Learn how Steam Family Sharing works, set up a Steam Family, share simulator libraries, and fix missing games, DLC and household errors.
Steam Family Sharing now works through Steam Families: up to six people in one household can combine eligible Steam libraries while keeping separate accounts, saves and achievements. Create a family in Steam’s Family settings, invite household members, and accept the invitation. One person can use each owned copy of a game at a time.
The feature is now called Steam Families. It replaces the older system that required the owner to sign in and authorise each borrowing computer, so do not follow guides built around that method or share account passwords.
What does Steam Families share?
Steam Families shares access to eligible Steam game licences without transferring ownership. Each member signs in with their own Steam account and receives their own achievements, cloud saves where supported, Workshop subscriptions and playtime records.
Steam allocates individual game copies rather than locking an owner’s entire library. This matters for general flight- and train-simulation use: one person can fly a shared simulator while its owner plays a different game, but two people cannot launch the same simulator simultaneously unless the family owns two copies.
- Family size: one Steam Family can contain up to six members in total.
- Household rule: members must belong to the same household. Steam also applies country and account-activity checks.
- Separate profiles: saves and achievements normally remain attached to the person playing, not the game owner.
- Developer control: publishers can exclude games that cannot support sharing, including some titles tied to external accounts, subscriptions or product keys.
- No ownership transfer: leaving the family removes access to borrowed games.
How do you set up Steam Family Sharing?
The easiest setup is to create a Steam Family from the desktop client and invite every household member using their own account.
- Update and secure each account. Install the latest normal Steam client, sign in to the correct account and enable Steam Guard. Never give another family member your password.
- Choose an adult organiser. Use an account expected to remain in the household. Steam applies lengthy cooldowns when members leave or a vacated slot is reassigned.
- Create the family. Open Steam’s Settings, select Family, then choose the option to create a Steam Family. Menu wording can vary slightly between client layouts.
- Invite household members. Select the relevant Steam accounts and assign each person an adult or child role. Adults can manage membership and controls, so reserve that role for trusted household members.
- Accept each invitation. The recipient must sign in to their own account and accept through the Family page or Steam notification. An invitation does not override Steam’s household eligibility check.
- Check the shared library. Eligible games should appear automatically in the recipient’s Library. Select a title, install it and launch it from that person’s account.
- Configure child controls if needed. Adults can restrict games and Steam features, set playtime limits and approve purchase requests without letting a child use the adult’s account.
An adult who leaves is subject to Steam’s family-membership cooldown, and a vacated place may also remain unavailable before somebody else can fill it. Steam shows the relevant restriction dates in Family Management, so check them before removing anyone.
Can two people play a shared Steam game at once?
Two people can play different family games simultaneously, but each person playing the same title needs a separate owned copy.
| Family ownership | What members can do |
|---|---|
| One copy of Simulator A | One member can play Simulator A at a time. |
| One copy each of Simulator A and Game B | Two members can play the different titles simultaneously. |
| Two copies of Simulator A | Two members can play Simulator A simultaneously. |
Steam Families allocates available copies instead of giving the owner unrestricted priority over a copy already in use. If every copy is occupied, another member must wait or buy an additional copy.
Shared games can work in Steam Offline Mode when the title itself supports offline play. A simulator requiring an external login, permanent connection or online authentication does not become offline-capable through family sharing.
Why is a shared game missing or showing Purchase?
A missing shared game usually means it is excluded, marked private, owned outside Steam or unavailable because no family copy is free.
- Confirm where it was purchased. Only the Steam licence enters a Steam Family. A Microsoft Store, Xbox or standalone licence does not. Our explanation of how Steam and standalone DCS licences differ illustrates this distinction.
- Check the owning account. Make sure the family member you expect actually owns the title on Steam. For a practical example, see our instructions for choosing the correct Steam account and library when installing Train Simulator Classic.
- Check sharing eligibility. Developers may exclude games that use third-party keys, accounts or subscriptions. Steam identifies titles unavailable for family sharing in Family Management.
- Remove the private flag. A game deliberately marked private by its owner is not made visible to the family.
- Look for an available copy. If another member is already using the only copy, Steam may show that it is unavailable rather than offering
Play. - Refresh the client. Confirm that the invitation was accepted, then restart Steam or sign out and back in. Reinstalling the game is rarely the first fix.
- Check household eligibility. Different store countries, recent family changes or accounts that Steam cannot verify as one household may prevent joining.
Are simulator DLC, add-ons and Marketplace purchases shared?
Steam DLC may be available with the shared game copy, but external Marketplace purchases, subscriptions and account-bound add-ons usually remain with the account that bought them.
DLC belongs to a particular Steam copy. Where a family owns several copies with different DLC, Steam can expose copy-selection controls so a member can use the copy carrying the required expansion, subject to the developer’s sharing rules. In-game currency and items tied to an external account are not pooled.
Flight simulators often add another account layer after Steam launches the base application. For example, the Steam edition of MSFS 2024 has separate Microsoft-account and Marketplace considerations; our MSFS 2024 Steam Families guidance covers those restrictions directly.
Manually installed freeware is not a Steam licence and therefore is not shared by Steam Families. Files may remain present when two people use the same PC, but each simulator’s add-on folders, profiles and permissions still apply.
Do saves and control profiles remain separate?
Steam achievements and supported cloud saves remain separate for each Steam account, but not every simulator stores all settings through Steam Cloud.
Aircraft states, career progress, controller bindings and third-party add-on settings may instead live in a Windows user folder or an external simulator account. If two people use the same Windows login, those local files can overlap even though their Steam identities differ. Separate Windows user accounts and backups reduce that risk.
Can another family member’s cheating affect the owner?
Yes. Steam warns that if somebody receives a game ban for cheating while using another member’s copy, the owner of that copy can also be banned from that game.
Only add people from the same trusted household, use child controls where appropriate and never treat Steam Families as a temporary lending system for friends. The household checks, membership cooldowns and shared responsibility for bans are designed specifically to prevent that use.