Steam client doen't store credentials and settings

[ekkia]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Steam API v017 package version: 1496897923
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Debian 9 Stretch
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

My Steam client (Linux) doesn't store my login details properly. Often, after program launching, it ask for me about user and password again ("remember password" box is checked)

Apart from this, i realize that it doesn't store language settings....i need to change from english to spanish after some reboots...Not always, but quite often.

I think that 2 troubles start after last Steam upgrade...I try fixing with a fully clean install, deleting all config files, checking files permissions....but nothing happens and problem continues, from which I deduce that's Steam client bug.

Thank you.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Login into the client
2. Close
3. After a new boot, it ask for credentials again and i loose my settings.

[soredake]

Happens for me too on gentoo. Almost always the language settings are lost, a little less often Steam does not remember that I was logged in.

[kopr12]

Same problem here, I found that reboot doesn't matter, I mean you can just close the client and start it again two or three times and it will ask for username and password. My other settings are still there except sometimes custom skin is replaced with default skin and then I have to select it again and restart the client.
Nothing helped, deleting every trace of steam and then installing it again... same happens.

[neirenoir]

I think this issue may be related to the one I just opened because of symptoms and apparition date, but mine seems to be time-based. I can reboot the client and the computer several times without Steam forgetting about my account.

#5035

[glubsy]

Same problem on Antergos (Arch Linux based). It keeps asking for credentials every day since a very recent update.

Version: built Jun 8 2017, at 04:34:18

Could be unrelated but,
In the file ~/.local/share/steam/logs/configstore_log.txt I see a lot of the following (every minute!). Why?

[2017-06-25 17:05:48] Flushed store 'userlocal' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/userdata/8691024/config/localconfig.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:05:49] Flushed store 'userlocal' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/userdata/8691024/config/localconfig.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:05:52] Flushed store 'userlocal' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/userdata/8691024/config/localconfig.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:06:00] Flushed store 'userlocal' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/userdata/8691024/config/localconfig.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:06:04] Flushed store 'install' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:06:34] Flushed store 'install' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:07:04] Flushed store 'install' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:07:34] Flushed store 'install' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:08:04] Flushed store 'install' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf'
[2017-06-25 17:08:35] Flushed store 'install' to '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf'

[netfab]

Same problem here on gentoo. I'm currently trying to reinstall steam from scratch, keeping the steamapps directory.

[ibrokemypie]

Same on void, though only since switching to the beta client for me.

[glubsy]

I think it's stopped doing it for me since yesterday (I noticed Steam updated itself quickly too).

Edit: actually still happening, every time I reboot, I have to enter credentials again.

[kopr12]

For me it still happens, every day.

[amikot]

I noticed same problem some time ago and it still exists. Also I noticed another problem (Steam Client cant create desktop icons) that may be related to credentials and settings issue (maybe its general problem with permissions in linux?).

[Selmi]

same problem, but not every time I start the steam. on Ubuntu 17.04

[PerHogan]

I have been fighting over this for about a week (since my last reinstall of steam) and today i had the illumination... i am not sure is a stable solution but it seem to work (or i was just lucky... 2 restarts now without the problem).
I am using ubuntu 16.04.
This was the first time i was asked credentials after i activated the ubuntu auto-login.

If you set the "auto-login" in Ubuntu for your user (in my case to allow Wake on Lan to load steam and connect via broadcasting from the couch) the Keyring (where Linux stores passwords) is not activated as it needs to be unlocked by a password that is not asked at login. (e.g. chrome asks me to insert the kezring password at the first browser use every session or it does not load my personal info).

So i thought that maybe steam needs keyring activated as well to store the credentials and i opened it before logging in steam.
it seemed to work.

Will let you know if was not a stable fix

[ekkia]

Disabling autologin (in Plasma Desktop) doesn't fix the trouble for me.

[kopr12]

No wonder steam linux market-share is at 0.74% , this is ridiculous.
Had to do re-login this morning, few hours later I relaunched the client and it asked for login details again.
Pretty obvious that something introduced in the last update is causing this, revert it already ffs !
pfft..

[Drumstickx]

I seem to have the same problem with Steam on Ubuntu 16.04:

Frequently requires re-logins and affects the language settings.
As an addition to the main bug report: For me the language used in the client after logging in again (the first time after the last Steam session with the correct language setting (in my case: German)) is still this previously selected one but in the settings it is set to "English (Englisch)" which then is applied when I shut down Steam and start it again.

I hope this bug is fixed soon, already (unsuccessfully) reinstalled Steam and only kept the config and the steamapps folders. Really not a pleasure to use it this way!

Edit: Apart from the time-span it requires for the login to "time-out" the issue #5035 seems to target the same problem

[dietrmat]

In the meantime I hit this issue on every boot on my Arch installation.
It wouldn't be that bad but the two factor authorization is double annoying.

[s0r00t]

Same problem on Arch x64 here. Every N reboot, Steam doesn't remember that I'm logged in, deletes my settings and my skin.

[ghost]

@kisak-valve Possibly found a FIX here (more a workaround than a fix I should say).

I had the same issue since several months, Steam client resets to english (instead of french for me) and forgets credentials. I tried every solutions so far, provided on this GitHub or on Steam community forums. Tried everything. Only one thing worked, and since 5 days I never met this issue again:

In your Steam settings, enable In-Home Streaming and Family Sharing, even if you don't use it. You can login and change your language before or after tweaking these settings, looks like it doesn't matter, but if one way doesn't work try the other one. I always uncheck these options because I never use them, but since I enabled them again everything works as intended. Seems to work for other people with the same issue. I'm on Steam Beta by the way, didn't try with the stable client. Please tell me if it worked for you too in reply here or on my profile' comments http://steamcommunity.com/id/darthwound/

[glubsy]

Interesting. I had indeed disabled in-home streaming and family sharing too. Will see if this workaround works.

[ghost]

Having this problem too. Ubuntu Gnome 17.04 (Basic: Ubuntu 17.04. 64Bit).

[glubsy]

It seems that the workaround @DarthWound mentioned worked, after rebooting, it didn't ask for creds again, however (could be totally unrelated) my CPU was pegged at 100% until I quit the Steam client and restarted it.
Side note, the Steam client on Linux is very ressource hungry and keeps using between 6% and 12% of my CPU cycles. That's more than the xorg client itself. Ugh.

[darealshinji]

In your Steam settings, enable In-Home Streaming and Family Sharing, even if you don't use it.

That doesn't seem to fix it for me.

[kisak-valve]

Could the new behavior be a change in the steam beta client, instead of a settings change?

[nigelinux]

I thought I was the only one as I didn't see anyone discuss it anywhere, like r/linux_gaming. I've had this for about a month and it's ridiculous that such annoying problem has not been fixed. I know it's not a support forum but I want to let the developers know that there are many who face this bug. I'm on Ubuntu Mate 17.04 btw.

[codingthat]

Me neither (Linux Mint 19.3)

[Mirppc]

it hits off an on on opensuse. luckly it has not been an issue for about 5 months or more. I just dont trust that it wont rear it's ugly head agian.

[ghost]

Its still an issue for me on Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS, but on Kubuntu it doesnt happen

[benoittgt]

Can it be related to a VPN usage?

[Mirppc]

No.. Least not historically.

[TTimo]

@Qik000 - my comment #5030 (comment) still applies. Feel free to find and edit out things that might look like your password hashes.

[ghost]

@Qik000 - my comment #5030 (comment) still applies. Feel free to find and edit out things that might look like your password hashes.

I sent You an email

[TTimo]

@Qik000 thank you! Your config files look fine and should be triggering the auto login paths.

When the problem happens - depending on how easy to reproduce - do you see the 'Connecting Steam account' dialog at all (the dialog that would normally do auto login), or does the 'Steam Login' dialog (with the 'Account name' and 'Password' fields) show up right away?

In any case - the Steam client does not verbose very well the auto login. I've added a few debug lines that will help diagnose if this continues to be a problem (that will be in a future steam beta client update).

[ghost]

Hi, on my laptop on which autologin works it just shows "connecying to account" and connects.On my pc it shows the dialog "create new account | login into an existing account", the same one You get after first opening Steam. Also it forgets the language setting on top of failing autologin, sorry i forgot to mention that. null

[surfaceflinger]

I got new beta client update today and it's now automatically logging in properly!

[imtbl]

I'm also experiencing this issue, on both my desktop and my notebook. I'm running Arch on both. My notebook is a fresh installation too, with nothing changed from the default config in the client (to rule that out).

The auto-login has worked in the past but then stopped working from one day to another. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell when exactly.

do you see the 'Connecting Steam account' dialog at all (the dialog that would normally do auto login)

This is the case for me, it seems to attempt the auto-login (displaying my username), but then the login mask comes up after all and I have to both enter my password and verify again with Steam Guard.

I've been trying to delete the registry.vdf and then re-activate the auto-login, but that doesn't work for me.

I'm usually running a VPN 24/7 if that could be related in some way. Though, I'm always using the same endpoint, so I'd imagine after the first login it would remember the location instead of thinking it's a new one (and purposefully not using the auto-login because of that). Temporarily disabling the VPN didn't resolve the issue either.

It's not a huge dealbreaker for me, but I'd like to see the issue resolved as well, of course.

[TTimo]

@mserajnik can you provide a log of the steam client startup, since last time we looked at this I added some verbose to the auto login process which might help narrow down where the client decides to give up with it's attempt.

[aanari]

The symlink of ~/.steam to ~/steam was my culprit as well, THANK YOU!

[kisak-valve]

Hello everybody, it looks like we're at the point that this issue should be closed. Follow up issues should be tracked separately.

[ghost]

This is still an issue on Ubuntu 18.04.1, tested with the latest steam version

[legluondunet]

can not reproduce this bug for several months now on Ubuntu 20.04.

[ghost]

It doesnt happen to me on Kubntu 20.04 and Debian 10, only on 18.04.1

[ask-compu]

doesn't happen to me on kubuntu 18.04

[legluondunet]

Ubuntu 18.04 is still supported by Valve? Should be replace by 20.04 now.

[ghost]

Ubuntu 18.04 is still supported by Valve? Should be replace by 20.04 now.

18.04 is an LTS release supported until something like 2024 (i dont remember exactly)

[Mirppc]

Ubuntu 18.04 is still supported by Valve? Should be replace by 20.04 now.

Both 16.04 and 18.04 are LTS releases and still are supported by Canonical.

[thomas15v]

Haven't had it happen to me in months, but today this bug popped up again in a weird way. Steam detected that something was wrong with my login and gave me this popup:

.

For the record I didn't change my credentials.

EDIT: I am on ubuntu 20.04

[Shados]

Further testing, I can make a symlink to ~/.steam that is named anything other than (case insensitive) "steam" and it seems to work fine, ie it retains it's login info. It only seems to trigger if the symlink is in $HOME and is named any variation of case of the word "STEAM". Even naming it "nosteam" retains the info, so I suspect they are checking for the existence of the dir "~/steam", rather than any kind of regexp. You can also put a symlink named "steam" or any variation in a subdir like ~/Games/Steam and it's fine.

Oh wow, this finally led me to figure out what was causing my issue: I had a separate zfs dataset mounted to ~/.local/share/Steam, and Steam apparently didn't like 'steam' being in the name of the dataset. What the hell?

[TiagoTiago]

I can confirm the login issue when there's a ~/steam symlink , removing the symlink solved the issue for me

[legluondunet]

@TimestaticYT what Linux distribution are you using? What filesystem you choose for the main partition?

[quarantin]

Deleting the ~/steam symlink fixed it for me! Thanks

[ToMattBan]

For me, I opened the ~/.steam/registry.vdf and changed
"RememberPassword" "0"
to
"RememberPassword" "1"

Then I saved the file and now Steam working as how it should

[cprn]

I never had a ~/steam symlink. Editing value manually in ~/.steam/registry.vdf solved the issue.

It's either regression in recent months or a different issue with same result but this thread is what Google finds so I'm commenting here.