How to Family Share on Steam?

Steam offers anyone the ability to share every single game they possess in their library with other family members. This doesn’t have to limit you to share with only family members, as you can do the same with some of your closest friends and other people that you trust and care for.

The way Steam Library Family sharing works is that you give access to other Steam users who share the same computer as you do, most commonly other members of your family. By doing so, they can log into their own account, get access to your games, and play them for free without having to purchase them separately.

However, this will prevent you from playing those games on another PC at the same time as them. Conversely, you can work around this on Steam offline games only, as games that require an internet connection are off-limits.

How to Family Share with Other Steam Accounts?

The process is quite simple, as all you have to do is change your Steam name to something normal before you go ahead and share it with your family and then tweak a few settings to give them access to your game library.

What you will want to do is log into the account that will be giving access to other users. Click on “Steam” at the top right corner of the Steam app and click on Settings. In the navigation panel on the left, click on Family and check the box that says “Authorize Library Sharing on this computer”. Then, click on “OK”.

family share on steam

How to Get Access to Family Shared Libraries on Steam?

The second part of this process follows the user that will be receiving the shared libraries on Steam. What they have to do is log into their account on the same computer that you shared the library and go to Settings. First, do the same process as we did before and check the “Authorize Library Sharing on this computer” tab.

Then, wait a few seconds until another panel that says ELIGIBLE ACCOUNTS pops up below that, giving you the Steam usernames of the accounts that have shared their library. Once it pops up, check the tab in front of the Steam name and click on “OK”.

shared libraries on steam

After doing everything and following all the steps we’ve shown here, you will instantly gain access to every game the other account has shared. As you can see, you aren’t required to share your Steam ID or anything similar but you are required to activate Steam Guard on both accounts. Without it, you won’t be allowed to activate Steam Family Sharing. Once you’ve done all that, you can enjoy playing every single game that’s in the other Steam account’s library free of charge.

About The Author

Stole Trishanski

Ever since Stole was a kid, when he wasn’t playing video games he was probably in some corner disassembling any gadget he could get his hands on. His curiosity and will to learn made him into a huge tech nerd and enthusiast. Finally, after years of practice, learning, and breaking hundreds of gadgets Stole is helping others learn everything about tech.

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