Steam does not work on the Mac: what should I do?

Computers Mac - not for games, and the point. The statement is roaming from forum to forum, and has been fair for many years. The tiny audience of computers from California and their general neutral attitude towards games has led to everything that is connected with complex 3D games and game services on their computers, works poorly. Even the simplest and most accessible gaming service is Steam, and it often awards Mac users with bugs, and the theme with the name "does not work for Steam on Mac" with an enviable regularity goes to the top topics on the official support forum. No matter how sad it sounds, the problem still has a solution, and if the console does not scare you, then it's time to make Steam work.

Why does not Steam work?

As with any non-working application, the first thing to try is to remove it and reinstall it, but this path does not suit everyone.

There are three main problems that owners of "apple" computers constantly face:

• Damaged cache files and log files.
• The error in the standard process is ipcserver.
• Incorrect setting of universal access and security settings of the computer.

All three problems are fixed easily and quickly, but if none of the solutions works, you'll have to contact technical support for further instructions.

Error with log file

The most common problem that Steam does not work on Mac is the broken registry.vdf file.

To fix the problem associated with this file, you need to remove it so that the program loads it from scratch.

Since the file is downloaded to the system folder, it is initially hidden, so start by turning on the display of hidden files in the system using the command in the terminal. The terminal can be found in the list of applications in the "Other" folder. In the terminal you need to enter the command - defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles 1 && killall Finder.

After that, you need to open the Finder, select the "Settings" submenu, open the "Side Menu" tab and tick the box in front of the Macintosh HD - it's your hard drive on which system data is stored. Go to the Macintosh HD folder - "Users" - "Your account name" - "Libraries". Next, you need to find and open (previously holding down the Ctrl key) the Application Support - Steam folder and remove the registry.vdf file from there. After the restart, Steam will download this file again.

There is another file with temporary data, causing problems with the launch of Steam - steam.sh. The problem is solved by deleting the named file. It is located in the "Programs" directory - Steam - Contents - MacOS. After the deletion, the service will update and download the file from scratch.

If the procedure causes difficulties, you can turn to the utilities responsible for cleaning the Mac from the cache files, for example - CleanMyMac, which can automatically clean the Steam data.

The ipcserver process

Another reason that Steam does not work is the hovering process ipcserver, which is related to Steam.

To fix the problem, you need to complete this process. There are two ways to do this:

• The first is the use of the forced program termination menu. To do this, click on the apple logo in the upper left corner, select this menu and complete the Steam process (sometimes the hanging process of the service itself interrupts its operation).
• The second is the use of the system monitoring utility. The utility is located in the list of applications in the "Other" folder. In the process list, you need to find ipcserver and complete it by clicking on the cross in the upper left corner.

Privacy and universal access settings

Steam, like many other complicated programs, requires access to computer management. There is nothing wrong with this, and Valve can be trusted. Access is used to run Steam Overlay. Usually access is requested already at the stage of the first launch of any game. If this does not happen, you need to open the system settings, select the "Protection and security" submenu, find the "Privacy" tab, open the "Universal access" sub-item and check the box opposite Steam.