Steam Shared Library only showing Buy Option even with all shared personnel offline
I recently had a friend share his library so I could play middle earth shadow of war. I downloaded it fine, but the button to play is only showing "Buy" instead of "Play". the current sharer is offline, and all people he is game sharing with are offline. Whenever I press "Play Game" from Right-click menu on the game, it says "An error occurred while updating Middle-earth Shadow of war (Shared Library Locked)" What is my problem?
This isn't a duplicate to This Post Because His problem consisted of the original sharer being online, mine is offline and nobody else he is sharing with is online.
Best Answer
The Knowledgebase says:
Shared library locked
This is an error indicates that someone else is using the shared library. A Steam library can only be used by one user at a time to play one game at a time. The same is true if that library is being accessed by another user via Family Sharing.
Most likely someone is playing in Offline mode and does not appear to be using it, but is. Not 100% sure if it's possible to be offline on chat and playing a family-shared game, but I'd guess so. Your friend who is sharing their library could launch a game and wait 2-3 minutes before exiting to kick them off in case it's running in the background accidentally or from a bug.
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Why does it say purchase on Steam Family Sharing?
Steam Family Sharing only allows you to play the game if the account the game is actually purchased under isn't active. It counts as active if anyone is playing any game in it.Why is Steam library sharing not working?
If you are getting the \u201dSteam Library Sharing Not Working\u201d issue, the first thing you should do is to re-authorise your shared library. To do this, open your Steam app and click on the \u201dSteam\u201d tab in the top left corner. Click on the \u201dSettings\u201d. Now, click again on \u201dDownloads\u201d.Does Steam library share work offline?
Steam has made sure that its gaming community can join and link with each other and have fun together. For that purpose, it has introduced a feature known as Family Sharing in Offline Mode. If a person has a Steam account and has bought a particular game, they can share the game with someone else.How to Share Steam Library With Friends (Steam Family Library Sharing)
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Answer 2
I've seen this bug multiple times; in every case, restarting Steam has fixed the issue.
It's also possible that he's "online but invisible", or that another family member under a different username is using the shared library.
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