Game Share

[ᜂᜇᜒᜐ]

Is there any way to let my friend play a game i own without giving my account? My friend has their own account and I have a game that they wanna play. If family steam share (whatever that was called,i forgot) is this, can someone explain it to me?

[ReBoot]

It's pretty easy, I did that on my sister's PC, on a PC of a friend of mine... Basically, you log into your account on their PC and enable sharing. No need to give them your account, it's just you logging in & enabling sharing.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

It's pretty easy, I did that on my sister's PC, on a PC of a friend of mine... Basically, you log into your account on their PC and enable sharing. No need to give them your account, it's just you logging in & enabling sharing.

I recommend using the new "Steam Family" system instead that is currently in BETA.
You can opt into the BETA from your Steam client settings under "Interface".

The new Family system will replace the old Family Share soon.
Basically in the new system you create a "Steam Family" and you can invite up to 5 others to it.
Everyone in the family shares all their games with everyone else. Also unlike the old Family Share there is no restriction to users playing at the same time or even offline.
You also dont need to login to the computer of the person you want to share with, you just send out a invite via the friend list or with a friend code and if they accept they have joined the family.
Its so easy.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

It's pretty easy, I did that on my sister's PC, on a PC of a friend of mine... Basically, you log into your account on their PC and enable sharing. No need to give them your account, it's just you logging in & enabling sharing.

I recommend using the new "Steam Family" system instead that is currently in BETA.
You can opt into the BETA from your Steam client settings under "Interface".

The new Family system will replace the old Family Share soon.
Basically in the new system you create a "Steam Family" and you can invite up to 5 others to it.
Everyone in the family shares all their games with everyone else. Also unlike the old Family Share there is no restriction to users playing at the same time or even offline.
You also dont need to login to the computer of the person you want to share with, you just send out a invite via the friend list or with a friend code and if they accept they have joined the family.
Its so easy.

That sounds good. Missed the last part in the announcement

[ᜂᜇᜒᜐ]

So what happens next after you enable it? I'm already friends with the person I wanna share the game with

[Der Kaiser]

Originally posted by Jinx.:

So what happens next after you enable it? I'm already friends with the person I wanna share the game with

Depends on which Family Share you are using.
If you are both in the new Steam Family BETA then its very easy.
Go into your client settings and create a Steam Family. Then simply send an invite to your friend to join your Steam family. After they accept they will be added to your Family group and you now automatically will share all your (eligable) games with each other.
Simple as that.

If you are not in the BETA and still using the old Family Share system its a bit more complicated.
In that case you need to login into each others PCs with your accounts , activate Family Share in the client settings and authorize the PC you are logged in for Family Share.
After that you can each go back to your own PC and the games of the other user should show up.

I STRONGLY recommend switching to the Family Group BETA though, its much easier, has less restrictions ( like in the old system you could not both play a game from the same library at the same time) and the old system will be abandoned when the new system leaves BETA soon.
Not much point using the old family share now.

[Weenar]

on the family sharing beta whats the difference between adding someone as a child and an adult?

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Gruchobot:

on the family sharing beta whats the difference between adding someone as a child and an adult?

All "adults" in a family group have the same rights, they can invite or kick other users from the group and even disolve the entire group.
So i would only invite people as "adult" you REALLY trust and know that they wont do anything like that against your wishes.
"Child" accounts are limited in their rights, they cant invite or kick anyone or change any of the group settings.
Any "adult" in the group also has parental controls over those members and can restrict which games they have access to or set playtime limits and such.
Its meant for what it says, children in a family.

But if you dont set any parental restrictions ( which are off by default) its pretty much the same as an "adult" member of the family minus the group rights.

[KASocial]

Hello, sorry if this isn't active anymore, but when I was going to add my friend it said he couldn't accept the invite to my family because he isn't in the same household as me. Is there a workaround for this?

[ᜂᜇᜒᜐ]

Originally posted by KASocial:

Hello, sorry if this isn't active anymore, but when I was going to add my friend it said he couldn't accept the invite to my family because he isn't in the same household as me. Is there a workaround for this?

thats weird? i have a friend who's far away from me(same country) and we managed to family share. altho we used the beta. i forgot tho. theyre not active on steam anymore so i cant say anything if things changed

[Yujah]

Originally posted by KASocial:

Hello, sorry if this isn't active anymore, but when I was going to add my friend it said he couldn't accept the invite to my family because he isn't in the same household as me. Is there a workaround for this?

Store-regions (as seen in the account settings) must match and it may be the case that a "recent" purchase from you, them, or both is needed to have the correct credentials as to such set Steam-sides.

"May" since people tend to not report back after trying it and/or the thread from that point on devolves into angry rants about how this should not be needed and how Valve is just scammers and blah and blooh and bleh, but perhaps it's still the issue.

"Recent" in quotes since I'd have personally no idea what the definition of that would be -- but perhaps it's still the issue.

[TheTruePride]

Hi guys, if I join the new beta steam family, will my old system family share connections disappear if they are not in the same family from the new system?

[miamew3]

Originally posted by TheTruePrideTTV:

Hi guys, if I join the new beta steam family, will my old system family share connections disappear if they are not in the same family from the new system?

The new steam families is no longer in beta....it is live.

[hgustavopr85]

Only for certain games though

[Yujah]

Originally posted by hgustavopr85:

Only for certain games though

Generally speaking a large majority though -- although (at least) not any game that uses (a) third-party account/DRM, and what with certainly AAA games basically all having gone there by now, yes, mileage varies depending on one's library. Generally speaking a developer/publisher can elect to exclude for any reason but I have myself never seen any do so for any other reason than the above, and in my own library only a few are not available for sharing.

FWIW it's easy to check whether or nor not a game allows family sharing on Steam via SteamDB. It's the "exfgls" flag in the metadata (and SteamDB explicitly mentions it just above the metadata table). F.e. https://steamdb.info/app/12210/info/ for a "No".