Steam Library Sharing

PiKe

PiKe

PiKe

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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So this appears to be live for everyone by going to Settings > Family.

In several places Steam refers to Friends and Family, does this mean we can share our games libraries between each other here?

Edit: Looks like you have to be physically present to log into your account on the authorized computer.
 
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No.

The shares are on approved machines only. I would log into my steam account on my home PC and enable steam family sharing, my friend then logs into his account on that same PC and requests to use my steam library. Once I approve that, he can then play most of the games in my steam library on that PC only.
 
So both can access the one Library, so long as each different machine is registered/approved by the Library account owner - But you cannot both play the same game at the same time?
 
Congrats on Steam for finding a way around the sharing 'across the internet' that this feature would have enabled. By making sure that the content owner has to be at the computer wanting to have the games means that it wont just be a massive free for all system, which would have been bad for everybody in the long run and is in fact exactly what it sets out to do by making it genuine friends and family only.
 
Only one person can play a library at a time, so if you share your library, you can't play a game on your own library.

That to me somewhat undesirable.

ttaskmaster said:
So both can access the one Library, so long as each different machine is registered/approved by the Library account owner - But you cannot both play the same game at the same time?
Click to expand...

That isn't true ;

Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.
Click to expand...
 
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What Martini1991 says is correct. You can be logged into your account on another device for example... but you cannot play a game from your library without it booting your friend off the game they were "borrowing" (It gives them a countdown before kicking them).
 
I suppose Teamviewer would accomplish the same as physically being at another computer.
 
Martini1991 said:
Only one person can play a library at a time, so if you share your library, you can't play a game on your own library.

That to me somewhat undesirable.



That isn't true ;
Click to expand...

A caveat that I think would be reasonable in this case is to allow sharing of individual games across LAN only, to ensure that you're sharing them with friends and family at home.

I can understand the reluctance not to allow individual game sharing across the internet.
 
But if it's anyone I know\trust, I'd just let them use my account offline (brother for example) meaning we can both play, my girlfriend often plays games on the laptop or pc, then I'll go offline and play on what's not in use, allowing us both to play steam games.

So, I really don't see any use personally to myself, but can perhaps understand why one might use it, but it's certainly limited.
 
how is this exactly supposed to work?

I set up my sons computer as allowed in family sharing.
shared all my games.

he still needs to log into my account anyway to see my games?

does the sharing have to go both ways?
 
Each user will have their own Steam account and can request access to someone else's library, meaning each user signs into only their own Steam account.


eg

Steam Account User A requests permission via Steam client to gain access to Steam Account User B's library. If Steam Account User B hasn't already given permission to 10 other devices or 5 other accounts and trusts Steam Account User A to authorise access to them then they will have access to the shared library when Steam Account User B isn't using their own library.​


I don't think the sharing goes both ways unless the request process is repeated in the opposite direction.

You would only want to share with people you actually know as the last point in the following link points out that the original library owner is responsible for the conduct of those using their library.

http://store.steampowered.com/sharing/
 
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Just had a look on mine once client had updated but it doesn't seem to be working here either.

I think you have to sign in to each device with the Steam account you want to share the library of on. However, when trying this here it doesn't then pick up the user accounts on that machine that you want to authorise. Not sure if its looking for Windows user accounts or Steam user accounts on authorised machine. I know I have Steam Guard enabled so not sure why it's not working, maybe it doesn't like W8.
 
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I assume when you do things on an other device other than your own it will pick up other Steam accounts present on that device.
 
thenewoc said:
I assume when you do things on an other device other than your own it will pick up other Steam accounts present on that device.
Click to expand...
its stupid how complicated it all is.

looks like what I've done is actually allow his account to share games on MY computer but not his as it doesn't show up in the list of "manage other computers" like you would expect.

I'll have to go to his mums later and try to get it working again... ironically steam says I last shared my library today but doesn't say who accessed it... probably because he just logged into my account because it's far damn easier than this crap

they should have done it so you just sent them a share request but I guess this way stops people sharing games with people they don't trust
 
They've broke it anyway *shrug*
The moment they locked down the library it was a waste of time, people will continue to use steam in "offlone mode".

Utterly pointless locking the whole library to one user at a time, if you loan an xbox or PS game to a friend that doesn't mean you can't play any of your other games. The lock should have been title specific, that way there would only ever be one "licensed copy" or a game at any one time.

Shoudl've been done just like the trade system, but titled the "borrow" system.
Click on a friends profile, look thru library hit borrow, license transferred.
 
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