Steam is a popular gaming platform with a vast inventory of digital games to choose from.
It allows you to connect with your friends and adjust how much you can share with them.
One of these features is the snooze option that shows you’ve been away from your computer for too long.
How can you set Steam to snooze manually?
Read on to learn about this function on Steam and how you can change your status on Steam.
How To Set Steam To Snooze?
1. Go Idle For Two Hours
Snooze is an automated feature on Steam that users can’t set manually.
When you’re logged into Steam and haven’t been doing anything for two hours, Steam automatically assigns a snooze status to you.
By inactive, we mean doing absolutely nothing, even moving your mouse.
The moment you move your mouse, your status will go back to the online status.
2. Use Two Devices
In some cases, you may notice that your friend goes into the snooze state shortly after you’ve finished chatting with them.
It’s a strange case as you can’t interfere with an automatic option manually.
There have been a couple of explanations for this issue provided by Steam users.
The first one is that your friend uses a third-party app or program that interfaces with Steam and lets them change their status manually.
Another possibility is that they’ve set their status to snooze on the desktop Steam by being inactive for two hours.
Then they log into their Steam account via their mobile apps and chat with you on their mobile phone.
Since your status on the mobile app doesn’t change your status on the desktop version, by going online on your mobile app and then logging out of your account, you can continue being on the snooze status on your desktop version.
Here is another way to set your status to snooze.
Log into your Steam and change your status to offline.
Log into your Steam account on another device and leave it there until it changes to snooze or “zzz”.
Then, you can continue doing your gaming activities on the first device.
However, if your friends can see the games you’re playing, they may figure out that you’re not actually snoozing and there’s something wrong with your account.
3. Other Statuses On Steam
If you’re a gamer on Steam, you know that it’s more than just a gaming platform.
It also has a social dimension that allows you to connect to a community of like-minded players.
However, it also gives you the level of privacy you want whenever you feel like being alone.
For example, you can choose when to let your friends notice that you’re online and when to hide your activities.
Snooze is the only status on Steam that you can’t set manually.
That means you can change your status to online, offline, or away by changing the settings on Steam.
To view these statuses on your friends’ profiles, you should first go to your Steam client and click on “View Friends List” in the lower right corner of the Steam window.
After clicking on the option, you’ll see a window that displays all your online friends and their current Steam status.
If your friends are playing a game on Steam, their icon is green, showing they’re online.
If they’re online but aren’t playing, or if they’re away from their computers, their icon goes blue.
If they’re offline, it will turn grey.
You can see your own status on the top left corner of your Steam window on top of the friend’s list.
There’s a dropdown menu in front of your name above your status.
You can change your status by opening this dropdown menu and set some of the statuses manually.
1. Online
This status shows that you’re logged into Steam on at least one machine, and you’ve moved your mouse or used your keyboard in the last 10 minutes.
It’s the default status on Steam and shows your friends that you’re in the Steam client.
If you’re playing a Steam game, the “in-game” status will be added to “online.”
2. Away
When you’re logged into Steam but haven’t used the Steam client for 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll receive this status.
Since Steam can’t detect game controllers’ movements, it will show your status as “away” even if you’re on your computer, playing a non-Steam game using controllers.
3. Busy Or Do Not Disturb
Busy is a status you can assign yourself when you don’t want other people to send you messages.
With this status, you won’t receive any notifications from invites, requests, or chats.
4. Invisible
When you want to look offline to your friends but still wish to send and receive messages, see your friends list, and do other activities on the Steam community, you can use this status.
The only difference is that your friends can’t see that you’re online.
You can also go a little low-key and play the games that you don’t want others to receive notifications about.
This way, your friends can see what games you’re playing on your profile, but Steam doesn’t send them any notifications when you start playing the game.
5. Offline
When you’re signed out of the Steam client from any device, your status will be offline to your friends.
You won’t receive messages from your friends, and other features that work in the online status won’t work.
There are no limitations on how long you can stay in the offline mode on Steam, so you can be in this mode indefinitely.
To change your status on Steam, you can use the dropdown menu next to the “friends” icon on top of the window.
You can choose to appear online, offline, away, and invisible by clicking on one of these options in the dropdown menu.
How To Hide The Steam Games You Play
Steam shares all your gaming activities with your friends by default.
It even shows how long you’ve played them in the last two weeks.
If you want to continue playing your guilty pleasure, you can hide these games through the following method:
Hover over your username on top of the Steam window but don’t click on it.
You’ll see a menu containing “Activity,” “Profile,” “Friends,” etc.
Click on “Profile” to open the profile page and find “Edit Profile” on the right.
By clicking on this option, you’ll open a page with the button that says, “My Privacy Settings.”
Here, you can change and adjust what your friends can see on your profile.
By changing “Game details” settings to “Private,” you’ll hide the games you’re currently playing, the games on your wish list, and the games you own from everyone, including your friends.
You can also determine if they can see your comments, inventory, friends list, and other information by adjusting the settings,
You can also make your whole profile private by choosing the “Private” option on “My Profile.”
Steam Offline Mode
Another possibility on Steam is the offline mode, which is different from the offline status.
In the offline status, you are online and logged into Steam, while you’re not connected to the internet in offline mode.
You can still play games when you’re offline, which comes in handy when you don’t have an internet connection to play with your friends.
However, the number of games you can play offline is limited to single-player games and local multiplayer games.
The only thing you should know is that even in the offline mode, Steam needs to verify your account, which needs to happen with an internet connection.
If you want to play offline, first connect to the internet, then go to the offline mode after Steam verifies your account.
To activate the offline mode:
Open Steam while you’re online and check the box next to “Remember my password” on the login window.
Open the game you plan to play in offline mode and make sure it’s fully updated and doesn’t require further installation.
This way, you are making sure that you can play the game without any issues.
Now, close the game and go back to the Steam client.
Open the Steam settings and go to “Account,” look for “Don’t save account credentials on this computer,” and make sure it’s unchecked.
Now, go to the Steam window, open the menu, and select “Go offline.”
To start the offline mode, select “Restart in Offline Mode.”
Problems With The Offline Mode
Sometimes the Steam client in the offline mode runs into problems that prevent you from continuing your offline games.
Here are some common issues:
1. Steam Client Requires A Login
If the Steam client doesn’t allow you to play an offline game without a login, there’s no way around it.
You have to go online, log in, and then go offline again.
Plus, you can’t get the updates when you play Steam games offline because they need an internet connection.
Some other online-only features, such as cloud saves and friends lists, are also unavailable in the offline mode.
2. Stored Information Going Missing
The offline mode can’t properly work if you lose your stored information.
You lose your stored information when you don’t close Steam and shut down your computer.
When you want to shut down your system, always make sure to manually close it and never force close Steam.
3. The Game Can’t Start In The Offline Mode
Most Steam games need the internet to connect to the Steam network, have an initial startup, and then go offline.
In these cases, your game says “100% Ready” but also says, “This game cannot be started in offline mode.”
To solve this problem, update the Steam client and the game files.
Steam Gets Stuck In The Offline Mode
Occasionally, Steam runs into connection issues that keep it from going online after being in the offline mode for a while.
It could be due to a wide variety of reasons, including the following:
1. Applications Interfering With Steam
Some applications can interfere with Steam and prevent it from working properly.
The applications may contain bugs or become temporarily incompatible with Steam and create different performance-related problems, including having difficulty going back to the online mode.
These applications can be anti-virus programs, download managers, IP filtering programs, and file-sharing software.
If you have any of these programs installed on your computer, disable them temporarily to check if the problem goes away.
Restarting your system can also be a good solution if a minor bug blocks the Steam client from going back online.
If you think your system’s firewall doesn’t let Steam go online, check your firewall and configure it as outlined by Steam’s support team.
2. Steam Server Failures
Sometimes the problem may not be from your side, but instead originating from Steam’s side.
You can make sure Steam servers are running properly by checking news outlets and see if they have news of server outages.
Steam’s website also has a stats page that shows its server’s status for the past 48 hours.
3. Connectivity Issues WithThe PC
Sometimes the problem may have nothing to do with Steam.
Perhaps it’s related to your computer’s connectivity.
To make sure, check if you can load an internet page on your PC.
If you can’t, check your computer’s Network Interface Card or your laptop’s wireless card.
If your wireless is down, use a wired connection to see if you can connect.
4. The Router Or Modem Is Not Working
If you have connectivity issues across various devices such as your laptop or smartphone, the problem is likely coming from your network devices.
Reboot your modem and/or router by pressing the restart button, unplugging for 30 seconds, and then plugging them back in.
If you can’t go back online, contact your internet service provider.
5. Corrupted Steam Files
Steam files and libraries need to be updated and working properly all the time to make Steam run smoothly.
If they’re damaged or corrupted, they can lead to many issues, including Steam’s going online.
To make sure everything is OK, try the first troubleshooting solution that you should always try: restarting the Steam client.
This way, you can fix minor bugs or glitches.
To restart Steam, log out of your account, close the program, and log in again.
If this doesn’t solve the problem, try restarting the PC to solve problems caused by its power bugs.
Another solution you can try is redownloading Steam’s cached files.
After restarting the app, it’s also one of the basic solutions and can solve many minor problems such as connectivity issues.
Before clearing the cache, make sure to save your mods somewhere else on your system because mods are also a part of the cache.
When you clear the cache, you delete the mods, too.
To clear the Steam cache:
Log in to your Steam account and click on the Steam menu in the upper left corner of the window.
Go to Settings > Downloads > Clear download Cache.
Select OK to restart the program and check if your problem is solved.
The last option, which should be a last resort, is to uninstall Steam and reinstall it.
Note that you’ll lose any downloaded games after uninstalling the app, and you will need to download them again.
Plus, always get the Steam app from its official website.
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