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Other Making Steam work again on unsupported macOS after discontinuation
- Thread starter TheLightDeveloper
- Start date
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Did you download the right versions of steam for El Capitan/Sierra?
The terminal command is:
You might have to delete the steam folder in ~/Library/Application Support first to the delete the wrong version.
The terminal command is:
You might have to delete the steam folder in ~/Library/Application Support first to the delete the wrong version.
Thank god for this thread!!!!! Im using a 2009 27" iMac with High Sierra and steam (and its games) works better than in my main PC
udance4ever
macrumors regular
wow! you the man! I just busted out an old MBP 2015 today and jumped through a hoop to get Mojave back on it.
I stumbled into this issue and the downgrade command and Batman Arkham Asylum now works like a charm - thanks!
I stumbled into this issue and the downgrade command and Batman Arkham Asylum now works like a charm - thanks!
It's been almost a year that I posted this guide and I wanted to do some updates to the guide (since you can't edit posts here after few days passed)
For macOS 10.13/10.14 users, run this terminal command instead:
As a side note, the client may sometimes corrupt itself after it finishes updating. You may also definitely need a newer Steam client (preferably through separate partition if you're not comfortable installing games through terminal) to handle modern game downloads, due to the introduction of ZSTD chunk compression.
And for those who are running macOS 10.15 or 11, despite several months after the announcements, the latest version still works as of making of this post, although Valve will (presumably) update CEF 126 to 138 on the next major release, breaking 10.15 support completely. I will announce that breakage once there are updates made to it.
For macOS 10.13/10.14 users, run this terminal command instead:
Code:
open -a Steam --args -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl https://web.archive.org/web/20240918104445if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteamAs a side note, the client may sometimes corrupt itself after it finishes updating. You may also definitely need a newer Steam client (preferably through separate partition if you're not comfortable installing games through terminal) to handle modern game downloads, due to the introduction of ZSTD chunk compression.
And for those who are running macOS 10.15 or 11, despite several months after the announcements, the latest version still works as of making of this post, although Valve will (presumably) update CEF 126 to 138 on the next major release, breaking 10.15 support completely. I will announce that breakage once there are updates made to it.
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Hi, it's a long time since i didn't launch my MacOs 10.13.6 then i found out that steam stop working on them, thank to you i succe to reinstall steam but, how i get my game back bcz i cannot install them every time a 50 per cent of dowloading, the game stop and says that the content is unavaible or the server are unreachable. I will like to now if a solutions is know like the command on terminal? I case i thank you for your help and please help me to finally play some game on my old mac. And btw i don't have any money to spare on buying a new pc 😭.
Hello,
I tried this on a 10.13.6 version and got Steam to start up. Logged in and then tried updating inside the Steam app which caused it to quit unexpectedly.
Uninstalled Steam, restarted the iMac and tried again, but now Steam quits unexpectedly every time I try to update it via the Console.
Does anyone know what can be done? I'm pretty much mac-illiterate and this is my first time trying to troubleshoot on a mac 😅
Sadly, there is a chance that Steam could get corrupted whenever you update it to the last supported version, so you might want to completely reinstall the app and redo the process again.
Hey, thanks for replying!
I tried uninstalling Steam by putting it in the Trash can and then emptying it, is there another way to "completely" remove a program on a Mac?
You can use appcleaner to delete leftover program data: https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/
That worked out, thank you very much for your help!
!!!
macrumors 65816
You'll need to copy the appmanifest file for the game from your new Mac to your old Mac in addition to the game files, as that is what tells Steam what version is installed and if it needs updating. They're inside the steamapps folder, typically called
appmanifest_NNNNN.acf where NNNN is the appid. You can try sorting by most recent if it was updated recently, but they're just text files and you can open them with TextEdit. You can set it to always open .acf files for easier access. Inside the files will include the name of the game.Alternatively, you can turn on "Game File Transfer over Local Network" in Steam > Settings > Downloads on both your old and new computers. Leave steam open on both, and try to update the game on the old one. What should happen is that old Steam connects to new Steam and copies the files over the network.
Deltaman1
macrumors newbie
Hello everyone...
I have 2 macs running Mojave. One of them, an imac, has steam on it. It's been giving me the 'will stop updating in 0 days' message for years, but it still works. I want to get steam working on my macbook so i can play while traveling, any way that i can just copy some files from the imac and make it work?
if that won't work, any other ideas? it's good to see so many having success with this, so i hope someone can help me out too!
I have 2 macs running Mojave. One of them, an imac, has steam on it. It's been giving me the 'will stop updating in 0 days' message for years, but it still works. I want to get steam working on my macbook so i can play while traveling, any way that i can just copy some files from the imac and make it work?
if that won't work, any other ideas? it's good to see so many having success with this, so i hope someone can help me out too!
what to do if it says steam needs to be online to update. Please confirm your network connection and try again. I’m running Mac os El Capitan. Is the bypass patched or did I miss something?
MagnusVonMagnum
macrumors 603
Fixing Steam to work again is great, but Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition just got sudden unexpected updates after years and years (including Apple silicon support) and now the stupid interface says "Update Required" and of course, it won't update anything on older unsupported Macs, which is weird since I just bought the Dragonspear DLC for the first game a few days ago for $7.99 and it updated the game perfectly fine. It's a good thing I did since the only way to launch the game now it seems is to switch to OFFLINE Mode and run the app directly from the Mac file system. I don't know why Steam couldn't bother to release a final update that just runs older games and leaves them alone on those systems. It makes me never want to support Steam again, even on a newer Mac or PC. I paid for those games and most never get updates. I should be able to run them without it causing these nightmare hassles.
Wowfunhappy
macrumors 68020
Hi! Here's a copy of Depot Downloader patched to work on Mavericks. It may work on newer versions of macOS too (I know @rampancy wanted something for 10.15).
I just did the standard thing of pointing Claude Code at the binary, handed it its own porting resources that it has constructed over time, and told it to make it work. It spun for maybe 15 minutes then said it was done.
Edit July 2: Updated link to fix a problem, please redownload.
I just did the standard thing of pointing Claude Code at the binary, handed it its own porting resources that it has constructed over time, and told it to make it work. It spun for maybe 15 minutes then said it was done.
Edit July 2: Updated link to fix a problem, please redownload.
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I tried to run the first command on my 5,1 Mac Pro with 10.14.6 on it and I get and error via terminal stating that "Unable to find application named Steam." and now I have no idea what to do as I have installed Steam like normal and moved it to my applications folder without opening the Steam app itself.
So now i'm here stuck and unsure what to do. I've looked at this whole stream of messages and i'm not able to find any workaround for my case.
You need to completely uninstall Steam through AppCleaner and try redoing the process again since there is chance that this will brick the install for some unknown reasons.
I can't verify if this works, but you need to update your root certificates (or other ways through here or on Google) for it to connect properly.
hello there,
basicly whenever I input the command in the terminal it keeps telling me unable to find application named steam. However the application is right there, I have tried installing; reinsalling and even inputed the command to see whether my laptop sees if there is an app named steam (the command I inputed was 'ls /Applications | grep -i Steam' and it gave me 'steam.app') I cant find any solution rn would mean alot if u helped me a out a bit
You need to completely delete Steam.app through AppCleaner and redo the terminal process from there.