Steam Family Sharing is a feature that allows Steam users to share their games with 5 friends and family members. To make this feature work, the game owner must first enable Family Sharing in their account.
They can then share access to their games so that friends and family members can play them from their accounts. Accounts that play games created in this way can continue to receive achievements and save their own progress in Steam Cloud.
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What causes family pairing to fail in Steam?
Usually, this can happen if the configuration for sharing games in Steam was done in the wrong way. There may be software issues or even connection errors that prevent Steam Family Sharing from working.
If you too have experienced Steam Family Sharing not working for any reason, read on. In it, you’ll find several technical solutions for making the Steam Family Sharing feature work comfortably.
How to solve the ‘Steam Family Sharing not working’ issue?
Perform an SFC scan
- On your computer, press the Windows key and R to open the “Run” dialog box.
- Then type cmd in “Run” and press the following combination: CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER to run the command prompt with administrator privileges.
- Finally, type the following command at the command prompt and press Enter: sfc/scannow.
Allow Steam through the firewall
- On the Start menu, find “Windows Security.”
- Go to Firewall and Network Protection.
- Click on Allow application through the firewall.
- Then authorize Steam for public and private networks.
- Finally, reboot your computer.
Restore the corrupted game
- Open Steam.
- Go to the LIBRARY section.
- Right-click on the game and select Properties.
- Then go to the LOCAL FILES section and click on CHECK GAME FILES FOR INTEGRITY.
Resetting the Winsock directory
- Press Windows + R and type cmd in the Run dialog box.
- Press Enter to open the command prompt.
- Type netsh winsock reset at the command prompt and press Enter to run it.
- Restart your computer to complete the process and restore Steam.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is family sharing not available on Steam?
Shared games are only available on devices authorized by the account holder. Shared games are not available even on an authorized device if the account holder's library is being used on another computer.
How do I enable family sharing on Steam?
To enable family library sharing, first make sure that you have enabled Steam Guard via Steam -> Settings -> Account in the Steam client. Then enable sharing through Settings -> Family (or, in Big Picture mode, Settings -> Family Library Sharing), where you will also allow sharing to certain computers and users.
How do I restart Steam Family Sharing?
Open the Steam Settings menu. Switch to the Family tab on the left side of the window that opens. Click Manage Family View and select Disable Family View in the Family View window. Confirm your selection in the next window.
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