How to Family Share on Steam

Introduction

Steam family sharing makes it possible for you to give other people the ability to access and play your Steam game library at no additional cost. You can give someone else the ability to play your Steam games using their account on your computer, and to play your Steam games on their account on their computer. The biggest catch is that you both won’t be able to play games from the library at the same time. The other catch is that you you can only authorize up to 10 devices to access your Steam game library, and five other Steam users. Examples of all instructions in the steps can be seen in the YouTube video below.

Steps to Family Share on Steam

1. Launch the Steam app on your computer. Click “Steam” in the menu along the top of the home screen to open a drop-down menu.
2. Click “Settings” in the drop-down menu. The Settings window opens.
3. Click “Family” in the menu on the left side of the Settings window. The Family options appear on the right side of the window.
4. Click to place a check mark next to “Authorize Library Sharing on this Computer” in the Family Library Sharing section. That section will expand to display other accounts that have logged into the Steam app on this computer. If you don’t see the Steam account you want to share your Steam game library with, that person needs to log into their Steam account on your computer to appear in this list.
5. Click to place a check mark next to any Steam account you want to share your Steam game library with. That user will now be able to play Steam games you’ve purchased when logging into their Steam account on your computer. If you want someone to be able to access your Steam game library and play those games from a different computer, keep going through the following steps.
6. Have the user you chose to share your Steam games with launch Steam on their computer and click to view the information screen for one of your shared games. They need to click “Borrow” on that screen. A dialog box appears giving them the option to request access to play your games on their device.
7. Have that person click “Request Access” in that dialog box. The window changes to show a preview of the message that will be sent to you where they will request access to play this game on their computer. They should click “Send Request.”
8. You’ll get an email from Steam Support informing that you have a new Steam family sharing request. Launch Steam on your computer, and then navigate back to the Settings window. Click “Manage Other Computers” in the Family Library Sharing section. The Manage Family Library Sharing screen is displayed. On the top part of this screen you’ll see a list of computers authorized to play your Steam games.
9. Find the device associated with the family member who wants to access your Steam games on their computer, and then click “Accept” to authorize their computer to play Steam games from your account. That person will automatically have access to install and play Steam games you’ve purchased on their account on their computer.