Can someone help with Steam's Family View

[CPA]

Okay, so here's where I'm at with Steam's Family View:

- I have signed up with the Steam Family Beta Group
- I have my settings set to participate in the Steam Beta Update.
- I have a sign-in icon on the top right of my Steam page. However, the icon is of a single character instead of the family character as depicted in several FAQs
- I have to use my Family View Pin in order to see my Steam settings (I hate this btw)
- In settings, I have "Family" and can manage "Family View"

Now, this is where it gets confusing to me
- the "Family View" settings only allow me to change access restrictions to functions, like "Library Content" and "Online Content & Features"
- Under "Family Library Sharing", I see nothing. There is NO dropdown box to select other computers to allow access to my library.

I've searched on my predicament, but nothing has been helpful. I can't tell if I don't have permission from Valve yet to use the Family View system or this is a local issue with router settings.

There's talk about being accepted into the Beta (receiving an email). If that hasn't happened, why do I have all of the Family View functionality up to the sharing of my library? Family View is no use to me if I can't share my library.

If it's my router, what the hell settings do I need to have? I haven't seen any discussion of Steam forums about having proper router setups, so I've been assuming that the sharing is handled through Steam's servers (but I really don't have a clue).

So, to sum up, I have all Family View functionality - PIN, Access Settings - but no way to allow someone to use my library. What am I doing wrong?

 

[SMOGZINN]

Family View and Family Sharing are two different things.

Family View lets you restrict games by the ESRB Ratings as well as a few other Parental Controls.

Family Sharing is the ability to loan out your library to other people in your 'family'.

Everyone that is signed up for Steam Beta has Family View, but only a few people have Family Sharing.

I have not actually met anyone that has the Family Sharing option available to them. I think they only gave it out to one thousand accounts world wide so far.

So, anyone here have Family Sharing yet?

 

[CPA]

Family View and Family Sharing are two different things.

Family View lets you restrict games by the ESRB Ratings as well as a few other Parental Controls.

Family Sharing is the ability to loan out your library to other people in your 'family'.

Everyone that is signed up for Steam Beta has Family View, but only a few people have Family Sharing.

I have not actually met anyone that has the Family Sharing option available to them. I think they only gave it out to one thousand accounts world wide so far.

So, anyone here have Family Sharing yet?

ahhhhh, that makes sense. it also explains the hundreds, if not thousands of threads on Steam about getting the invite. Looks like it's limited for now. In that case, I'm going to permanently turn off Family View because it's annoying, more than anything, at this point.

 

[Seba]

I did not sign up for Steam Family Beta, but I have a "Family View" in Steam Settings Menu.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I did not sign up for Steam Family Beta, but I have a "Family View" in Steam Settings Menu.

Not just the Family Beta, it is a part of the general Steam Beta Client, and will probably be pushed out to steam stable client soon. If you are seeing it you have opted in to Steam Beta Clients in the options menu of Steam.

 

[Seba]

The only thing I opted in was Steam Hardware Beta. Does this count in this case?

In Steam - Settings - Account

I have:

Beta participation: Not participating
(1 currently available)


LE
And that one "currently available" is Steam Beta Update.

LLE
I also have Steam on Linux. Maybe that is the "beta" Steam client?

 

[SMOGZINN]

The only thing I opted in was Steam Hardware Beta. Does this count in this case?

In Steam - Settings - Account

I have:

Beta participation: Not participating
(1 currently available)


LE
And that one "currently available" is Steam Beta Update.

Then perhaps they have already pushed it out of beta. There was a patch this weekend, maybe that is when it was pushed out.

 

[cronos]

Isn't Family Share already out of beta? I know I used it on my son's account (for me to play games on his account) which I didn't opt in for any beta stuff.

As mad as people have been with what Family Share is (i.e. the fact that when someone is playing even one game, the whole library is locked), I found that I really like it. It is really handy for family setting (maybe small family, with no more than two family members who like to play games). I don't have to buy two copies of a game now, unless it's a co-op that we were going to play together.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Isn't Family Share already out of beta? I know I used it on my son's account (for me to play games on his account) which I didn't opt in for any beta stuff.

As mad as people have been with what Family Share is (i.e. the fact that when someone is playing even one game, the whole library is locked), I found that I really like it. It is really handy for family setting (maybe small family, with no more than two family members who like to play games). I don't have to buy two copies of a game now, unless it's a co-op that we were going to play together.

It is not out of beta. If you are able to play games that are on your son's account then he has opted in to it. Only one person has to have the beta client, the person who owns the games to be shared.

I did find out that Valve has opened the beta up a lot and people are now saying that if you join the Steam Family Sharing group you should get access in a few days, but that they are no longer sending out emails telling people they have been given access, so you just have to restart steam every now and then to see. I'll have to restart steam tonight to see if I have it.