Friend appears offline, but isn't

[deusvulpix]

I'm trying to watch my brother play a game. I've never done this with him before and rarely interacted with him on Steam. In my friends list, it says he hasn't been online in 205 days, but he's definitely online playing right now. I thought he might have made a new account or something but then I opened his profile and it's telling me that he last played the game he said he's playing today. So he clearly is online and this is clearly his profile but for whatever reason I can't interact with him. He says I also appear offline to him. Restarting Steam didn't fix this.

[アインスリ]

Maybe he set his status to offline or maybe u are in offline mod or maybe its only a bug

[deusvulpix]

Neither of us are in Offline Mode, just checked. Removing him from my friends list and readding him didn't fix this.

[Idontluvyou]

i had this same problem, have you fixed this yet?

[deusvulpix]

Nope, no clue what else to try!

[Azza ☠]

Check if your brother's account is on "Offline mode", it will be under the Steam menu. Should say "Go Offline..." if you are actually online.

[deusvulpix]

He checked, we are both online, both of our clients say "Go Offline..."

[Gus Tarball]

Make sure both of your Friends menu at the top left show yourself to be Online, i.e. have a check mark beside 'Online'.

[WOZDOM]

Try to restart your steam.

[WOZDOM]

Or, check if you have accidently blocker one another

[deusvulpix]

We've both restarted Steam and neither of us have each other blocked.

[deusvulpix]

Any other ideas?

[76561198188152325]

Someone is offline on a tertiary device

[deusvulpix]

I don't think either of us have any tertiary devices...

[deusvulpix]

We would need to have it online and logged in on the tertiary device for it to have that effect, right?

I mean, I have an old laptop that was stolen a year and a half ago that I used Steam on but that's definitely be wiped or thrown in the trash. Is there a way for us to tell how many devices we're logged in on?