Steam hide games from family sharing

Q: Can you hide what games you play on Steam from friends?

The simplest way to hide what youre playing is to set your Steam accounts online status to Invisible. This setting is accessible from the Friends and Chat menu, and it hides your status from everyone while active.

Q: Can people see your hidden games on Steam?

After hiding games from Steam chat, your friends wont be able to see what you are playing now, but this information is visible on your Steam profile.

No that’s how it works. You can’t have 2 people playing 1 persons library of games at the same time. Is stupid as fuck and I wish they changed it.

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Can you hide what games you play on Steam from friends?
How do I turn off family sharing for certain games?
Can people see your hidden games on Steam?

Linus815

Member

Oct 29, 201714,869

Oct 16, 2021

i wouldnt call it useless, but yeah, thats how it works.

notusingthis

Member

May 31, 2019111

Oct 16, 2021

i think you should both be able to play something from your library if you set your steam to offline mode

IDontBeatGames

ThreadMarksman

Member

Oct 29, 201710,384New York

Oct 16, 2021

That's exactly how it works. You can play any game she owns as long as she's not playing a game at all and she can play any game you own as long as you're not playing a game at all. It's dumb as hell and it should be better by now but no, you're not doing anything wrong.

Lakeside

Member

Oct 25, 20178,525

Oct 16, 2021

You are doing it right and it is useless in many cases. I thought it simply wouldn’t let 2 family members play the same game simultaneously but nope.

I just started gaming on PS5 instead so we could share more easily.

Cronen

Member

Oct 27, 20172,081

Oct 16, 2021

You're loaning your library to the second user to use

Deleted member 15476

User requested account closure

Banned

Oct 27, 20175,268

Oct 16, 2021

The family share feature works well only in the case where both family members play on the same device. Otherwise it becomes clunky and requires scheduling from both parties.

Lakeside

Member

Oct 25, 20178,525

Oct 16, 2021

Cronen said:
You're loaning your library to the second user to use
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They could have easily allowed this at the game level. We have 3 PCs in the home and it is useless.

starblue

Member

Oct 28, 20171,607

Oct 16, 2021

I see :(

Welp I guess I will play games from Gamepass when she uses my steam library

Thank you !

aett

Member

Oct 27, 20171,813Northern California

Oct 16, 2021

Is the Steam Deck going to work the same way? We preordered one for my wife and were going to use my account because of all the games I've bought over the years, but if it means I can't play something on PC while she's on the handheld...

Deleted member 15476

User requested account closure

Banned

Oct 27, 20175,268

Oct 16, 2021

aett said:

Is the Steam Deck going to work the same way? We preordered one for my wife and were going to use my account because of all the games I've bought over the years, but if it means I can't play something on PC while she's on the handheld...
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It's more or less a PC running Steam, so yes.

Static

Avenger

Oct 25, 20175,769

Oct 16, 2021

Better than useless, worse than perfect. I and my friends have gotten a tremendous amount of utility out of it over the years.It will naturally be a lot less useful to you if you and your fellow steam account sharer intend to game mostly in the same window of time.

aett

Member

Oct 27, 20171,813Northern California

Oct 16, 2021

itsamiracle said:
It's more or less a PC running Steam, so yes.
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Ah well, not a deal breaker.

Mifec

Member

Oct 25, 201715,828

Oct 16, 2021

starblue said:
The thing is...I can't play any steam games if she is playing any other game from my library...which makes this function useless..., is same is she was using my account...
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You can if you go offline.

Nooblet

Member

Oct 25, 201712,171

Oct 16, 2021

The owner can play the games in offline mode. That said there's no reason why they shouldn't allow two people to play at the same time while online if they can allow for that if the owner is offline and the borrower is online.

But yes it's a bit of a clunky system, and losing access to the library despite not doing anything is a frequent annoyance.

reddragon220

Member

Sep 7, 2019116

Oct 16, 2021

starblue said:
I'm missing something or there is any way to play two different games from the same shared library ?
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Two people can access the library games of one account holder simultaneously if the original account holder plays offline. You can engage offline mode by clicking Steam -> Go Offline... in the top left hand corner of the window. Of course when playing offline that player will not have access to any online content in most games.

I do wish that steam library lending was on a per game basis, but it's the best that valve will allow at the moment.

spineduke

Moderator

Oct 25, 20178,213

Oct 16, 2021

Problem is if they open it up any further, there will be a huge jump of publishers blocking family share (they have the discretion to do that).

XR.

Member

Nov 22, 20185,427

Oct 16, 2021

Lakeside said:
They could have easily allowed this at the game level.
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Of course they can but publishers would never be ok with that.

TheMadTitan

Member

Oct 27, 201721,118

Oct 16, 2021

Linus815 said:
i wouldnt call it useless, but yeah, thats how it works.
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If not useless, very close to it.

It should be at a per game basis and then developers should be able to flag their games individually so if they want, their titles can be played simultaneously by the owner and the person(s) it's being shared with. That would be great for fighting games and co-op titles.

Yeah, you can use remote play for that technically, but if Sally is using my stuff and I'm at work, and then I come home and want to kick Sally's ass in Tekken, I'm sure it's far less straight forward than me booting up the game while Sally's still playing and linking together in private matches.

Facism

Member

Oct 25, 20172,511

Oct 16, 2021

yes it's a shame you can't be online at the same time, but at least you can go offline mode if you're playing singleplayer stuff.

Stoney Mason

Member

Oct 25, 20173,579

Oct 16, 2021

I use to do it with a friend who lived on another continent so it was mildly useful in that case but it pales in comparison to how xbox handles it. And I assume playstation.

TheMadTitan

Member

Oct 27, 201721,118

Oct 16, 2021

XR. said:
Of course they can but publishers would never be ok with that.
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Why wouldn't they be okay with two people playing entirely different games on the same account?

And to go a step forward, you should be able to flag specific PCs -- it's not like Valve doesn't know the specs of our primary systems -- to have access to the library off-line too.

If I have two kids who also play PC games, buying the same game three times is stupid.

JustTeaThankYou

Member

Aug 31, 2019748

Oct 16, 2021

Yeah it's terrible. I presume the millisecond epic has a similar feature Steam's will magically get better.

najaschade

Alt-Account

Banned

Oct 13, 2021123

Oct 16, 2021

It's obviously not a technical reason, it's a business reason. Letting anyone just share games as much as they want is not something publishers want, if it was, we wouldn't have DRM and online activations for games.

It is already pretty generous that they added family sharing in the first place, expecting more is incredibly unrealistic.

XR.

Member

Nov 22, 20185,427

Oct 16, 2021

TheMadTitan said:
Why wouldn't they be okay with two people playing entirely different games on the same account?
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Because it may decrease sales if you allow people to borrow games without any restrictions. Sharing accounts has always been a thing and is a difficult thing to control, but sharing specific digital licenses within a service is rarely, if ever, a thing because that has completely different connotations.

FernandoRocker

Banned

Oct 25, 20177,987México

Oct 16, 2021

Wow. Didn't know this.

Even Nintendo has a better system than Steam. WTF.

Lakeside

Member

Oct 25, 20178,525

Oct 16, 2021

XR. said:
Of course they can but publishers would never be ok with that.
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Make it like PS4 where you have a home PC and the family can share that. Maybe we are the minority but zero chance we buy the same game twice on PC so we just move to consoles more and more.

People in this thread saying it can’t be done and acting like it isn’t already being done in console ecosystems right now. I built a gaming PC for each of my kids and I bought thousands of Steam games. We should be able to easily share them. Hell, they could lock it to these devices or the same public IP.

AwakenedCloud

Member

Oct 27, 20171,618

Oct 16, 2021

It's incredibly useful as long as you're not playing games on Steam at the exact same time. You can even share games with friends using it.

Cheesetriangles

Member

Dec 5, 20171,059

Oct 16, 2021

Devs can also block games from being shared. Feel like it would happen a lot more if they broadened it's use.

XR.

Member

Nov 22, 20185,427

Oct 16, 2021

Lakeside said:
Make it like PS4 where you have a home PC and the family can share that. Maybe we are the minority but zero chance we buy the same game twice on PC so we just move to consoles more and more.

People in this thread saying it can’t be done and acting like it isn’t already being done in console ecosystems right now.
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I mean I could see that being a possibility, but it's a bit different when Sony has complete control of the device their customer is using vs. a versatile PC of any hardware configuration

Lakeside

Member

Oct 25, 20178,525

Oct 16, 2021

XR. said:
I mean I could see that being a possibility, but it's a bit different when Sony has complete control of the device their customer is using vs. a versatile PC of any hardware configuration
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I fail to see how it is different. Steam can flag an individual device with no issue. There are several approaches that would work.

Volgihn

Member

Oct 25, 201775

Oct 16, 2021

I wish it worked the same way it works on xbox.

Pheace

Member

Aug 23, 20181,322

Oct 16, 2021

Family Sharing came around at the same time they were doing the Steam Machine thing. I think it was largely intended to allow multiple people to easily use that device and let them use their own accounts for progress/savegames/achievements. They never really did much with it after the Steam Machines tanked.

Static

Avenger

Oct 25, 20175,769

Oct 16, 2021

Lakeside said:
Make it like PS4 where you have a home PC and the family can share that.
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The problem with that, if I recall correctly, is that your home PC then becomes the only place where you can play games offline. Fuck that. Not a worthwhile tradeoff. As a console gamer maybe that makes sense. As a PC gamer it absolutely doesn't.

ehhsobee

Banned

Nov 11, 201995United Kingdom

Oct 16, 2021

Letting people share their library on a per-game basis sounds super exploitable. Key selling websites would sell sharing on accounts and could let out their entire library, which would affect indies and triple A games. They already did it with the PS4 and it was rampant until Sony took the sites down themselves. PSNGames.org redirects to Sony's website now. funnily enough. Family sharing as it is now is fine and I'm not sure what all the hate is about. If you have a friend with a huge library, you can play whatever you want as long as they aren't playing at the same time.

headspawn

Member

Oct 27, 201712,501

Oct 16, 2021

When I set it up I assumed it was going to work like a cleaner version of Xbox game sharing and yeah, big disappointment there if that's what you were expecting.

Stoney Mason

Member

Oct 25, 20173,579

Oct 16, 2021

nancsett said:
If you have a friend with a huge library, you can play whatever you want as long as they aren't playing at the same time.
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I don’t really care as I don’t game on PC anymore but I personally would have found it useless if I didn’t share with somebody who was on a completely different continent than me and separated by 6 hours at the time. Otherwise it requires a level of coordination, I don’t find compatible with how I like to game. But to each his own. PC gaming certainly has other benefits like frequent sales and such. But the family sharing on steam wasn’t something that was especially useful for me outside of a very specific context. But if that’s how they wanted to handle it, that’s fine.

Lakeside

Member

Oct 25, 20178,525

Oct 16, 2021

Static said:
The problem with that, if I recall correctly, is that your home PC then becomes the only place where you can play games offline. Fuck that. Not a worthwhile tradeoff. As a console gamer maybe that makes sense. As a PC gamer it absolutely doesn't.
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You need to think outside the box a bit. There's no reason a brand new concept of a "home PC" or whatever for the family needs to be tied to offline mode.

Not sure I get the "console gamer" reference at all. Does the PS4 or some other console rely on an offline mode to share games? Not that I'm aware of.

XR.

Member

Nov 22, 20185,427

Oct 16, 2021

Lakeside said:
I fail to see how it is different. Steam can flag an individual device with no issue. There are several approaches that would work.
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There's a difference because Sony can ensure that you can't easily exploit the system by infinitely sharing their games, while Valve can't due to the nature of PC being open.

Last edited: Oct 16, 2021

Jaded Alyx

Member

Oct 25, 201731,093

Oct 16, 2021

Stoney Mason said:
I use to do it with a friend who lived on another continent so it was mildly useful in that case but it pales in comparison to how xbox handles it. And I assume playstation.
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And Nintendo for that matter.

Lakeside

Member

Oct 25, 20178,525

Oct 16, 2021

XR. said:
There's a difference because publishers can expect that Sony ensures that you can't exploit the system by infinitely sharing their games. Valve can't do that since it's much easier to spoof any form of ID for offline usage on PC.
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They could leave the bit that's in place now, but add the per-game by requiring:

-Owner of account must use Steam Guard and log into each PC that's to borrow games
-All PCs doing the sharing must be online and broadcasting from the same public IP
-Limit the family size to 3 or whatever, some small number

Can it be spoofed through some means that most people would never attempt? Maybe, but so can anything else.

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church

Member

Oct 24, 201730,288

Oct 16, 2021

It's not useless, my SO and I use it all the time.

starblue said:
I see :(

Welp I guess I will play games from Gamepass when she uses my steam library

Thank you !
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You can still use it, just do this:

notusingthis said:
i think you should both be able to play something from your library if you set your steam to offline mode
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I got to play Disco Elysium, Doom, and Doom Eternal all this year thanks to Family Sharing, and if my SO needed to play his games, he just opened Steam in offline mode so I could play at the same time. Voilà.

diablogg

Member

Oct 31, 20172,564

Oct 16, 2021

I thought someone couldn't "borrow" your library if you were offline

Dragon1893

Member

Oct 25, 20174,898

Oct 16, 2021

It has been very useful for me, I play games from my brother's account all the time and vice versa, our gaming time usually doesn't overlap.

TitanicFall

Member

Nov 12, 20176,754

Oct 16, 2021

The assumption is that you share the same computer so you'd never be playing at the same time. That being said, you can both play if you play with Steam offline.

DonnieTC

Member

Apr 10, 20192,151

Oct 16, 2021

Yep, that's how it works. I like the way Stadia does it much better. You can add up to 5 people to your family account and all of you can be on and playing at the same time (just not the same game unless that person owns it in their library as well). Granted it is a purely streaming service.

Last edited: Oct 16, 2021

Pellaidh

Member

Oct 26, 20172,479

Oct 16, 2021

It's pretty bad in that regard, and also kind of broken when it comes to sharing DLC. At least it used to be, but I don't think it was ever fixed.

Basically, if your wife's account doesn't own the base game but you do, you share the game and all of the DLC. However, if she owns the base game, then you can't share the DLC at all - she'll have to buy it. This particularly sucks for base games that are free, since everyone owns those by default and this makes DLC sharing impossible.

Free DLC is also not supported. If you're playing a game from a shared library, there's no way to share free DLC content (because free stuff isn't shared). For example Warhammer Total War has a bunch of free stuff that's inaccessible with family sharing.

Unicorn

One Winged Slayer

Member

Oct 29, 20177,815

Oct 16, 2021

For me it's constantly de-linking and that's what makes it useless as I constantly have to pester folks to do the whole process again and again

Can you hide what games you play on Steam from friends?

The simplest way to hide what you're playing is to set your Steam account's online status to Invisible. This setting is accessible from the Friends and Chat menu, and it hides your status from everyone while active.

Remove from Family Library..

Open the Google Play app ..

At the top right, tap the profile icon..

Tap Settings Family Family Library settings..

Select Apps & Games, Movies & TV, or Books..

Tap Don't add automatically, I'll do it myself, or Add items automatically when purchased Yes, I'm in..

Can people see your hidden games on Steam?

After hiding games from Steam chat, your friends won't be able to see what you are playing now, but this information is visible on your Steam profile.