homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall Don't get locked out of your Steam account ...

This morning I woke up, switched on the magical power button on my PC and had to check the usual stuff. Weirdly enough, Steam prompted me for a password despite always using auto log-in. I found my password in the LastPass vault and pasted it in ... Didn't work. Tried again ... nothing.

I tried retrieving my account, it then sends you an email with a verification code and it wants you to answer a secret question. This question is;

"What did customer support last reset your passphrase to?"


A question I never chose, a question I've never seen and I have never had contact with customer support about my password, ever. No matter what I put in, I can't change my password.

So now I've had to contact Steam support just to change my damn password and get into my account. God knows why my password doesn't work, maybe a hijacked account? Still, they would probably have access to my account for a few days, while Steam Support takes their sweet ass time to respond.

While I won't have the whole "Oh steam is the devil, I only use my DVDs and where's my vinyl music?" but man, that is a pretty archaic way of dealing with things.

Usually when Steam is down or is having some kind of disruption to the community service I will get prompted to enter my password when I launch Steam. Usually I just wait a few minutes and try it again and Steam will auto-login without any issues.

I tried this morning and I tried 10 minutes ago, that's over 8 hours apart. This is definitely something on my end.

Does sound a bit like a Hijack. Hope it works out.

The keyword being "my".

Known as ownership, becoming a forgotten concept. You'll never need someone else's permission to play your DVDs and vinyl music, sweet. This is how I feel about software too (games and productivity).


Now get off my lawn!

Are you using Steam Guard? There is an option to de-authorise all other computers,I would do that once you regain control.

I've also had e-mails stating that I requested a password change.These were genuine but not instigated by me. Upon contacting Steam they told me there was no suspicious activity and not to worry.

Also,what Panzer says happens sometimes.I was initially very suspicious about re-entering my PW when it was set to auto log-in.

Yeah I'm using steam guard. I haven't received any steam guard requests or password reset notices lately.

Hopefully Steam support will get back to me asap. I submitted it as an account hijack, rather than a simple 'forgot password' - Hopefully that expedites things ... I doubt it, though.

Yeah I'm using steam guard.

Sounds like they need to hire some more guards.

I don't trust "STEAM", on my computer.

That's all I'm sayin'......
Maybe before this is over, you'll feel the same way
Cause I got a feeling, it ain't over yet.

I'd be concerned about what/who's gotten into your computer, could be a virus.
I'd check if I was you. Wouldn't hurt.

I don't like the idea of hundreds (for some�thousands) of dollars in legally purchased software being tied to a login that does not have a tech support phone number to call. My daughter was locked out of her account for 5 days waiting for a damn e-mail from them. For me�that's why I would never consider a Steam box�if you can't afford a tech support number and essentially can be locked out of using your gaming console�no dice. I have had issues with Xbox live�called a number and had it resolved in an hour�not days/weeks.

Maybe when I grow old and bitter.

LOL....have some more Kool Aide.

I didn't trust steam when I was younger and not bitter at all. They screwed me once and that's the only chance they got.

Yes and here goes the typical SimHQ whinge train, nobody gives a #%&*$# about your Steam hatred.

A moderator can close this one up.

When I was a kid, "Steam" referred strictly to water vapor and WE LIKED IT!!!

A pretty common misconception with Steam.
You never buy anything on Steam, you more or less rent access until they choose to close your account such as by changing EULA to something you don't want to accept and suddenly it's all gone (ok if only blocked from new purchases, but that's not the case).

Naturally, losing access as in first post this thread and not being able to prove your cause will endup in the same loss.

Not finding this an OK approach is very often misinterpreted as "steam hate" for a reason I still cannot identify.

Look at the numerous posts in Steam related threads at BIS forums and you'll see "defenders" stating "It has always worked with no errors for me" making it obviously clear they don't understand the user terms.


Anyhow, good luck with your process - you might need it.

I always got a kick out of this URL. www.steam.com
Not sure why they're so attached to it. I'm sure Valve would pay.

On Topic: Dang, so many passwords to deal with, and having to change them every so often. It's enough to make you paranoid. And not without reason.

Sethos, I guess you've already gone through the hoops
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_arti...HXV-7272#change

and/or started a ticket when you contacted them?

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1223-QROC-4460

The one time I had to get a ticket going with them it was taken care of fairly fast. Maybe you'll have this going by the end of the day.
Its hard to get an account hijacked on there now, maybe this is something internal.
I went in and rest my question just in case. And logged the confirmation code. LOL

To the others...
I've lost more games due to somehow getting scratched, lost, accidentally thrown away etc. None with steam. In fact, I got back Halflife after losing my disc since I'd registered it. Years later had a reason to download steam, it prompted me for the login I used when I registered the game and there it was waiting to be played again! Awesome.