Steam has many advantages and benefits over other video game launchers like the most extensive game library, constant sales of games, a user-friendly interface, remote play, etc. Another feature of Steam is the option to add products to your Steam library; products refer to games or anything that can be redeemed.
On top of Steam having a massive library of games, Steam allows people to add or redeem games from other sources. However, some report Steam not allowing users to redeem product codes or add games to their library. One way to fix this would be to check for Steam updates on the Steam client.
Method – How to check for Steam updates
- Open the Steam app
- Click Steam in the top left
- Press check for updates
Content list
- What can the Steam library do
- How to fix the there was a problem adding this product to your Steam account error
- Make sure the base game is added first
- Restart the Steam client
- Check if there are any Steam updates
- Conclusion
What can the Steam library do
Steam is the biggest gaming platform on PC, and it offers users over 50,000 games to view and purchase, all of which will go to the Steam library. Other than games appearing in the library, there are a few other things that you can do there.
One of the features of the Steam library is the option to add new games to your library by clicking “Add a game.”
Clicking “Add a Non-Steam Game” allows you to add certain games from other launchers, which you can launch from Steam. A benefit of doing this is the option to use Steams controller support for games that lack it; for example, adding games from Origin that have no controller support onto Steam would let you use a controller. You should know that you cannot earn achievements for these games or view any social options. You need to keep the game on your other launcher as you aren’t installing it onto Steam, just launching it.
You can add Non-Steam games to Steam by:
- Opening the Steam app and signing in.
- Go to the “Library” tab.
- Press “Add a Non-Steam Game.”
- You can also access this by pressing “Games” at the top of the page.
- Pressing this option will show a window with a list of programs. You can click “Browse” to find a game if you know where it is located.
Another tool on the Steam library is the “Collections” function. Steam collections is a tool that allows users to organize their game libraries into different groups.
How to use Steam collections:
- Open Steam.
- Go to the Library page.
- Click the button next to “Home.”
- Click “Create a new collection” to separate your games.
- If your Steam library is getting too large, you can split your games into different categories depending on the type of game. One way to do this is to create collections for single-player and co-op games. This will be easier on the eyes if you have an extensive list and help you find games more easily.
After creating the collection, you need to drag games into the collection box. In this example, I will drag Brawlhalla into “Co-op” as it is a multiplayer game.
When you go back to the library’s home page, you will see your collections and some of the games in them.
The last feature of the Steam Library I will showcase will be the option to filter the games in your library to different tags. Filtering this would be helpful to dilute your game library if you want to find a specific game to play or find games of certain tags to put into collections. You can do this by going to your library and clicking the filter button next to the search bar.
You can filter for specific types of games like multiplayer or single-player, installed or unplayed games, the type of genre of games, etc. There is also the function to search for Store tags to find games of a specific type. Clicking this will open a menu that shows different filters to toggle.
Choosing these options will make any game that falls in these categories instantly filter and appear on your list.
How to fix the there was a problem adding this product to your Steam account error
Even though Steam is the biggest gaming platform on PC, it isn’t safe from having errors and problems occur. The problem I will cover in this article is the issue of adding a product to your account; this is where Steam has an issue adding a game to your library for an unknown reason.
There isn’t a direct fix for this issue, but there are a few things you can check and try that could resolve this issue. This article will cover three things you can do, from restarting Steam to checking for Steam client updates.
- Make sure the base game is added first
- Restart the Steam client
- Check if there are any Steam updates
Make sure the base game is added first
One reason you would receive this error would be trying to add a DLC (downloadable content) for a game on Steam without adding the base game to your library first. To fix this, go to the library page, click “Add a Game,” and choose one of the options, then follow the steps to add it to your library.
After adding the base game to your library, you can add or redeem the DLC for that game, and the error shouldn’t reappear.
Restart the Steam client
If you receive this error without trying to download DLC without the game, there are a few other things you can try to get around this issue. The following method I will cover will be how restarting the Steam client may help.
There are two ways to restart Steam, one by right-clicking the app icon and the other way would be using task manager to end the task.
You can quit the Steam app by going to your taskbar, right-clicking the Steam app icon, and pressing “Exit.”
You can also use the task manager to close specific applications completely. Task manager can be opened by using the Windows search bar and searching for it; alternatively, you can press Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
The task manager shows you what processes, applications, and services are running on your computer. You can see how much of your device’s memory and system resources are used by different applications and software.
Click on the Steam and press “End Task” in the bottom right to quit.
After Steam has closed, you can reopen the Steam app and try to add the product again.
Check if there are any Steam updates
The last thing I will cover in this article will be how to check if Steam has any updates. If Steam has an update to download, it can cause many functions to stop working; this could be why Steam doesn’t allow you to add a product to Steam.
You can check if Steam has any updates by opening the app and clicking “Steam” in the top left corner to find the option “Check for Steam Client Updates.”
Download any updates and try to activate the product again.
Conclusion
To conclude, some Steam users may receive the error “There was a problem adding this product to your Steam account” when they try to redeem or activate a product, and while there isn’t a direct fix for this, there are some things you can try that may help. Check if the product is a DLC instead of a game because you need to have the base game on your account first before you activate DLC. The other two things to check are if Steam has any updates on the client or restarting Steam, as either of these can cause problems.