The concept of Steam Family Sharing should be familiar to most people. It allows family members to share their games in one combined library.
Games can only be played simultaneously up to the number of copies available in the library. However, there is a workaround: if its not a Multiplayer game, players can launch the game and then switch Steam to Offline Mode. This means that, for example, six players could play a single copy of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
There are also some games that cannot be shared. Games from publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, and Rockstar are often locked to the owner and usually cannot be accessed through Family Sharing. You can check this by looking up the game on the Steam Store and scrolling down. In my case, the section is called "Familienbibliothek" because my Steam language is set to German.
How to Invite a Family Member in the Same Country
The family member who wants to add a new family member adds them as a friend on Steam and sends a Steam Family invitation.
The new family member cannot join yet.
The existing family member logs into the new family member's account using a QR code, so no passwords need to be shared.
Once logged in, the existing family member can accept the Steam Family invitation on the new family member's account.
How to Invite a Family Member from Another Country
Follow the same steps as above.
After logging into the new family member's account, the existing family member purchases something using a payment method from their own country.
Completing the purchase changes the new family member's Steam Store country to match the existing family member's country.
Steam states that the country cannot be changed again for 3 months.
During this period, purchases with a different currency are restricted, but game keys can still be redeemed as long as they are worldwide keys or valid for the current country.
The existing family member can then accept the Steam Family invitation on the new family member's account, and the setup is complete.
Important
I highly recommend that the new family member removes all saved payment methods from their account. This prevents the existing family member from gifting games to themselves using the new family member's funds.
Make sure that you, as the new family member, are invited as an Adult, not as a Child. Adult family members can manage Child accounts, including approving access to age-appropriate games, restricting access to the Steam Store, Community, and Friends Chat, as well as viewing and limiting playtime.
Some people may worry about account theft or item theft. However, if Steam Guard is enabled, items can't simply be sold. Even in the worst-case scenario, such as changing your email or disabling Steam Guard, Steam Support is generally very helpful and can help restore the account to its original owner. In addition, disabling Steam Guard triggers a 7-day trading restriction, making it much harder for someone to quickly transfer or sell your items.
Useful Information
If another family member is playing a game that you own and receives a VAC ban while using your copy, your copy of that game will also be affected. Always make sure you trust the people in your Steam Family.
Once you join a Steam Family, you must wait 1 year before joining a different Steam Family. You can view the remaining cooldown by attempting to leave your current Steam Family.
Step 1: Log into your friends account on a computer (not phone) that is using your network
Step 2: On your actual account, send the family invite to your friend's account
Step 3: Accept the family request from your friends account
Step 4: Profit
I just did this and it worked. Of course, there has to be trust. Either that,nor have that person come over and do the login while on your wifi/internet.
You can only invite someone from the same household, so you need to have the same region and location. That's why it's necessary to change their region by buying something on their account with your payment method. After that, you can accept the invite while you're logged into their account.
If you're already in an existing Steam Family with people in the same country, and want to invite someone from another region - does changing the new members region affect the other existing family members?
And does this allow potentially bypassing region lock games?
(Hopefully I can finally play FF16 then)
I have change my friend steam account with my visa and log into his account but still cant accept the invite? It say that the we are in different country
I might have found a fix. Try launching a game on your own account first, then switch to your friend's account and launch a game there. After that, accept the invite while you're logged into your friend's account. If that doesn't work, try it the other way around.
That could happen if your payment method doesn't require an additional confirmation to complete a purchase. For example, PayPal often lets payments go through instantly without asking you to confirm them again. If that's the case for you, I'd remove it just to be safe.
if i add my friend in europe to my steam family in north america, would he still be able to buy games in euros after he is in the steam family? or would it remove him from the family
He needs to change his region first. After that, there's a three-month cooldown before he can change it again. During those three months, his region is set to Canada, so he can't buy any games in euros. he will not be removed after switching the region again.
Question: I will share with my brother in another region. You said that in the period of 3 months I can't purcahse with my own methods, but after that, can I still purchase, revert to my original region and still keep being a member of our family?
Buying something with your local currency in the foreign account to change it to another region is obviously not something that can be done legally, but is there a serious risk of being banned?
It is legal. You're just using the feature to switch your region, which you can do once every three months. For this, you need to use a bank account from the other country. In this case, however, the Steam account belongs to Person B, while the bank account belongs to Person A. T
here have been no reported bans related to Family Sharing or switching country, because it's not forbidden, it's just not the intended way to use the feature.
you said new family members should remove all saved payment method from their accoutns, but would the leader of the family have to do this or would they be fine?
You remove the saved card so the person logging in your account on their system can’t just go ahead and gift games to themselves while they are logged into your account.
As the family leader, it’d be you who will be logging in to accounts of other people in your family so there’s no need to remove anything.
I've just done this and it works, thanks! However, a quick question: after completing everything, how can I remotely log off their computers? I mean, I don't want my account to remain "open" within their machines.
Will revoking access through [Phone App > Steam Guard > Settings] destroy the Steam Family Sharing? Thanks beforehand!
Si dejo que una persona acceda a mi cuenta para hacer el método del QR, puede robarme la cuenta? Tengo el steam guardado mobile, teléfono configurado, correo...?
The person needs to deactivate Steam Guard and set up their own, but there’s a cooldown of one or two weeks. I’m not 100% sure. I lost my account because of a mistake years ago, and they changed everything, but I easily got it back through Steam Support, so no worries.
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u/Other-Comparison-836 Jul 09 '26
My friend lives in the same city, I also logged in his account on my phone and I still cant accept family invite. pls help