Instead of launching steam and then selecting the game I just tried launching the game via:
setsid steam steam://rungameid/427520 &
After waiting a short while i went into library and clicked the factorio 'icon' (not the actual start button inside that menu) .... as i did so the game started. Maybe the timing is unrelated, but it felt like it was a result of my entering the menu to view its stop/play button's status.
It's all very random.
Confirmed: thats exactly whats happening.
Apparently while waiting to fail to cloud-update (despite that being globally disabled), simply by entering the library and then the Factorio entry it immediately starts the game.
3 test cases - the last one succeeds:
KDE application menu > games > steam
Factorio > PLAY
"Preparing to launch Factorio" ...indefinitely
steam > exit
"Finishing steam cloud sync" ...indefinitely
"EXIT NOW"
steam exits
steam &
Factorio > PLAY
"Preparing to launch Factorio" ...indefinitely
"CANCEL"
steam > exit
"Finishing steam cloud sync" ...indefinitely
"EXIT NOW"
steam exits
steam steam://rungameid/427520 &
"Preparing to launch Factorio" ...indefinitely
KDE system tray > steam icon > Library > Factorio (no, i do not even press PLAY/STOP - i simply enter the Factorio panel...)
game immediately starts
https://gist.github.com/BETLOG/e374b32291819f7fd44024808537d1ee
https://gist.github.com/BETLOG/00eba8f8f1287e7953ea94dbe37a3bcb
Also having the same issue on Ubuntu KDE and EndeavourOS. Cannot cloud save and Steam refuses to sync
I have the same problem on Steamdeck and it's so aggravating. It's even worse than being unable to launch other games that use steam cloud. On my steam deck if a game is syncing via steam cloud I literally cannot open anything even external programs that I've added manually added into steam.
While steam cloud was taking eons yesterday to sync my factorio save games I simply attempted to open the external to steam application Moonlight. Moonlight would not load, but I've had steam cloud issues in the past so I put Steamdeck in airplane mode and bam moonlight loaded immediately. I tested this 3 times to be sure.
Expected behavior:
Steam should NEVER block you from opening a program because it's syncing the cloud save of another unrelated game. This is clearly a terrible implementation and has really pissed me off on several occasions.
Sometimes I take my Steamdeck into the garage and want to walk on the treadmill while I play slay the spire, and more than half a dozen times I have to pop the Steamdeck into airplane mode just to launch a game because Steamdeck is too busy choking on a cloud sync. Unbelievably inconvieniant when you factor in that Valve enables steam cloud by default and there's no easy way to individually manage a large library of games. So you're left painstakingly going through and turning steam cloud off on games that you happen to notice it gets hosed on or you shut it off globally (which sucks for anyone with a pc and a steam deck)
Steam cloud sync should be controllable like game downloads. Let us see what's syncing in a queue and pause it, in addition to fixing the aforementioned bug.
Nothing extracted yet.
Your system information
Jun 18 2022, at 00:17:34
Kubuntu 20.04
Yes
Yes
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
expected
Factorio complete or timeout on cloud sync, or obey settings>cloud>disabled setting, and start the game.
did happen
Factorio displays 'Preparing to launch Factorio' indefinitely (45 minutes at last attempt). In one case it did start after 5 minutes. Otherwise it has been impossible to start the game at all.
Disabling or enabling cloud in steam settings or game settings, in any combination, does not help.
My entire .factorio directory is 115Mb, so its not a case of user-impatience', it's simply not doing it at all, nor obeying the 'no cloud' setting.
Steps for reproducing this issue:
There seems to be a bunch of other similar older issues, but I'm not sure this is the same as them. Seems someone resurrected an old bug in a slightly different form.