Your Steam library is not syncing

If your shelf came back empty, or the connection reads Private, Steam is answering our request without telling us what you own.

Two settings, not one

In Steam: Profile → Edit Profile → Privacy Settings.

• My profile has to be Public. While it is Private or Friends Only, everything under it is too.
• Game details has to be Public. This is the one that actually governs the games list, and it is the one people miss — a public profile with private game details still returns nothing.

There is also a separate checkbox, Always keep my total playtime private. Leaving it ticked lets us see your games but not your hours, so the library fills in while every entry reads zero hours played.

Then sync again

Steam does not tell us when you change a setting. Go back to Settings → Connections and press Sync now.

Why we say "private" rather than "synced"

Worth knowing, because it explains a confusing state we used to show. When a library is private, Steam does not return an error — it returns a perfectly normal success with nothing in it, which is indistinguishable from owning no games unless you look closely. For a while that meant the page said Synced over an empty shelf, which is the one situation where the fix belongs entirely to you and nothing on the page said so. Now it says Private and tells you which switch to move.

How often it re-syncs by itself

Once a week, and an account synced in the last six days is skipped. If you have just bought something and want it on your shelf now, Sync now is immediate.