Friends list pops up every time I start Steam, very annoying

[Gwarsbane]

Annoying behavior with the Friends list popping up even though I have it in offline mode.

Haven't found any place where I can turn that off (maybe I missed it), would be nice if it was optional, because at least some of us prefer to start Steam with it not popping up at all even if its online but specially if we start steam with it offline.

Windows 10 Pro
RX580 8gig (1080p with dual monitor setup)
16 gigs ram
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

[Kash]

I'm having this problem as well.

"Sign in to friends when Steam Client starts" setting is off.
"Remember my open chats" setting doesn't fix it whether on or off.
Closing the Friends List window, exiting Steam, waiting a minute, then restarting Steam doesn't fix it either.
This is happening with both the stable client as well as the beta for me.

Windows 10 Home Version 22H2 x64
Intel Core i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.71 GHz
8.00 GB RAM

[Spotty2010]

Same problem. Please at least give the option to disable it in settings. It's very annoying.

[Kip Killsagain]

Thanks to the OP! I was about to report this myself, but decided to look through recent bug reports... it's not just me.

Also, command line options added to the Steam client shortcut do not help.

[02lucy666]

Same issue here, could be OS related? I'm on W10 with the same issue and from what I could read thus far W11 has been exempt from this bug? (could be an anomaly or some just lucked out)

[No-Its-Fred]

Originally posted by 02lucy666:

Same issue here, could be OS related? I'm on W10 with the same issue and from what I could read thus far W11 has been exempt from this bug? (could be an anomaly or some just lucked out)

I had it briefly working in W11 from clicking around but the change did not survive a system reboot. I'm seeing the same behavior(not being able to prevent the friends list from showing) on W11, W10, and Linux(debian client) so I don't think it's OS related.