Family Sharing - Can't see authorized users?

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_yumeshiro Mar 4, 2014 @ 5:46pm

I personally went through the settings ritual (Steam - Settings - Family - Authorize This Computer) of three different accounts, on three different computers, and all are online.

Here's the problem:

Computer A can't see any authorized users aside from computer D (a completely different user outside of the other two). Computer B can't see any users at all. Computer C can see computer B.

What is going on here, and why can't these authorized computers properly see each other?

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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments

Mr. Beef Mar 4, 2014 @ 6:10pm

I'm having a similar issue, man. I can't find anything about it either. Just news posts everywhere about how much family sharing is unnecessary or awesome. My friends are having the same issue too.

_yumeshiro Mar 4, 2014 @ 6:46pm

It's certainly odd, considering the amount of people using it. Here's to hoping that they can get this sorted out quickly.

Last edited by _yumeshiro; Mar 4, 2014 @ 6:48pm

Miss Fortune Mar 4, 2014 @ 7:40pm

From what I understand, there are two different permissions that have to be given: account authorisation and device authorisation.

Have each one of you logged into your respective Steam accounts on all the 3 computers, in order to authorise each device to share your libraries locally with the authorised accounts?

_yumeshiro Mar 4, 2014 @ 7:58pm

As I said in the OP. All in my group have been authorized--in order for computer A to allow access to B and C, they would have to see A first. And that is the problem; they can't see A.

Miss Fortune Mar 4, 2014 @ 8:53pm

I think we're having a problem of communication, I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding you :)

When you say "Computer can't see (...)"/"in order for Computer to allow (...)", do you mean "User"?

You authorised specific USERS to access your Games Library. However, if the only authorised DEVICE on your Steam account is your own computer, then they will only be able to access your Games when they log in to their Steam accounts on your computer.

Basically, you all have to have logged in on each other's computers at least once to do this.
The Family Library Sharing is done locally, because it's assumed that the people doing the share are in the same family/home. So, for the users in your group to be able to access your Games on their own computers, you have to log into your Steam account on each of their machines and authorise their computers/accounts.
And for you to see their Games on your computer, the users in your group all have to log into their Steam accounts on your machine at least once and authorise your computer/account to access their Games Libraries.

(I hope I'm making sense, haha)

If you and each one of the other users already did all of the above, my apologies for not being more helpful :)

Last edited by Miss Fortune; Dec 6, 2017 @ 1:21pm