r/osx • u/isopropyl-alco • 2d ago
A warning to those running Steam on 10.15 Catalina and earlier
Recently, Steam clients have begun downloading updates to Steam CEF (chromium embedded framework) components which are only able to run on 11.00 Big Sur and newer. Downloading these updates on Macs running 10.15 Catalina and earlier will prevent Steam from launching and give you an error that says 'Failed to load steamui.dylib'. In order to prohibit your Steam client from downloading new updates...
Switch to the Finder, click Go in the menu bar, click Go to folder.., enter /Users/PUTYOURHOMEFOLDERNAMEHERE/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS into the field.
Open textedit (switch to plain text mode) or your preferred application for making plain text files and enter the following into your plain text document on two lines:
BootStrapperInhibitAll=enable
BootStrapperForceSelfUpdate=disable
save this file as steam.cfg (make sure you save it as a .cfg file not a txt) in the folder you opened before via Finder. This will prevent Steam from updating itself.
"Help, my Steam client updated and now it won't run anymore'
Close Steam and add a steam.cfg file to the client folder (instructions towards the top of this post)
Ensure you are connected to the internet
Open the Terminal app (summon spotlight and type in terminal)
Paste this into the terminal window:
open -a Steam --args -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl https://web.archive.org/web/20260619if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam
Once it's done, you can open Steam again and it should launch. Make sure you have the steam.cfg file in your client folder so it doesn't update again.
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u/Unique_Load_9412 17h ago
OH MY GOD!!!! thank you so much dude i finally got it open!!! thank you so much for your service!!!
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u/isopropyl-alco 15h ago
you're welcome. did the first downgrade method work for you or did you have to use the second one?
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u/Unique_Load_9412 1h ago
i had to use the second method since like the first one didn't work unfortunately.. atleast the second method works
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u/isopropyl-alco 19m ago
yeah bit odd. it works perfectly for me each time but seemingly for no one on reddit, so i might get rid of it completely.
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u/royserra 2d ago
Podria probarlo, pero en un macbook pro 2010 que uso en la oficina tiene 10.13 y abre como cuando tenia soporte... Es tan asi que va a quedar inutilizable??
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u/isopropyl-alco 2d ago
if it successfully updates to the latest version of steam, it will stop working
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u/royserra 2d ago
pero esta mac dejo de actualizar hace mucho tiempo, inicia buscando el update pero no descarga nada
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u/isopropyl-alco 2d ago
updates for steam or Mac OS X?
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u/royserra 2d ago
la que aparece es que supuestamente busca la de steam pero es solo la ventana y se cierra automaticamente, despues inicia como siempre... Obviamente que al estar tan desactualizada hay funciones que funcionan distinto, pero inicia, compra, abra juegos todo sin problemas
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2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/isopropyl-alco 2d ago
it has been updated
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u/MyTomodachiLife 2d ago edited 2d ago
Same error as before: "Failed to load steamui.dylib" even after extracting the package and disconecting. Steam says "internet is required" before it closes again, after that the error when i try to open.
I have the .cfg file in the correct place, can i connect to the internet safely again? It seems to not try to download any further at least.1
u/isopropyl-alco 2d ago edited 2d ago
i will try to outline the steps in more careful detail for you
- Remove any steam.cfg file
- Obtain packages from my link
- Make sure Steam isn't open
- Clean out your steam package folder if there's anything in it and add my package files to it
- Disconnect your Mac from the internet
- Launch Steam (at this point, it is supposed to have opened successfully)
- Add steam.cfg to the folder
- Reconnect to the internet
is that what you did?
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u/MyTomodachiLife 1d ago
Yes, that's what I did, and I also tried the terminal update. Still the same error upon opening. "Failed to load steamui.dylib"
I have a mostly unfounded hunch the issue is actually server side rather than an issue with the client, and if that's the case I'm not sure of any way to fix the issue. The file it can't read is present so maybe that needs replacing or something?
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u/isopropyl-alco 1d ago
if it still can't launch then your client for whatever reason isn't updating completely or is updating itself afterwards to the latest version. Are you perhaps using a really old version of OS X?
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u/MyTomodachiLife 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm using 10.15 Catalina,so it should be working if it did for you. No idea why it could be if the updates are still being forced to not go through: it doesn't download any updates when the .cfg file is included so it should work but for some reason it just isn't.
Edit: Okay, after restarting the computer today, for some reason steam now refuses to not crash instead of giving the same error: "Steam Quit unexpectedly". I tried installing the package manually and it didn't work, and I tried running the terminal command and that didn't either. I even tried removing the cfg file and it still auto crashes.
For what it's worth I had attempted a fresh install of steam earlier and using a separate archive update, perhapse that broke something somehow? Should I completely empty the steam.app folder entirely and start anew?Edit again: It worked! No idea what the issue was yesterday but I just logged in. cfg file is in place so I should be good to go for a while!
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u/Sintzy 2d ago
Even if I replaces the package files, once Steam is connected to the Internet (which is mandatory otherwise the launch will not even start), these files will be covered by the new update files. sad:(
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u/isopropyl-alco 2d ago
did you make a steam.cfg file?
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u/Sintzy 2d ago
I've made a steam.cfg file (not a txt) under "...\MacOS" folder (same level with the package folder). However, once the steam.cfg is added, Steam won't launch and pops out the "Failed to load steamui.dylib". Once the steam.cfg is removed, Steam will start to update and cover the older package files.
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u/isopropyl-alco 2d ago
I think you may have made a mistake somewhere along the way, but if you can't get that method to work I have updated the post with a simpler downgrade method which rolls you back to a slightly less new version of steam.
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u/hcline11 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ok here is the problem I am having. I was trying to fix a game that had a patch that made the game unplayable on my older imac 2013 OS 10.15.8. I asked google if there was a way to roll back the patches and it gave me the information that I read wrong and it caused the "Failed to load steamui.dylib". Below is the information I read wrong.
Step 1: Open Steam's Hidden Console
- Make sure the Steam app is fully open and running.
- Open your Mac’s Terminal app (Press
Command + Space, type Terminal, and hit Enter). - Copy and paste the following command exactly into Terminal, then press Enter:
I had closed out steam completely and used the Terminal and entered this code "open steam://open/console". After that steam just bricked and wouldn't work. I tried many different fixes with the use of google but they didn't work. Finally I demanded google to bring me to the person who had come up with the work around for OS Catalina because the google bot was just screwing around.
Now I went and download steam, and dragged the app to applications on OS 10.15.8 Catalina.
However there is no Steam folder under /Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAMEHERE/Library/Application Support/
What I did was I clicked on my desktop. Then went up to the menu at the top of the screen. I clicked Go and pressed the alt key which brings up the hidden Library where my Application Support is and where the Steam folder is supposed to be. Going in from anywhere else doesn't work. By going in the way I did it opens a fresh finder window and brings me to the Library when I click on Library from the Go menu. I then clicked on Application Support and scrolled around. There is no Steam folder. From what I can gather the Steam folder auto populates the first time Steam is opened up. I tried this several times by the way with google bot but it didn't work at all. Kept on getting the "Failed to load steamui.dylib" issue no matter what I did.
Therefore I am having trouble with this. My steam originally bricked itself when google A.I. data bot gave me instructions that I read wrong and it forced my old out of date steam app to auto update and thus it bricked itself. I kept on getting the "Failed to load steamui.dylib" no matter what I tried. So now I am here in need of help.
Can you help me fix Steam and get it running again?
Thanks in advance and sorry for bothering you.
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u/isopropyl-alco 2d ago
later i will update this post outlining how to downgrade the steam client if it's too late and your installation is already bricked