Question regarding Steam Family and Friends functionality

Lysander on 30/05/2015 - 11:06

Hello all,

I have the following question:

If I share my Steam library with two friends/family members who each access the shared library on a separate computer, can they play different games from my library using the sharing functionality while I also play a different game or can only one person at a time have access to the library regardless of whether the same game is played?

Example:

Person A plays Darksiders
Person B plays STALKER
Person C (owner of library) plays Monaco

all at the same time but of course on different computers. Is that possible?

Also, can I nominate my family member living in NZ or another country or does it have to be in same town/country?

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Comments

  • cashews on 30/05/2015 - 14:13

    Unfortunately one person per library.

  • Lysander on 31/05/2015 - 16:12

    Does anybody know if it works across countries? That question is not answered on Steam.

  • Brouw3r on 03/06/2015 - 17:53

    From steam page

    Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?

    No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

    Can region-restricted content be shared across regions?

    No, any region restrictions will remain in place when lending or borrowing content.

    • Lysander on 03/06/2015 - 18:35

      I understand that. But that is not the question.

      Can I authorise say my son who is in England to have access to my library and then also play the library when I am home in Australia? Or can I only authorise family residing in the same country?

      Also, the access by one user at a time - does that refer to being online or also offline?

      Can I play a game in my library offline while another family member can play online?

      • GoldPhoenix0 on 04/06/2015 - 19:56

        Can I authorise say my son who is in England to have access to my library and then also play the library when I am home in Australia? Or can I only authorise family residing in the same country?

        Yes, although you do need to log into their computer to enable family sharing for their account. I don't think there are any issues about where the computers are located.

        Also, the access by one user at a time - does that refer to being online or also offline?

        Users can see the shared libraries no worries, but only one user can play a game linked to the host account on that library. Another note is that the owner of the game library has priority over the games, giving the other user 5 minutes to finish off what they are doing. Games owned by both users do not count as shared, so both users can access those games at the same time no worries (which seems obvious). If a 3rd user wants to play a game on the shared library, if any other users (owner or other family shared computer) are already playing on the library, they will be refused access to the game until no one is playing a game on the game library.

        Look at below answer for the online/offline thing.

        Can I play a game in my library offline while another family member can play online?

        As long as steam doesn't know you are online (e.g. Offline Mode or with no network connection), there shouldn't be any issues with both playing the games at the same time. This does mean you cannot play Multiplayer games with each other, but Single Player games should be fine. I believe it doesn't work the other way around though, so they must be online.

        Hope this helps, although I am assuming some of the above information, so don't take it as verbatim.

  • FrankMcFuzz on 05/06/2015 - 08:18

    Last time I fiddled around with this, steam didn't like the same account being online in two places at the same time, but I think this has changed. I think you can now stream-play from one PC hosting that account as long as it's turned on and logged in, but… That doesn't answer OP's question!

    I think it's been answered above, but as long as the steam account thinks it's offline it'll work just fine and dandy!

  • Lysander on 05/06/2015 - 17:49

    Great. Thank you. That answers my questions.

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