Can't enable Steam overlay

[jcorax]

Posting anew because the thread that search turned up was closed three years ago.

Turns out I have to enable the dang Steam overlay to subscribe to the game I am playing. When I open the game properties window, and look at the slider for enabling it, it is disabled.

How do I enable the Steam overlay for my game, when the widget doesn't work?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Make sure overlay is enabled. Steam settings > In-Game > Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.

If you turn it off per game, turn it back on if want it back on.
Right click on game in Steam library > click on properties > click on Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.

That all there is to it, if you're using anything else to hook into game to cause conflict which may be why it not working, or unless you're using 3rd party app to mess with steam files, and permissions that something you have to look into. Lastly if this is for NON-Steam game depending on how you add it, may, or may not work depending on if it using it own launcher to launcher the game, which you have to use target command to have steam overlay target the game itself, and not the game launcher.

[jcorax]

Well I figured out the secret global switch on top of the per-game switch. Would be nice to have a little comment or tooltip there letting you know why the switch is enable. Or, better yet, when you click the switch to turn it on, you get asked if you want to enable the overlay globally (invidual games still need to have it enabled, yadda yadda). As things are it's just a hostile user experience.

Of course, once I did do that, the overlay doesn't work, at all. Doesn't respond to any keyboard or mouse input except shift+tab to remove it. It only happens with my game on the external display. I have filed a bug report about that.