For any gamer with a Steam account, there are a few problems that can be as frustrating as the Steam won’t open issue. Once you experience this issue, you may find yourself trying to launch the program without any success. This issue can be caused by a lot of things including things like congestion on Steam servers, the program running on the background or something else entirely. The good news is that as frustrating as this issue may be, it is one that is rather easy to fix.
Note: Perform a system backup
Before you carry out any system repair be it on the Steam can’t open issue or something else, it is very important that you backup all your files. Backing up your system files will save you from losing all your most important stored files in case anything goes wrong. The easy way to back up your steam is to do it automatically on Steam but since you cannot launch it, you may also do it manually:
- Go to your default Windows and navigate to- C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common
- If you are using a macOS, open your finder and select go. Now, enter this path: ~Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common
- For Linux-based operating systems, follow this path: ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common
- What you want to do after locating this common folder is to copy the games there and save them in a new location.
- When you want to restore them, all you have to do is to copy back the files and then delete the original files that are there. Launch your game and then
- Launch your game, click on the Library tab and then click on Install Game. Before it installs, make sure the path is the right one and that will restore your games.
How to Fix Steam Won’t Open
Method 1: Reboot your computer
One important thing to do when steam refuses to open is to reboot your computer. Rebooting the computer is not only peculiar to steam’s issue alone, but you can also do same when any other problem surfaces. When you reboot, it will turn everything off including all background programs and it reboots to start afresh.
Method 2: Check for steam processes
If the ‘reboot your computer’ fix doesn’t work for you, it could be due to a steam process that is already running that won’t allow a new steam process to run perfectly. Check the steam running process by:
- clicking on a blank space on your windows taskbar
- In the options, select task manager
- Now look for the steam client bootstrapper and steam client Service
- If they are running, right click on them and select end task. After this, you can try steam again.
Method 3: Stop your antivirus or firewall
Even if changes were not made, your antivirus or firewall may have updated itself automatically behind the scenes. This can interfere with steam. You must each stop your antivirus or firewall and retry them each. If steam works after this, then it’s your security that was interfering with it.
Method 4: Check for changes
If after checking and you find out there are no running processes and still steam doesn’t open, the next question to ask is- Have you made changes to your computer the last time you used it? Or maybe you added a new antivirus or firewall. Did you install a new security software? Probably all these or an added software is interfering with steam, preventing it from starting. Try and undo all the changes or uninstall the software and observe if steam can start properly.
Method 5: Running a VPN
If you are running a VPN with steam, it could affect its functionality. Though steam plays nicely with VPN, not all the time. However if you’ve installed a new VPN or you are running one, turn it off for just a minute and retry steam.
Method 6: You can try steam offline
Maybe you don’t have an internet connection or you don’t want to be seen online. You can log in and use steam locally. But be sure that it will crash out after taking you as far as the user interface (UI). This will you help you to minimize the problem. Let’s presume that steam crashes before UI. You can try this by opening steam and selecting it from the top menu. You then select go offline mode. After this, restart it in offline mode and retest to see whether it will work perfectly.
Method 7: Restore your computer to a previous point
Another thing that you can do if steam doesn’t open for you is to restore your computer to a point that every program is working perfectly. This is because it may just be that there were some changes made on your computer that are affecting how it functions. To restore your computer, follow these steps:
- Click on the start menu on your computer and then type “restore” and then hit on enter
- Select Create restore point
- Under the System Protection tab, select System Restore
- In the windows that opens, click on the Next button
- Select the restore point that you want and follow the remaining prompts.
Method 8: Update your Windows
Another way that you can fix the Steam can’t open problem is to update your Windows. The link between the two is that each update is released because of bugs that have been discovered. Sometimes, these bugs can prevent certain programs which may include steam from opening on your computer. What this means is that with the update, the bug can be fixed.
Method 9: Reinstall steam
If all the above steps don’t work. There are two things you must do. You either reinstall steam or reinstall windows. However, since it’s steam that’s not working and not windows. Reinstall steam first. Download and install a new steam client over the old one. This will enable you to retain and maintain access to all your other games without having to reinstall them again.
See Also: 9 Android Apps You Should Delete & 4 Android Apps To Have
Start by visiting the Steam page and download a new client. You must Install it in the same location as your old existing install. Make sure the process is completed first before you can log in.
We hope that whatever the problem was will have been overwritten by a fresh installation of files. This will bring steam back to working perfectly again.
