protonscr

Family sharing repeated request for access

steamclosed reviewed
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#4051 · opened 2015-10-03 by rcorre · updated 2025-07-05 · 30 comments · github
Rrcorre 2015-10-03 github

I have been able to play family-shared games on my desktop for months now.
Recently, when I try to play a shared game, I see a dialog telling me I need to request access.
If I click 'Request Access', it shows the message it will send, pre-filled out with my friendly machine name.

Clicking 'send request' prints

We've discovered that the owner has already authorized this device for game sharing. You're all set.

If I click play again, it just shows the same series of messages again.
This happens with every shared game, even ones I've been able to play before.

System Information:

Processor Information:
    Vendor:  GenuineIntel
    CPU Family:  0x6
    CPU Model:  0x3c
    CPU Stepping:  0x3
    CPU Type:  0x0
    Speed:  3700 Mhz
    4 logical processors
    4 physical processors
    HyperThreading:  Unsupported
    FCMOV:  Supported
    SSE2:  Supported
    SSE3:  Supported
    SSSE3:  Supported
    SSE4a:  Unsupported
    SSE41:  Supported
    SSE42:  Supported

Network Information:
    Network Speed:  

Operating System Version:
    Linux (64 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  4.1.6-1-ARCH
    X Server Vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server Release:  11702000
    X Window Manager:  awesome
    Steam Runtime Version:  steam-runtime-release_2015-06-12

Video Card:
    Driver:  NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2

    Driver Version:  4.5.0 NVIDIA 352.41
    OpenGL Version: 4.5
    Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
    VendorID:  0x10de
    DeviceID:  0x13c2
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  2
    Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
    Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Primary Display Size: 18.78" x 10.55"  (21.54" diag)
                                            47.7cm x 26.8cm  (54.7cm diag)
    Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
    Primary VRAM: 4096 MB
    Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
    Audio device: Intel Haswell HDMI

Memory:
    RAM:  7854 Mb

Miscellaneous:
    UI Language:  English
    LANG:  en_US.UTF8
    Microphone:  Not set
    Total Hard Disk Space Available:  88570 Mb
    Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  20971 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:

Llemonadecbc 2016-01-10 github

I have this exactly same issue on SteamOS and Ubuntu 15.10. For some reason can't use family sharing on Linux unless I start up at the same time Steam on other PC running Windows.

Rrcorre 2016-02-06 github

Any updates? Still seeing the same issue.

Ooprypin 2016-02-09 github

I had this problem on two completely different computers with Arch Linux. The previous one was 1.5 years ago.

Sharing actually worked well for a while, then later another person authorized my computer to play their games, but I was unable to see any of their games, and shortly afterwards the games of the previous person that were already shared with me stopped working as well - only the installed ones showed up and I couldn't play them or authorize (exactly as described above).

System specs

Processor Information:
    Vendor:  GenuineIntel
    CPU Family:  0x6
    CPU Model:  0x5e
    CPU Stepping:  0x3
    CPU Type:  0x0
    Speed:  3900 Mhz
    4 logical processors
    4 physical processors
    HyperThreading:  Unsupported
    FCMOV:  Supported
    SSE2:  Supported
    SSE3:  Supported
    SSSE3:  Supported
    SSE4a:  Unsupported
    SSE41:  Supported
    SSE42:  Supported

Network Information:
    Network Speed:  

Operating System Version:
    "Arch Linux" (64 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  4.4.1-2-ARCH
    X Server Vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server Release:  11800000
    X Window Manager:  KWin
    Steam Runtime Version:  steam-runtime-release_2015-06-12

Video Card:
    Driver:  NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2

    Driver Version:  4.5.0 NVIDIA 361.18
    OpenGL Version: 4.5
    Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
    VendorID:  0x10de
    DeviceID:  0x1401
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
    Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
    Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Primary Display Size: 18.78" x 10.55"  (21.54" diag)
                                            47.7cm x 26.8cm  (54.7cm diag)
    Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
    Primary VRAM: 2048 MB
    Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
    Audio device: 

Memory:
    RAM:  15983 Mb

Miscellaneous:
    UI Language:  English
    LANG:  en_US.UTF-8
    Microphone:  Not set
    Total Hard Disk Space Available:  403045 Mb
    Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  212586 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:

Rrcorre 2016-02-09 github

I actually got this working!
The family member signed in on my machine, de-authorized it, and authorized it again.
It's been working for a few days now.

On February 9, 2016 2:51:50 PM EST, Oleh Prypin [email protected] wrote:

I had this problem on two completely different computers with Arch
Linux. The previous one was 1.5 years ago.

Sharing actually worked well for a while, then later another person
authorized my computer to play their games, but I was unable to see any
of their games, and shortly afterwards the games of the previous person
that were already shared with me stopped working as well - only the
installed ones showed up and I couldn't play them or authorize (exactly
as described above).

System specs

Processor Information:
   Vendor:  GenuineIntel
   CPU Family:  0x6
   CPU Model:  0x5e
   CPU Stepping:  0x3
   CPU Type:  0x0
   Speed:  3900 Mhz
   4 logical processors
   4 physical processors
   HyperThreading:  Unsupported
   FCMOV:  Supported
   SSE2:  Supported
   SSE3:  Supported
   SSSE3:  Supported
   SSE4a:  Unsupported
   SSE41:  Supported
   SSE42:  Supported

Network Information:
   Network Speed:  

Operating System Version:
   "Arch Linux" (64 bit)
   Kernel Name:  Linux
   Kernel Version:  4.4.1-2-ARCH
   X Server Vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
   X Server Release:  11800000
   X Window Manager:  KWin
   Steam Runtime Version:  steam-runtime-release_2015-06-12

Video Card:
   Driver:  NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2

   Driver Version:  4.5.0 NVIDIA 361.18
   OpenGL Version: 4.5
   Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
   Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
   VendorID:  0x10de
   DeviceID:  0x1401
   Number of Monitors:  1
   Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
   Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
   Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
   Primary Display Size: 18.78" x 10.55"  (21.54" diag)
                                        47.7cm x 26.8cm  (54.7cm diag)
   Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
   Primary VRAM: 2048 MB
   Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
   Audio device: 

Memory:
   RAM:  15983 Mb

Miscellaneous:
   UI Language:  English
   LANG:  en_US.UTF-8
   Microphone:  Not set
   Total Hard Disk Space Available:  403045 Mb
   Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  212586 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:

Steam Support basically told me to use Ubuntu 12.04...


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/4051#issuecomment-182031988

Ooprypin 2016-02-09 github

Well, my situation is still hopeless. Just like the last time I had this, nothing helps. I tried steam --reset, authorizing from scratch and some other stuff that Steam Support suggested.

Worth noting that I never had problems on Linux Mint (KDE) and Windows.

Mmaweki 2016-02-23 github

I have the same issue on vanilla Fedora 23. I am able to play my games but not share them to my Dad's account.

Mmaweki 2016-02-24 github

I resolved it.

@BlaXpirit you might try it in this particular order

Library of 1 shared to 2

  1. Logged in as 2 (FS doesn't work)
  2. Log in as 1
  3. de-authorize PC
  4. Log in as 2
  5. steam --reset
  6. Log in as 2
  7. Log in as 1
  8. re-authorize PC
  9. Log in as 2

Then it worked for me

Llemonadecbc 2016-02-24 github

@maweki This workaround did not work on my Steamos installation.

Bbluej100 2016-03-11 github

For me, this was finally fixed as soon as I enabled Steam Guard on both accounts.

Uundeference 2016-03-11 github

For me, this was finally fixed as soon as I enabled Steam Guard on both accounts.

Steam Guard has been on the whole time for both accounts, all three times this has happened

Ddodomorandi 2016-05-14 github

I am still having this issue. I tried the reset procedure and it did not work. Steam Guard was active since long time. If you have any ideas, please help!

Ddodomorandi 2016-05-15 github

@undeference Unfortunately it did not work. One thing I could try to do is to completely remove the steam folder, but I would lose everything... Instead, what will happen if I try to manually delete everything but the steamapps directory? Would steam recognize my "old" library?

ZZlopez 2016-06-07 github

@dodomorandi You can copy your steamapps folder to somewhere else. Then reinstall your steam and copy steamapps folder back. I did this few times as a backup when reinstalling system. But I suggest to first delete any game with DRM that has limited amount of activations. Otherwise you will lose one activation.
Some games are downloading some missing parts, but it's much less data then download everything again.

Ddragetd 2016-06-16 github

I have been stumbling over this very same issue since years now. Frustrating to read about it on the forum and also here. Some random authorization/de-sharing/restarting whatever eventually fixes it if the sun and moon align in the right way until the next time it randomly breaks again.

Sad to see no improvement on this for such a long time. meh

Ddodomorandi 2016-06-16 github

I just had the possibility to perform the complete deletion&reinstallation. Wow, it worked!!! Thanks for your suggestion, @Zlopez!!

FFrancesco149 2016-07-02 github

same issue here on gentoo, steam --reset did not help.

Computer Information:
    Manufacturer:  Unknown
    Model:  Unknown
    Form Factor: Desktop
    No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:
    CPU Vendor:  GenuineIntel
    CPU Family:  0x6
    CPU Model:  0x3c
    CPU Stepping:  0x3
    CPU Type:  0x0
    Speed:  4000 Mhz
    8 logical processors
    4 physical processors
    HyperThreading:  Supported
    FCMOV:  Supported
    SSE2:  Supported
    SSE3:  Supported
    SSSE3:  Supported
    SSE4a:  Unsupported
    SSE41:  Supported
    SSE42:  Supported
    AES:  Supported
    AVX:  Supported
    CMPXCHG16B:  Supported
    LAHF/SAHF:  Supported
    PrefetchW:  Unsupported

Network Information:
    Network Speed:  

Operating System Version:
    Linux (64 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  4.4.6-gentoo-weeb
    X Server Vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server Release:  11704000
    X Window Manager:  JWM
    Steam Runtime Version:  <Runtime disabled>

Video Card:
    Driver:  X.Org Gallium 0.4 on AMD PITCAIRN (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.5.0)

    Driver Version:  3.0 Mesa 11.0.6
    OpenGL Version: 3.0
    Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 119 Hz
    VendorID Not Detected
    DeviceID Not Detected
    Revision Not Detected
    Number of Monitors:  2
    Number of Video Cards Not Detected
    Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
    Desktop Resolution: 3840 x 1080
    Primary Display Size: 20.91" x 11.77"  (23.98" diag)
                                            53.1cm x 29.9cm  (60.9cm diag)
    Primary VRAM Not Detected

Sound card:
    Audio device: Loopback Mixer

Memory:
    RAM:  15602 Mb

Miscellaneous:
    UI Language:  English
    LANG:  en_US.utf8
    Microphone:  Not set
    Total Hard Disk Space Available:  150137 Mb
    Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  56705 Mb
    VR Headset: None detected
Uundeference 2016-07-07 github

Now family sharing isn't working at all for me. Even https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/4051#issuecomment-182035855 fails

Ddragetd 2016-07-12 github

Does 'reviewed' label stand for 'ignored'?

@Plagman Can we have at least some feedback that this problem was acknowledged and will be eventually looked at some time?
Or what information is needed to look into this.

I vaguely remember more people reporting issues on the forum. Here is one example:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/412446890548107586/

Hhevanaa 2016-08-02 github

Family sharing suddenly stopped working. It asks for authorizing and then comes the dreaded message "We've discovered that the owner has already authorized this device...". De-authorizing and authorising again doesn't work. I'm stuck now and the kids are unhappy.

I'm on Fedora 24 and family sharing has worked for a long time. A couple of years ago we had trouble with family sharing too (same problem), but at that time de-authorizing and authorizing helped.

Ddragetd 2016-08-14 github

@Plagman poke

Bbastafidli 2016-08-27 github

My family sharing stopped working as well in the same way as @hevanaa. This is on Ubuntu 16.04. Deauthorize and authorize computer didn't work at first.

Then I remembered I enabled Steam Mobile Guard Authenticator on the main account. The second account doesn't have Steam Mobile Guard. I have disabled it on the main account. Then deauthorized all users and all computers on the main account. I logged in to the second account and deathorized all users and all computers. I logged in to the main account and authorized the computer and user. Then on the second account I authorized the computer and users. Now it works.

Rrcorre 2016-10-09 github

Stopped working again, and this time the de-authorize/re-authorize trick didn't work. Any progress on fixing this?

Hhevanaa 2017-01-04 github

Family sharing suddenly works again on linux without doing anything special. I will check version and verify on another PC.

Ddragetd 2017-01-04 github

@Plagman poke

Hhevanaa 2017-01-04 github

Yes, indeed, looks promising. It just works now. This is on Fedora 25 with steam-1.0.0.54-2.fc25.i686 from negativo17.org repository. But it has also worked in the past, so it would be nice if this bug could have been confirmed and confirmed fixed.

Rrcorre 2017-01-05 github

Working for me after a complete uninstall (including the removal of ~/.steam and ~/.local/share/Steam).
As @hevanaa mentioned, this has worked in the past only to stop working again after some time.

MManagor 2025-05-28 github

This shouldn't be valid any more with the reworked family sharing.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2025-07-05 github

Closing as outdated.