Multiple users in one iMac

[jmpmv]

Just bought my first Steam game (Portal/Portal 2 pack) with the intention of my kids being able to play on our family iMac. After hours of research, going through Steam help info and getting very frustrated I am no closer to achieving my goal. This whole Steam setup is the most unintuitive and convoluted way to install and play a game I have ever come across. OK rant complete, maybe ;)

I can open Steam and shortcut icons to the games were installed on my desktop when I purchased and installed the game.

I was almost successful in allowing other iMac users to play the games when I stumbled onto a method that might work (this method not mentioned anywhere in help I could see). We logged into my son's Steam account from my iMac user account. Steam prompted my son to send an email to me asking for permission to share games. I started to get excited! After hours of frustration we might have finally solved this riddle. Maybe this is part of the game itself I started thinking, maybe you have to solve a complex puzzle to work out how to play the game you just bought.

I checked my email and the request from my son was there. I accepted the request. I went back to my son's iMac user account and logged into Steam using his Steam account details. No sign of Portal anywhere. I'm pretty close to asking for my money back. This is a joke.

BTW there is no menu item named "Settings" anywhere that I can see. It is constantly referred to but I can't find it anywhere.

[jmpmv]

BTW, I just viewed my post and it has capitalised characters I did not. It has removed all paragraph formatting and added the word Steam in a place I did not type it. I also see a lot of what I assume is German language throughout the Website despite the language preference being English.

[videogames]

You have to manage the family sharing settings in your main account. Click Steam on your taskbar, go to Preferences > Family. There you can manage authorized accounts and set up Family View. Your can specify which games and content your son will have access to, or just enable access to everything.

[Teksura]

When you have Steam open, click on the menu at the top where it says "Steam". that is where you'll find the Preferences menu you're having trouble finding.


I don't know how much hard drive space you have, but let me know if you're interested in saving hard drive space by preventing redundant copies of the same game from being saved on both user accounts. Just like with a Windows system, you'd have to set up a shared file folder (Or set the games to be saved to an external drive). I can walk you through how to set this up, but there is no sense in bothering if it's not even going to be an issue for you.

[jmpmv]

Thanks videogames and Teksura. It seems pehaps "Settings" indeed does not exist, it is "Preferences".

Teksura, if you could walk me through your suggestion, that would be much appreciated. Why is the installation carried out in such a way that multiple copies of the game must be saved on the same computer if multiple users want to play? Do I have to manually move every game that multiple users want to play to avoid redundant copies? I would have thought having one copy of a game saved in a location available to all users would be a no brainer. Anyway, thanks for the help. This whole Steam ecosystem has me totally baffled.

EDIT - I now have authorized my two kids in family sharing. I worked out how to do this purely by chance. The method I used is not in the instructions. I had them login to their Steam account via my iMac user account. Then the process of getting sharing authorisation via an email sent to me began.

Anyway, after stumbling through that I now see our iMac listed in my Steam account family sharing settings and each of their usernames as authorized to share. However when they login to their user account on our iMac there is no Portal or Portal 2 launch icon to be seen anywhere. So in an attempt to play the shared games they login to Steam. However once again in the Steam GUI there is no sign of Portal or Portal 2 anywhere. Very confused. Wasted about 4 hours on this now.

[Teksura]

Originally posted by jmpmv:

Teksura, if you could walk me through your suggestion, that would be much appreciated. Why is the installation carried out in such a way that multiple copies of the game must be saved on the same computer if multiple users want to play? Do I have to manually move every game that multiple users want to play to avoid redundant copies? I would have thought having one copy of a game saved in a location available to all users would be a no brainer. Anyway, thanks for the help. This whole Steam ecosystem has me totally baffled.

As with any computer (Mac, PC, or Linux), files saved by 1 user (on their account) can not be accessed by another user using a different user account unless they are specifically shared. This is an account security thing. For all intents and purposes, Account A can't see the files downloaded by Account B. The games downloaded by Steam are only accessable locally, meaning to the account which originally downloaded them.

To change this, there are 2 methods. I've not specifically tried either of them myself since I'm the only one using my system, but in theory they should work.

Method 1: External Drive

This requires an external hard drive, obviously. Each user account on your system will all reconize the drive and as such everything on the drive can be considered shared files. The trick here is to make sure your downloaded steam games are on this external hard drive.

Step 1: Open Steam and in the menu options go to Steam > Preferences > Downloads and click the "Steam Library Folders" button. This should give you a window that looks like this.

http://i.imgur.com/e3Xz2Pl.png

As you can see, I already designated a folder on my external drive for this, though i haven't moved any games. I'm presently doing so and will let you know if i have any issues as a result of this (It'll take a few hours to transfer them).

You'll want to click "Add Library Folder" and add a folder on the external Drive for your Steam games to be saved to. You will need to repeat this process for all user accounts. Any games saved in that external drive should therefore be shared between accounts.

I am attempting to move my library over to my external drive and see if simply moving the folder over causes issues, but right now I just navigated to the Steamapps folder on my local hard drive, and simply moved the Common folder to the external Hard drive. I'll let you know how that works out, because it might cause problems. I honestly don't know.

Method 2: Setting up shared Folders

This is a little more complicated but arguably a better way to do it with less work in the long run.

Start by going into your Apple Menu > System Preferences > Sharing

This menu is where you set up file sharing.

Make sure File Sharing is enabled and click the + button under the Shared Folders. Navigate to your Steam Library folder, which should be found at /Users/AccountName/Library/Application Support/Steam

Add that folder to shared folders and repeat this process for all accounts. Now the Steam Library of every user account on your system is in a Shared folder, making it visible to all other accounts.


The next step is to ensure that Steam knows where to look. Follow the same steps I showed you above with the external drive, except this time locate those Steam Library folders you set to be Shared before, and add them all. You will need to repeat this process for each User account set up on your system.


You can verify this works by navigating back to your Steam Library Folders window, and check to see if anything is listed as installed on the other locations. Obviously, if you can launch Portal then you're also set.


Note that this means when you install a Steam game on 1 account it is then installed on all accounts. This is generally what you want anyway, but it will be important to make sure everyone is aware that when someone uninstalls a game, it will uninstall the game for all accounts as well.









Let me know how this goes. Honestly, I suggest Method 2. I'm pretty sure Method 1 requires manually moving files to the external drive every time you download a new game. At least, I've not figured out how to tell Steam "I want everything saved to the external drive by default and also move all of my Steam games over there please".


EDIT: Actually, at the point of installing there is an option on which of your library locations you wan to save the game. If you do the external drive option, all you really ought to need is to just tell Steam to download the games to the external drive. Turns out there is a drop-down menu I've always ignored when you tell it to download a game.

[kido00]

Hello! Can someone advise me how to use Family Library Sharing (on iMac)?

[Teksura]

Originally posted by kido00:

Hello! Can someone advise me how to use Family Library Sharing (on iMac)?

http://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing

[Teksura]

UPDATE: Moving my files manually did not work. It looks like you have to install the games to the external drive, and moving them may require uninstalling them and setting the install path to the external drive. There may be an easier way, but I don't know what it'd be.

[jmpmv]

Thanks for trying but I found the suggestions didn't work and/or were too complex. It shouldn't be that difficult to allow multiple users on your home computer to play a game purchased. This is getting a little ridiculous in my opinion.

I asked Steam for a refund and they rejected it because the game had been played for more than 2 hours (3hrs 51 min played). I hadn't even touched the game, this was playtime by my son under my username in my iMac account as we could not get access to the game in his iMac account despite it being "shared" with him by me in Steam.

I have now found that he can play the game using his Steam login, but only when he is within my iMac user account. All we need to do is allow him access to the game from within his iMac user account.

I am starting to think that maybe you have to download the game to every iMac user account that the game is to be played within. Is this correct? If so, this seems a waste of storage space.

I sent an email to Steam 6 days ago asking for help but have not received a response. I did note however that they rejected the refund request within a day. This is all quite frustrating. Some of the other games Steam offer look good, however based on my problems and customer support I could not justify further purchases at this stage.

[videogames]

Originally posted by jmpmv:

I am starting to think that maybe you have to download the game to every iMac user account that the game is to be played within. Is this correct? If so, this seems a waste of storage space.

Either that or have the game in a folder that's common to both accounts.
You can make new library folders via Preferences > Downloads > Steam Library folders. Make one somewhere both your accounts have access to, then move all the game files there.

[jmpmv]

Thanks for the advice, but I just don't have the knowledge required to follow your instructions. Where is the "Preferences" menu option you speak of? Where are the game files? I'll start there.

When one of the kids logs in to their iMac user account then into Steam, there is no sign of the shared games in Steam. So I can't even work out how they can download a copy of shared games to their IMac accounts, let alone access the game files I downloaded from within my iMac account. Totally stumped.

[panzerblitzer]

So ... any resolution on this? I can't seem to find one anywhere in the documentation to help me, either.

I have an iMac (and I'm relatively new to Macs). I have an administrator account. I have three kids who each have their own LOCAL machine accounts and their own Steam accounts.

Do they download/install Steam on their local accounts and sign into their own STEAM accounts? Will Family Sharing be enabled for this kind of setup? Multiple downloads of the same programs doesn't bother me, we have ample HD space. I'd like them to be able to play without logging into my LOCAL account, or have to get me to type in my password everytime they want to play something.

I think the problem the OP above had was that the LOCAL accounts were not seeing the other user's or the admin's Steam installs.

[Teksura]

Originally posted by panzerblitzer:

So ... any resolution on this?

Post #5 of this thread.


You then go on to describe an entirely unrelated thing about Steam Family Sharing, which probally should have been posted in its own thread. I suggest you read the doccumentation about that here.

Steam will need to be installed on each of your childrens iMac user account. They will log into them as normal. Family sharing does not automatically set itself up. You have to set it up as described in the doccumentation on the page I linked to.

[panzerblitzer]

In post #8 you mention you need a external hard drive to do all this? So, I can't simply share the folder Steam folder as in method #2 (which also seems to require an external HD)?

So, I can't do any of this without an external drive, in other words?

And I appreciate your help on this. Not only am I new to Mac, this User Admin stuff is something I've never attempted before.

[Teksura]

Post #8 was just an update on my attempt to simply move games to an external drive, which I said I'd give an update on when I described what I was attempting in post #5. It doesn't mean you require an external drive.



If your intent is to allow 1 download accessable to all accounts, thus eliminating the need for redundant downloads, then either method I described in post #5 is a valid option. You can either set your Steam downloads (all accounts) to the same folder on an external drive, or you can establish shared folders on the main hard drive.

I would suggest method #2, if you want to eliminate redundant downloads by allowing each download be accessable to all other accounts. However, going by the general feel of this, you may not have the knowhow to actually do that unless you went to the apple store, showed them this thread, and asked them to help set that up.


But you said the redundant downloads wouldn't bother you. So what exactly are you trying to do?