Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

"Unable to connect to Steam network"

crunchbox said:
So after some manic hunting around it seems the fix is to completely uninstall PeerGuardian for OSX. I had to re-download the PeerGuardian installer dmg to get the uninstaller. I ran that twice (to be sure) and then re-launched the Steam app. Immediately could log in without issues...

Hope this helps...

I remember this happening to me years ago on windows too. PG must block Steam servers. Makes sense...
:eek:
Click to expand...

Cheers to you, my good man! This solved my problem. I had SHUT DOWN peerguardian, opened my firewall, and opened about every single "sharing" option AND put my MBP in the DMZ, but still could not connect. Using PG's Uninstaller routine twice did the trick! THANK YOU. :apple:
 
Similar problem

Just in case there are still people having problems, I had a similar problem, I got an error while trying to login saying something along the lines of "Can not connect to steam server".

Checked everything, and ended up finding the solution was to delete the preferences for steam (either manually delete the ~/Library/Application Support/Steam folder or use an app like AppCleaner).

I think the solution of turning off your network and using it in offline mode probably fixes the same problem (overwriting a corrupt preference file somewhere).

Anyhow, hope this helps someone.
 
Remove Mods

Have you added mods to your game? If so try removing those and then start up.
I played Torchlight fine for several days before adding a potion sacking mod. The next time I wanted to play the server was not connecting until I removed the mod.
 
lsg1 said:
Cheers to you, my good man! This solved my problem. I had SHUT DOWN peerguardian, opened my firewall, and opened about every single "sharing" option AND put my MBP in the DMZ, but still could not connect. Using PG's Uninstaller routine twice did the trick! THANK YOU. :apple:
Click to expand...

No worries mate!
 
I have the exact same problem it says: "Steam needs to be online to update. Pleace confirme your network connection and try again." any ideas? its driving me mad cause i just brought 2 new games to mac from steam and it was all the monney i had left this mounth... pleace come up whit a solution! :apple:
 
AgnonWolf said:
I have the exact same problem it says: "Steam needs to be online to update. Pleace confirme your network connection and try again." any ideas? its driving me mad cause i just brought 2 new games to mac from steam and it was all the monney i had left this mounth... pleace come up whit a solution! :apple:
Click to expand...

EDIT: There was a folder in my <user>/Library/Application Support location called 'Steam' I deleted it and it worked fine.
 
I did this:

In <user>/Library/Application Support location called 'Steam' , i deleted "userdata" and registry.vdf

Now steam will connect without problems, but you have to redownload your games. You better try it first with only deleting registry.vdf
 
Removing the Steam folder from:

user/Library/Application Support/

Worked. But you have to redownload everything.

I noticed that this happened after installing Apple updates from yesterday.
 
deathtap said:
Removing the Steam folder from:

user/Library/Application Support/

Worked. But you have to redownload everything.

I noticed that this happened after installing Apple updates from yesterday.
Click to expand...

No offense but this is not true. Steam content can be moved without having to download content a second time. See this Symbolic Link Guide for moving Steam Content. :)

And for what it's worth, I'm connecting to Steam on my Mac (MacOS) without issue.
 
LunaticRed said:
Just in case there are still people having problems, I had a similar problem, I got an error while trying to login saying something along the lines of "Can not connect to steam server".

Checked everything, and ended up finding the solution was to delete the preferences for steam (either manually delete the ~/Library/Application Support/Steam folder or use an app like AppCleaner).

Anyhow, hope this helps someone.
Click to expand...

Thanks this helped me!
 
-Move yourusername/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam Apps folder to the desktop.
-Delete yourusername/Library/Application Support/Steam
-Open Steam, and login
-Close steam
-Move the Steam Apps folder on the desktop to yourusername/Library/Application Support/Steam, and replace the existing one
-Start Steam
 
I get this same problem on my iMac, it works fine on my MBP even with PG enabled.

I removed the Application support folder for steam and it started up, downloaded the update and then said I couldnt connect.

I removed it again and when it got to the login screen I created a new id and it got all the way through except when it went to login it said cannot connect.

I will try uninstalling PG when i get home. Any other ideas?
 
keeping Steam Apps folder doesn't work

kwissylawrencek said:
-Move yourusername/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam Apps folder to the desktop.
-Delete yourusername/Library/Application Support/Steam
-Open Steam, and login
-Close steam
-Move the Steam Apps folder on the desktop to yourusername/Library/Application Support/Steam, and replace the existing one
-Start Steam
Click to expand...

This solution did NOT work for me... After moving Steam Apps folder to my desktop and erasing the containing folder I was able to login to Steam (finally). However, after quitting Steam and moving the folder back the problem returned and Steam would not connect...

So it is my belief that the problem is somehow contained within the Steam Apps folder and erasing it completely does fix the issue, but as others have mentioned you will have to re-download your games/content. Oh well, no biggie...
 
Fixed

Man, I tried for days to figure this out so I just wanted to pass along what happened.

After trying everything I could find on the subject (nothing working - arrrggg!!), I just happened to run Steam from the Spotlight after I had "un-installed" the program and it RAN! I guess I had somehow had two copies in the Applications folder and never knew it. I GUESS. Anyways, that fixed it. Crazy. Some others may have the same problem so I'm passing it on.

I did find the program AppCleaner (a free download) which might have saved me a lot of trouble had I just tried it first. I'd recommend looking into that as well if you're still stuck.

Good luck!
 
I had this problem too - on a new Mac. I found that taking out the ~/Library/Steam files got me back to a place where I was able to download an update but it still wasn't too happy. It'll try to update and then it"ll ask you to check it's really, really connected to the internet.

I suspect my problems when I closed the lid while it was downloading an update - it"s not liked it since.
 
LunaticRed said:
Just in case there are still people having problems, I had a similar problem, I got an error while trying to login saying something along the lines of "Can not connect to steam server".

Checked everything, and ended up finding the solution was to delete the preferences for steam (either manually delete the ~/Library/Application Support/Steam folder or use an app like AppCleaner).

I think the solution of turning off your network and using it in offline mode probably fixes the same problem (overwriting a corrupt preference file somewhere).

Anyhow, hope this helps someone.
Click to expand...
THANKS!This worked for me!
 
This is getting beyond frustrating!!!

It happened to me a while ago, but after I deleted the registry file within Steam, the update worked.

However, recently the problem re-appeared. And this time around, deleting this file didn't help. I tried removing the SteamApps folder to my desktop and deleting the Steam folder, but it didn't help either.

I tried disabling my Firewall, and turning off Airport, but neither did work.

I'm not running PG or any such thing. What is there to do??? The only thing remaining is my router firewall. How do I disable that though?
 
Another solution, I don't know if people are still having issues, I was until I came here is change your firewall access if you aren't using an outside program like peer guardian.

I noticed if I added Steam to my firewall allowance, and disabled Stealth Mode, that I was able to get right in.

Everything else I tried did not help one bit, but this did.
 
I am getting this error too. Never ran Steam before,

New install of Steam. Downloaded .dmg today, clicked to open, dragged and dropped into apps folder, click in apps folder to open, get warning that it's an app that was downloaded from the internet, click ok.

The app opens a small window saying Updating Steam, 0kb of 34,590kb, then it stops, with "Unable to connect to Steam network".

Tried it with firewall off, same results.

No .plists to delete, nothing in ~/../App Support etc, as I've never run Steam before. Re-downloaded, reinstalled and tried again. Same results.

Something odd: I don't get asked for password when installing. I should be. Perhaps the installer is failing to ask for the right level of access?
 
I have the same problem - am trying to install Civ V on my Mac Pro.

Seems an absolute joke to me - why cant they put all the relevant files onto the DVD and then at least you could play the game. I cannot see any logical reason why Steam cannot access my network - everything else can...
 
New information:

When I run the Steam installer from the downloaded .dmg disk image, it asks me for my admin password just like a proper installer.

Giving the password results in the installer failing: "Steam can't write to it's install dir. Make sure you're not trying to run from the disk image."

Apart from the grammar mistake, this shows there's something going wrong when the Steam installer is copied to the Applications folder. When run from Applications, it should be asking for admin password. It's not. That's a clue to the problem there.

EDIT: MacBook 2.2ghz, osx 10.6.5
 
Last edited:
Im having the EXACT same problem as redtomato. tried moving steam to the desktop. no steam folder in ~users/library/application support.
so frustrated with this, it will update to around 28000 kb and then says unable to connect to steam network. asks for password when i try to open from disk image but will not when i try to run from applications folder. any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
AHA i figured it out. If you cannot find a folder in your application support folder create one named "steam" and retry downloading it. I just did it and got it to work :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back