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Steam Guard is an additional level of security that can be applied to your Steam account. The first level of security on your account is your login credentials: your Steam account name and password. With Steam Guard, a second level of security is applied to your account, making it harder for your Steam account to fall into the wrong hands.
When Steam Guard is enabled on your account, when you login to your Steam account from an unrecognized device you'll need to provide a special access code to verify it's your account. Depending on your Steam Guard settings, you'll either receive an email with the special code or you'll get it from the Steam Mobile app on your smartphone.
Steam Guard is enabled by default on your Steam account if your email is verified and you have restarted Steam twice since verifying your email. If you have disabled Steam Guard, and wish to reactivate it, please follow the instructions below:
That's it! With Steam Guard enabled, you will be asked to enter the special access code sent to your email address each time you login to Steam from an unrecognized device.
Getting Steam Guard codes via your smartphone provides the best level of Steam account security because you're authorizing your logins with a physical device that you possess. You'll need to download and install the free Steam Mobile app to your phone.
No, there's no limit. Steam Guard is aimed to protect the value that is yours, not limit your access to your stuff. As always, you can access your Steam account and library from as many machines as you'd like.
Deauthorizing a machine means it will look like a new device next time you use it to log in and a Steam Guard code will be required.
If you've mistakenly checked the "remember me" box when logging in to a public computer or if your account has been compromised, you should deauthorize any computers that you've previously Steam Guarded. You can do this from your Account Details page > Manage Steam Guard and select "Deauthorize all other devices" at the bottom of the page. This will deauthorize all computers or devices other than the one you're performing this action from.
Via email - Exit Steam and log back into your account. This will generate a new verification email.
Via phone - The Mobile Authenticator will automatically generate a new code every 30 seconds.
Always ensure that you enter the most recent code sent or generated - older codes will not work!
Make sure that you are watching the inbox for the email address associated with your Steam account. Perhaps you used a different email address?
If you are not receiving the e-mail at all, check your spam filters and spam inbox.
Please try adding "support@steampowered.com" and "noreply@steampowered.com" to your contacts or trusted senders list within your email client and request a new access code.
Even though Steam instantly sends an email, you may encounter a delay with some email providers depending on their server load and processing times. Please contact us if you have not received the verification email after 3 hours.
This may be caused your browser's security settings. If your web browser's ‘Privacy’ settings are set too high, then your browser will be unable to store (web) cookie information. Check your browser settings to ensure that cookies are allowed.
Running programs that clear internet history, delete other unused files, block cookie creation or that clean up orphaned registry entries may also be responsible for this issue. Disabling such programs will prevent this issue from occurring when logging into Steam via your web browser.
For help logging into Steam visit https://help.steampowered.com
No, Steam Guard will not limit your ability to access your Steam account through third-party websites that enable a sign in via your Steam account credentials.
Steam Guard protects your Steam account by requiring access to your verified email account. This second layer of security depends on your email account also being secure. Below are the common methods used to steal accounts with Steam Guard enabled:
This can happen after Steam Support has restored your account. If the button to enable or change Steam Guard's settings is missing you must restart Steam.
The Steam client's settings dialog will appear like this:
