Is it possible to help someone else recover their account?

[QuartzBear]

So, I have what I believe to be a somewhat unique situation. I have a friend that was not very good at preserving their passwords, relying on everything being saved on their computer. Of course, as inevitably happens, their computer died and they lost their entire digital life. Believe me I have more than sufficiently berated them for being careless, but I want to help them somehow.

Of course, I know it's possible to recover one's steam account by giving the credit card information that was used to purchase games, however this person has never made a purchase themselves. It's always been free to play stuff or games gifted by others (probably mostly me). If he ever registered a card on Steam it's so long ago that it's not one he has anymore.

Honestly, I'm not holding out too much hope, but I'm wondering if there might be something in the pattern of gifted games that would prove it was his account. I'd appreciate any ideas that anyone might have, both on alternative ways to prove ownership and how to reach support with these alternative ways.

Any help is appreciated.

[nullable]

Your friend needs to make a support ticket and go through the recovery process and provide the evidence requested. Not much point trying to pre-game, bypass the process or invent your own solution. Won't work.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/3944-4D89-1B3E-27DE

He's hardly the person to lose access to an account, it's not rocket surgery.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1126288560

[Teksura]

One of the first options they give you is to recover through email. So they just need access to the email account linked to their steam account.

[QuartzBear]

As I said, they lost their "entire digital life". That includes email. So what you're saying is he's simply screwed.

[miamew3]

Originally posted by QuartzBear:

As I said, they lost their "entire digital life". That includes email. So what you're saying is he's simply screwed.

Tell him to take his time and read the guide....
As long as he knows the account name he can try recover it, the guide posted shows what options to pick if he doesn't have access to the email/phone number, ect.. that is linked to the account.

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by QuartzBear:

As I said, they lost their "entire digital life". That includes email. So what you're saying is he's simply screwed.

All he needs is his account name + some proof of ownership (like e.g. cd-key that he activated on his Steam account). Email, phone number could be changed but this one is eternal (thanks to Valve coding).

[Teksura]

Originally posted by QuartzBear:

As I said, they lost their "entire digital life". That includes email. So what you're saying is he's simply screwed.

What I'm saying is he needs to recover his email.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Originally posted by Teksura:

Originally posted by QuartzBear:

As I said, they lost their "entire digital life". That includes email. So what you're saying is he's simply screwed.

What I'm saying is he needs to recover his email.

And that depends on the email provider (ISP, gmail, etc)