines offline. If you have to have malware (like Steam) on your machine, it's better to limit its internet access to the necessary minimum.

[Brains Ironically]

I had this same issue a couple years ago, and now it's back. Well done, Steam!

I personally don't suspect a it's a sync issue (at least for me) and here's why: it happens even if I exit the game (Civ V, Factorio, Farm Sim 17) on my laptop, don't shut the laptop down for a while (an hour or more,) and then go to my main PC and try to play. I don't know how long sync needs, but an hour+ seems like sufficient time, imho. Unless there's more to it than I know.

My workaround:

I've always been able to kill Steam from the Task Manager (not close it from within Steam, kill it from the Task Manager,) and then was able to play. I eventually made a batch file to kill it and then restart it and put that on my desktop because the bug was such a frequent occurrence.

Good luck to everyone; hopefully the Steam Engineers can debug this soon.