How to Change Email & Password on a Purchased Steam Account (Step-by-Step Security Guide)

Short answer: on a full-access account, change the email first, then the password, then sign out every other device. Adding the Steam Guard authenticator on your phone is optional, but we'd do it. The whole thing takes about five minutes. Bought an offline activation game instead? Then skip this guide entirely and don't touch the login.

Offline games: leave the login alone

Offline accounts are shared. Other buyers download their copy from the same login you got, so if you change the password, every one of them is locked out, and your warranty is gone the moment you do it. Log in, install, put Steam in Offline Mode. That's it.

The rest of this page is for personal accounts, the kind where the account itself is yours. Your order page lists three things for those: the Steam username, the password, and a webmail inbox. Steam sends its verification codes to that inbox, so keep the tab open while you go.

Core setup

Step 1: Change the contact email

Email before password, always. Do it the other way round and Steam signs you out halfway, the reset code lands in the temporary inbox instead of yours, and now you're relying on a tab you might already have closed.

Sign in with the details from your order. On the desktop app, click your profile name in the top right and pick Account details; in a browser it's the same menu on store.steampowered.com. Under Contact Info you'll see a link to change your contact email. Steam asks to send a code to the current address first. Say yes.

That code turns up in the webmail tab, usually inside a minute. Five characters. Paste it in, type your own Gmail or Outlook address, submit, and then go to your personal inbox, where a message from Steam is waiting with a Verify Email Address button. Click it. The account is now registered to you. (Code never showed up? Jump to troubleshooting at the bottom.)

Step 2: Change the password

Quicker than step 1. Open Account details again and go to Security (the desktop app also has it under Steam, then Settings, then Security), choose Change password, and enter the code Valve sends. This time it goes to your own inbox. Pick a password you haven't used anywhere else.

Right after steps 1 and 2 a banner appears about a trade and Community Market hold, five to fifteen days long. Ignore it. Valve puts that hold on every account whose credentials change, so a stolen account can't dump its skins the same afternoon, and it has nothing to do with games: downloads, story campaigns, online matches, cloud saves and achievements all carry on normally while the timer runs.

Step 3: Sign out other devices

Anything that was signed in before the account reached you gets kicked out here. In the desktop app, go to Steam, Settings, Security, then Manage Steam Guard. In a browser, Manage Steam Guard sits under Account details. Click Deauthorize all other devices and confirm.

Your current PC stays signed in. Every other browser or computer will need the password plus a Steam Guard code to get back. If you'd already set up the phone app, expect it to ask you to sign in again.

Optional, but worth it: the mobile authenticator

Passwords leak through other sites' breaches all the time. With Steam Guard running on your phone, a leaked password on its own gets nobody in, because each new login needs a code from your handset.

Install the Steam app from the Play Store or the App Store and sign in with your new password. Open the Steam Guard tab, tap Add Authenticator, and enter your number with +91. An SMS code arrives; type it in.

Then Steam shows a recovery code beginning with R. Don't close that screen until you've saved it somewhere that isn't the same phone, whether that's a notebook or a password manager. Lose the phone without it and you're filing a ticket with Steam Support and waiting.

Troubleshooting

The email code never arrives

Spam folder first. The webmail inbox files Steam's mail there more often than you'd think. If it's not there either, Steam's mail may just be slow, which happens a lot during the big seasonal sales, so give it two or three minutes before asking for another code. Repeated requests tend to make things slower, not faster. And if you did request several, only the newest one works; older codes are dead.

Waiting on the verification link in your personal inbox instead? Check you typed the address right. Then check that inbox's spam. Ten minutes and still nothing means it's time to WhatsApp us with your order number.

You lost your phone, or got a new one

New phone, same number: install the Steam app, sign in, and Steam offers to move the authenticator over, confirming by SMS. Easy.

Lost phone but you kept the R code: go to help.steampowered.com, pick the option for a lost or removed Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator, and enter the code. The authenticator comes off, you sign in, and you set it up again on the new device.

Lost phone and no R code? If you still have the SIM, the same help page can verify you by SMS. Without either, it's a support ticket, and those take a while. One more thing: pulling the authenticator off triggers another trade hold. Games still aren't affected.

Problems after deauthorizing

Signed out on your own PC? Sign back in with your password and the Steam Guard code from your email or phone. The phone app asking you to log in again is normal too, and the authenticator stays linked when you do. If Manage Steam Guard doesn't appear in the desktop app at all, update Steam, or just use the browser route from step 3.

Quick questions

Can I share these games with my main profile?

Most of them, through Steam Families. The exceptions are games that push you through a third-party launcher, like EA App, Ubisoft Connect or the Rockstar Games Launcher. Those you play on the account you bought.

Can I change the Steam account name?

No. The login name is fixed for good. Profile name, avatar and profile URL you can change as often as you like.

Still deciding which kind of account suits you? Our preloaded Steam account guide explains the difference. If you want something to play once you're set up, start with these 10 story games under ₹250, or browse the cheap Steam games guide. Every full-access title is on the Steam accounts page.