Simply trying to add a phone number has become a month-long ordeal

[Deputy Divergey]

Sorry if there had been a post about this already, I was unable to find one and thought that sharing my experience may help others in the future and possibly help myself get a resolution.

My trouble started with the Steam Mobile Authenticator a few months ago when I broke my old phone and had to get a replacement. Upon trying to log into the steam app on the new phone, it required a Steam Guard code that I could only get from the old phone. After over a week of talking to steam support, they finally removed my phone number from my steam account.

When I tried to re-add my phone to my account, my phone would not receive any verification code texts from steam although it will receive them from any other company, and other people on my same plan receive steam codes, so it seems that my number has been blacklisted.

After being told that I could use either the e-mail or the mobile authenticator, I chose to use the e-mail as my phone was not working for the previously stated reasons. I then waited the 15 days that steam trade banned me for removing a phone number under the assumption that after the 15 days, I would be able to trade regularly using my e-mail. Today, my trade ban ended, and I went to make some trades that I have been eagerly waiting to make, only to find out that those trades will be held for another 15 days because I have not been using the mobile authenticator for a week.

I just tried to add my family member's phone number to my account, only for the 'Next' button to stay greyed out. Upon another attempt, this time on a desktop web browser instead of the steam app, I was told that I need to wait another week to try to add a phone number to this account.

TL;DR Steam has made me wait weeks and jump through hoops because they have a flawed verification system and misleading information, that only leads to more waiting and hoop jumping.

[Matt]

What phone are you using? Is the phone number the same as before?

[Deputy Divergey]

Publicado originalmente por Matt:

What phone are you using? Is the phone number the same as before?

iPhone 6s and yes it is the same number

[Matt]

You have the Steam app on the new phone and able to login? You tried going through the wizard for adding Steam Guard and the phone number through the mobile app?

[Deputy Divergey]

Publicado originalmente por Matt:

You have the Steam app on the new phone and able to login? You tried going through the wizard for adding Steam Guard and the phone number through the mobile app?

I was unable to log in to the mobile app until they removed my phone number. Now that they've done that, I am able to log into my account on the app, but am unable to add a phone number, or therefore use the mobile authenticator

[Matt]

So do you get an error message or something? It's possible there is a restriction on the number since it was recently removed.

Since the phone number on the new phone is the same as the broken phone (aka carrier just moved the number to a different SIM card), there was no reason at all to remove it from your account. Not sure if you asked Steam to do that or if they just did it on their own. But that was unnecessary. Steam Guard is tied to the hardware, not the phone number.

[Deputy Divergey]

Publicado originalmente por Matt:

So do you get an error message or something? It's possible there is a restriction on the number since it was recently removed.

Since the phone number on the new phone is the same as the broken phone (aka carrier just moved the number to a different SIM card), there was no reason at all to remove it from your account. Not sure if you asked Steam to do that or if they just did it on their own. But that was unnecessary. Steam Guard is tied to the hardware, not the phone number.

All that I did was inform them that i was unable to log in because i could no longer get the steam guard code (because i had to be logged in to do that...) and they just removed my number without asking if thats the course of action i wanted to take.

[Matt]

In the future, just transfer the Steam Guard:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8625-WRAH-9030&l#transfer

[Deputy Divergey]

Publicado originalmente por Matt:

In the future, just transfer the Steam Guard:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8625-WRAH-9030&l#transfer

that wouldn't work for me because I couldn't receive the texts. I tried multiple times before contacting support