Offline/Online glitch?? :: Help and Tips

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PROXIGEN_[572] Mar 27, 2015 @ 8:09pm

Offline/Online glitch??

I check my frends time played, says something like 5hrs ago,
check it like 30min later and says they were online like 10min ago
then i check there game history and it says they played like 2 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ games that day
dont understand why plz help

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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments

MrMcSwifty Mar 27, 2015 @ 8:15pm

It's not glitched. They just didn't sign into Friends.

Steam will still track their play time and what time they logged off, even though they will appear offline to anyone else.

Look. Im posting this while "offline" right now. :P

Last edited by MrMcSwifty; Mar 27, 2015 @ 8:16pm

PROXIGEN_[572] Mar 27, 2015 @ 8:59pm

can you explain the concept of not logging into frends?

MrMcSwifty Mar 28, 2015 @ 5:56am

Of course. You just... don't log into Friends? Or alternatively, you can set your status to Offline in the Friends window and it will do the same thing. ;)

If you go into your Steam settings, under the Friends tab, you can uncheck the "automatically sign into friends when I start Steam" checkbox. This will do exactly that: it won't sign you into Friends unless you specifically tell it to (via the VIEW FRIENDS LIST button at the bottom right of the Steam window)

Why would anyone do this? I dunno.. a variety of reasons probably.

For me, my Steam runs pretty much 24/7, and I don't really need to be signed into Friends with people thinking I'm online or in a game or whatnot, sending me messages and wondering why I'm not replying.

So I just don't sign in unless I'm specifically looking to talk to someone, or to play multiplayer and such. There's just no reason to.

So because of that, my profile will often times say I haven't logged in for days, even though technically I've been online the entire time. Steam only records the time you last logged OFF of your profile... not ON.

This is why your friends' Steam profile will seemingly randomly report that they were online just a few minutes ago, with play time and achievements and everything recorded, even though they appeared offline to you the entire time.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope now you have a better understanding of how it works. :)