How To Share Steam Library On Different Computers?

Steam is a video game distribution service. Using Steam, users can access tens of thousands of games instantly, with automatic updates. In addition to allowing players to play with each other and store their progress in games online, you can also share the Steam Library with other users or other devices through family library sharing. In this article, we will discuss how to share the games on Steam Library on different devices while keeping the accounts separate. 

Steam Library Family Sharing

While you can easily sign up for your account on multiple devices and access all the games you play on the platform, it can become tricky if you want to share your game with another account on the Steam Library. To facilitate this, Steam has introduced a feature called “Family Library Sharing”. 

Here, the platform makes it possible for a user to give his family members, access to his game. They can play the game independently and earn their Steam achievements. Steam also allows users to store the progress of each device individually on their cloud. Let’s see how a user can set up their own Steam Library family sharing. 

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How to Set Up Family Sharing? 

To share your games with different computers, you need to set up family sharing. There are two recommended ways to do this. You can either grant someone permission to your games, or you can request permission from another user to their game. Beware that both the participating accounts need to enable Steam Guard to set up family sharing. 

Here is a step-by-step guide for sharing your game with another computer: 

1. Log in to your Steam account that has the game you would like to share with another computer. 
2. Verify that the Steam Guard security is enabled on your account by going to Settings > Security. Enable Steam Guard on the device you want to share your game as well. 
3. Once you have enabled Security Guard on both devices, open the side panel of Steam and click on the “Family” tab. Here you can select other users to share your library with. But they also need to be logged into the computer you are using.
4. On the family tab, you will find the option that says “Authorize Library Sharing on this device”. Toggle the switch on. 
5. Below “Eligible Accounts”, you will find all the accounts logged in from the device toggle the switch next to them to allow them access to your library. Steam allows a user to share their library with up to 5 users. 

You can also request access from the owners. Follow the below instructions to request access to the library of another user: 

1. Log in to your account and enable Steam Guard. 
2. Go to your library, and the games owned by other Steam accounts on the device. 
3. Select a game and click “Borrow”. 
4. A confirmation mail will be sent to the owner. 
5. The game owner needs to click on the link in the confirmation mail. 
6. Once the owner has given you access, you can access that particular library from your account. 

Games that Cannot Be Shared

You can share your entire game library with other computers. However, some games can’t be shared through family sharing. Games that concur with the below-mentioned criteria can have technical difficulties in sharing: 

• If the game needs an additional third-party key, an account, or a subscription might not be available for sharing. 
• Games that belong to the Steamworks partner accounts are not available for sharing. 
• The free-to-play games and their downloadable content (DLC), do not appear on the shared library. 
• Games or DLC restricted in the device that the library is shared to, will not appear. 
• The games that the owner is banned from playing cannot be shared with another person or computer. 
• If the game is not supported on the receiver’s operating system cannot be shared through family sharing. 
• Games that the borrowed account already owns. 

Important Factors of Steam Library Family Sharing

The Steam Library family sharing allows users to share their library with other computers while keeping the accounts separate. However, there are some important factors that the users should be aware of, before turning on the Family Sharing. Such as: 

• To share the library with another account, both accounts need to be logged in from the same computer, in addition to the computers that they are already logged in to. 
• A Steam user can only have their library with up to 5 other members on up to 10 devices, in 90 days. 
• The DLC (downloadable content) of a free-to-play game cannot be shared with other users. 
• Only one player can play the games in a shared library at a time. Even if the borrower and owner are trying to play different games. 

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Conclusion

Steam is a great way to play games and store the progress. It allows users to share the library with other computers while keeping the accounts separate through Family Sharing. In this article, we have explored how you can enable Family Sharing and share your library with other devices. You may cancel sharing any time you want from the “Manage” option you can find on the Family Sharing tab.