CrossOver Support - Community Forums

Hello all!

Steam worked fine yesterday morning but wont launch today anymore without any changes made to my system. I wonder whether this is due to the client overhaul that was pushed out yesterday: https://www.engadget.com/steam-overhauls-notifications-ui-elements-and-the-in-game-overlay-000839366.html.

And hints on debugging this would be highly appreciated!

My system: MBP 14" 2021, macOS 13.2.1

I have the same issues with Steam not loading. I was playing some Half-Life 2 yesterday (6/15) and today when I went to launch steam it originally opened but got all these errors when trying to launch the store. I closed the app, restarted, and now it won't even launch at all. On my dock I see a "Steam" icon and a "Wine64-preloader" icon on the dock. No window or anything lunches. Hope this gets resolved shortly.

2023 Mac mini M2 Pro

Sorry to hear this. Steam does seem to be working so far (after its update) on my MBP running 13.3.1. Just checking that you don't have an external monitor connected to your MBP when launching steam? That has sometimes caused crashes for me in the past.

Steam doesn't work anymore for me either, not even disconnecting external monitor or grafting on my Mac Steam credentials solves the issue. I hope it's resolved fast, this is ridiculous for a piece of software so essential to almost every game.

I'm also experiencing this, and have tried various workarounds on my M1 MacBook Air running Mac OS 13.3.1 and Crossover 22.0.1

Following the thread to see if anyone manages to get Steam working again.

MacOS ventura 13.4 crossover 22.1.1, I can load steam only if i disable DXVK in the crossover bottle menu, which means I can only play single player games - very annoying. Booting directly into the game from the crossover bottles doesn't work either, that just immediately crashes without any messages. I uninstalled and reinstalled everything but no change. It was working fine on Wednesday night.

Was also running into this issue on CrossOver 22.1.1 and macOS 13.4.

Was able to fix by doing the following:

1. Clearing Steam Cache - Open the C drive for the bottle where Steam is installed and navigate to "Program Files (x86)\Steam" and clear the contents of "appcache" and "depot cache". Still ensure that both folders remain but with the contents empty.
2. Configure Wine - Open "Wine Configuration" and ensure that the "Windows Version" is set to "Windows 10." The default will be set to "Windows 7."
3. Relaunch Steam - Clicking on Steam again via CrossOver will kick off a new update, it should complete successfully. However, you might get a popup from Steam saying that a component of Steam is not working. There will be a couple of options to choose from but selecting "Restart SteamWebHelper" should kick off Steam correctly and everything should be good to go!

Best of luck and I hope this helps!

Clearing appcache folder works only once. Closing Steam and opening it again, causes the same bug where steamhelper doesn't work.

Unfortunately the cache clearing does not work for me.

same here, steamwebhelper stuck on my bottles after letting steam install its latest update yesterday. Won't launch.

Tried reinstalling the bottle, then it worked for one session - e.g. logged in, checked a game if it works (Cultic - not that it has any relevance here), then exited steam. Won't launch since then. I have a few steam bottles, all behave the same after the steam update. With some I see 2 steam icons on the dock, with some I see one. Both cases won't load up the Steam UI. The ones with 2 icons show a popup saying "steamwebhelper" not responding and offers some choices - none of those work. Is there a way to install a previous version of steam ? (guessing not, but hey)

edit: forgot to mention versions: I am on MacOS Ventura 13.4 and Crossover 22.1.1 (22.1.1.35679), MBP 14" 2021, 10 Core CPU, 16 Core GPU

Also: sometimes I get it to load up steam by toggling options like ESync, or repairing the bottle. Then it works just one time, it loads up steam, I can see my games, I can play my games... but every time after I exit steam and try launching it again, it won't load. Seems/feels like some sort of corruption happens somewhere. Or some library's entry point / memory address "moves" again :D

Either way, hope this gets fixed, and/or someone finds a workaround soon :)

Same here. Basically same issue as everyone above has said. I've put it down to the new steam update as the only change. I've tried reinstalling everything (Crossover, Steam, C++ redist etc etc), changing the bottle from windows 10 to windows 7, changing the steam and web helper only to 7 and the global left on Windows 10.

Tried toggling on/off a bunch of the different toggles in different combinations (CSMT, esync, DXVK, Hires). Furthest I can get is the login page but with only a grey gradient background and an 'x' in the top right. No UI, no fields to login.

It's super painful. I contact customer support about 48 hours ago and their first reply was generic random troubleshooting which wasn't helpful. Hopefully their next reply will be helpful.

Happy to read I'm not going crazy.
I'm experiencing the same issues as described.
Tried re-installing crossover entirely, creating clean bottles with steam, tried running it on win 7 or 10, tried launching with various options, variations in the advanced settings (DXVK etc), using command line steam, some other fixes like the one from the GitHub repo replacing a few files etc.

Anyhow, I hope CodeWeavers sees this message and comes up with a solution soon.
It's really cool that we can run windows games on Mac but I do feel I'm constantly debugging to keep playing.

Okay, so this might need to be cross-checked, but apparently it works on my system if I start steam with the

-flushconfig

option.

Right click steam icon, then "run with options".
Not sure what other side effects this might have, but ... seems to work for me.
I'll do more testing and report back if I find anything significant.

Szilard Locsei wrote:

Okay, so this might need to be cross-checked, but apparently it works on my system if I start steam with the

-flushconfig

option.

Right click steam icon, then "run with options".
Not sure what other side effects this might have, but ... seems to work for me.
I'll do more testing and report back if I find anything significant.

This worked for me where everything else failed. Previously I would just get a blank Steam login window with no fields, running with -flushconfig I can actually login and install things.

Thank you Szilard Locsei!

Unfortunately it broke for me again after a couple of runs :(
Weird. Sometimes I get a broken "popup" screen with just a question mark visible.
Other times the thing won't start at all (no steam icon in the dock)
We need to keep searching.

I have a bit of hope in finding a parameter that reverses whatever they changed in this latest update.
https://gist.github.com/davispuh/6600880

Update: need a more up to date list of these command line params.

HI guys, i got same problem as you .. :( its a perfect evening for my AoE 2 game :D ... but,, also a lot of work to finish .. maybe someone up there wanna me to do my job, instead of playing :D.. hope they figure it out soon.. Thank you 😇

Same here.

I cannot open Steam and run AOE2 on my MBP PRO. :( I hope It will be fixed shortly.

Szilard Locsei wrote:

Okay, so this might need to be cross-checked, but apparently it works on my system if I start steam with the

-flushconfig

option.

Right click steam icon, then "run with options".
Not sure what other side effects this might have, but ... seems to work for me.
I'll do more testing and report back if I find anything significant.

this works for me with an extra step, as the steam launches it hangs, I right-click the icon and quit it and it relaunches on its own and works

I am also experiencing the same issues as you guys described above. Commenting to get more attention from CodeWeavers.
My configuration: MacBook Pro 16, M1 Max, MacOS 13.4, CrossOver 22.1.1 (22.1.1.35679).

Interestingly enough, I am able to launch some games without Steam (Witcher 3 namely), so this might be related to the recent Steam app overhaul.

Also, what worked for me was to spam the Steam icon until the screen with options to restart Steam popups, and randomly restarting Steam usually leads to Steam opening up properly for me.

Same here. Not working since the brand new version

I tried this but I did not get any results on a clean install

Formulka wrote:

Szilard Locsei wrote:

Okay, so this might need to be cross-checked, but apparently it works on my system if I start steam with the

-flushconfig

option.

Right click steam icon, then "run with options".
Not sure what other side effects this might have, but ... seems to work for me.
I'll do more testing and report back if I find anything significant.

this works for me with an extra step, as the steam launches it hangs, I right-click the icon and quit it and it relaunches on its own and works

Same here, not launching regardless of any fix or run with options command. M1 Max on macOS 13.4.
Also tried installing it into a new bottle.

Formulka wrote:

Szilard Locsei wrote:

Okay, so this might need to be cross-checked, but apparently it works on my system if I start steam with the

-flushconfig

option.

Right click steam icon, then "run with options".
Not sure what other side effects this might have, but ... seems to work for me.
I'll do more testing and report back if I find anything significant.

this works for me with an extra step, as the steam launches it hangs, I right-click the icon and quit it and it relaunches on its own and works

It stopped working, I hope this issue is resolved as soon as possible, do we have any news from Codeweavers?

try this
-cef-disable-gpu -cef-disable-gpu

Hi folks,

We apologize for the troubles with Steam after the latest Steam client update. Our team is hard at working looking into a fix, but in the meantime, this is what worked for me: when Steam starts, there are two icons in the dock: one for Steam, and one for steamwebhelper. If you select steamwebhelper and go to the Mac menu bar and quite steamwebhelper, Steam will relaunch and work.

On the bright side, this seems to be working much better on the CrossOver 23 nightlies, and we plan on going to beta for 23 relatively soon :)

As always, I highly recommend submitting a ticket, and you'll get updates when they're available.

All the best,
Meredith

Edit: to answer my own question:
This only seemed to work for me after enabling DXVK and high resolution mode.

Thanks for letting us know you are working on a fix.
I just tried the temporary bypass but it doesn't seem to work for me and I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

I start steam from the crossover bottle, I do get two icons but one is labelled steam and the other is wine64preloader.
If I quit the latter it will restart but I will get to the same login screen without UI (i.e. a square with blue gradient and a close button)

What can I do to resolve this?

Unfortunately I cant find a "steamwebhelper", just "Steam" and "wine64-preloader". Any further tips?

Martin Mlostek wrote:

Unfortunately I cant find a "steamwebhelper", just "Steam" and "wine64-preloader". Any further tips?

Same. -flushconfig worked for one run, but now Steam doesn't show any UI at all. And there is no "steamwebhelper" icon, only wine64-preloader. I also tried opening task manager and manually killing the steamwebhelper processes. I do see them restart in the process list, but nothing ever renders.

Waiting on the next release!

I started using the nightly build of CrossOver 23 and Steam works fine, maybe an option in the meantime.

Formulka wrote:

I started using the nightly build of CrossOver 23 and Steam works fine, maybe an option in the meantime.

Did you try if EAPlay works there?

Martin Mlostek wrote:

Formulka wrote:

I started using the nightly build of CrossOver 23 and Steam works fine, maybe an option in the meantime.

Did you try if EAPlay works there?

It partially works, the library section doesn’t id assume that will be resolved before or during the beta cycle

update from my similar issue, I got in touch with codeweavers support explaining the problem and they said they're working on it for the July or August release. In the meantime, if you contact them they will supply a download link for the latest nightly build that solves the problem, for me it's Version 2320230617 (23.0.0.36227). for multiplayer for me, aoe DE, you will probably need to install steam and the game using something called a .tie file, aka CrossTie. another download link they'll supply, once the new crossover is installed and open double click the downloaded .tie file to install and follow the usual dialogue box t+c's etc. This should install steam. once steam is installed the game still needs installing, to install this double click the same .tie file again and it should trigger the game download within the steam engine. Then once done, close steam, ensure DXVK is enabled, and then it should work. good luck.

use -vgui

x0r3n wrote:

use -vgui

whoa this actually WORKS for me !!!!! 😀

On the 1st run, I got an empty library, but on 2nd and 3rd re-launch it loads alright.
Tested on 2 user accounts on the same machine, e.g 2 installations of Crossover. Works with both.
One of the installations seemed to re-install the steam client (though not sure if this is because I have tried to launch it with -flushconfig followed by -vgui. Anyway -flushconfig is not required I believe, as I did not use on the other Crossover install)

BUT guess what I meant to say is THANK YOU, this works for me !!

P.S.: so sometimes the library comes up as blank screen, but then I quit steam and start it again with the same -vgui option and so far it loaded up fine I can see my library, I can play the gaemz. I will use this until next Crossover release drops - hopefully it'll have support for the new DXVK libs that can actually render titles like the new System Shock and Warhammer 4k Boltgun :D

Szilard Locsei wrote:

x0r3n wrote:

use -vgui

whoa this actually WORKS for me !!!!! 😀

On the 1st run, I got an empty library, but on 2nd and 3rd re-launch it loads alright.
Tested on 2 user accounts on the same machine, e.g 2 installations of Crossover. Works with both.
One of the installations seemed to re-install the steam client (though not sure if this is because I have tried to launch it with -flushconfig followed by -vgui. Anyway -flushconfig is not required I believe, as I did not use on the other Crossover install)

BUT guess what I meant to say is THANK YOU, this works for me !!

P.S.: so sometimes the library comes up as blank screen, but then I quit steam and start it again with the same -vgui option and so far it loaded up fine I can see my library, I can play the gaemz. I will use this until next Crossover release drops - hopefully it'll have support for the new DXVK libs that can actually render titles like the new System Shock and Warhammer 4k Boltgun :D

With -vgui use in steam View->"Small mode", then library always will work

It just stopped working in the nightly build as well, no update, nothing. I just quit steam and tried to start it again. None of the methods mentioned here work there now either.

Edit: I can now actually tell it is not going to work anymore, as soon as it launches it flashes the update progressbar for a second and then crashes/hangs never to work again.

Edit2: Reinstalling Steam in the same bottle might have helped (possibly clearing out some cache in the process but I'm not sure).

-vgui works for me.. no issues. Sometimes library comes up empty, so in these cases I just simply switch to View->Small Mode.
You can also try -vgui -flushconfig : I ran -flushconfig at least once on most of my bottles. Seems like it forces steam to check for updates, e.g. I can see the update-popup whenever I have -flushconfig appended. Mind you, I am not sure what it does.

I've not been able to get Steam to work by following any of the guidance provided here or via the support team. Steam seems to continuously try to update and then never loads.

I bought CrossOver for the sole reason of playing Windows based game through Steam on my Mac. 😕

Robert Roy wrote:

I've not been able to get Steam to work by following any of the guidance provided here or via the support team. Steam seems to continuously try to update and then never loads.

I bought CrossOver for the sole reason of playing Windows based game through Steam on my Mac. 😕

have you tried launching with the

-vgui -flushconfig

parameters ?

I had the same what you describe, then the above 2 params sorted it for me.

edit: use -flushconfig only once, then if it works, use only -vgui on subsequent runs

Same issue. None of the above solutions worked. Ventura 13.2.1, Crossover 22.1.1 and Nightlies. M1 Mini 8/512

I "can" start Steam apps by booting their .exe files but not Steam proper.

Best of luck all! Best Regards and Best Wishes!

FWIW some more anecdata - I've been running nightly for 5 days and everything seems to work fine.

Anyone else noticed that things are not working on the nightly build now either?
Steam launches but my game (AOE2 DE) does not start.

The AoE 2 problem has been reported by different users. Here's a Github link where the most recent comments mention the same problem (I left a comment there as well):

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/3189

I'm not sure if this is related to Steam or the game proper. Apparently it might have something to do with wintrust.

x0r3n wrote:

use -vgui

I tried a whole bunch of options, and this is what seems to work most reliably for me. Thanks for the tip!

Pedro Maia Lopes wrote:

The AoE 2 problem has been reported by different users. Here's a Github link where the most recent comments mention the same problem (I left a comment there as well):

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/3189

I'm not sure if this is related to Steam or the game proper. Apparently it might have something to do with wintrust.

AOE2:DE not working since it’s latest update has nothing todo with Steam.

I’m saying this as I have a fully functional Steam Client but AOE2:DE doesn’t work (yet)

It seems to be fixed for Proton.
I'm hopeful Codeweavers can implement the same?

After all things in this forum, just re-installed and it works. I have had to use the "kill the steamwebhelper" once and that worked as well.

UPDATE: I now have to do the following to get Steam to spawn reliably

1. -flushconfig AND Terminate the Steamwebhelper. Everytime.
2. Also Relaunch the Finder after every use but that could just be PTSD or cargo cult-ish behaviour
3. Force Quit all Wine-ish running processes.
4. Using DXVK, CSMT and Esync switches.
5. I also Quit all applications and Reboot after every use.
6. Quit/Restart CrossOver

Not pretty but it works well enough so I can use Steam. Hope you all are getting better results. Best Regards and Best Wishes!

I'm just subscribing here for updates.

I confirm that Steam still doesn't work on 22.1.1 or on the 2320230704 nightly (I tried some of the tips here like -flushconfig or other things, but no luck)

Hi. I just started using Crossover for the first time just a few hours ago so what I'm about to say my be common knowledge, if so I apologize in advance. I experienced similar problems to others in this thread where Steam worked at first and then started to quit after a few seconds when I tried to run it again later. I tried everything recommended here and nothing worked. Eventually I got it to work but it had nothing to do with software changes.

At one point after installing a game successfully in Steam I turned on my sound bar to get audio. The sound bar is connected via the HDMI port and presents a 1080p display to the system which is configured to mirror the main 4k display using DisplayPort and connected to the computer via a Thunderbolt port (TB3->DP cable). The presence of the second (mirrored) display at different resolution (4k for main, 1080p for mirrored) was enough to stop Steam from working through Crossover.

Once I disconnected the second display / sound bar, everything went back to normal. I even tried connecting a different 4k display directly to HDMI with everything else completely disconnected and this worked as well. It seems Crossover or Steam just don't like having two mirrored displays running at the same time.

I hope this is helpful to others.

edit: I failed to mention that the computer is a Mac Studio M2 Ultra.

I had been using -vgui option for a while, and even that wasn't perfect, still some weird interactions (Library window was blank). With the newest update they released on the Steam client it seems to work much better for me. Both my win7 and win10 bottles benefited from it, and now no more need to do the -vgui during launch (this is with crossover v22.1.1).