Steam is by far one of the most popular gaming platforms ever. The platform features a vast library of both paid and free games that users can download and enjoy.

However, what sells Steam is its social features. The platform has put in an excellent set of social features to help users find and communicate with other gamers around them. 

In this article, we’re taking a look at how to fix the Steam, Friends network unreachable error.

Also read: How to change your Steam email?

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Power cycle your router

Restarting your router can fix a bunch of seemingly random issues with your network, which could, in turn, be causing problems with Steam. If you don’t have internet connectivity or an active connection, you’re going to get such issues on Steam.

So try restarting your router to rule out any network issues that may be causing problems.

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Check Steam servers

Another thing you should do is check whether or not the service itself is working or not. Steam is used by millions across the globe, and the an occasional outage here, and there isn’t anything surprising. 

You can use this page to check Steam’s server status. 

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Update your network drivers

Out of date network, drivers can cause a lot of internet issues, which can cause problems with Steam being able to reach its network. Try updating your network driver to see if that resolves your problem.

Step 1: Press Windows key + R, type in devmgmt.msc and hit enter.

Step 2: Double click Network adaptors to expand it and right click your WiFi card. Click on Update driver.

Step 3: Select Search automatically for drivers, and Windows will find and install any available updates. 

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Clear the Steam browser cache

Clearing the Steam browser’s cache can also help resolve such errors.

Step 1: Open Steam, click on Steam in the top-right menu and click Settings. 

Step 2: Head over to the Web Browser section and press the Delete Web Browser Cache and the Delete All Browser Cookies buttons. 

Now restart Steam, and it should be able to connect just fine.

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Change Steam’s properties

Changing Steam’s properties and running without the friends UI can help you get around this problem.

Step 1: Find the Steam shortcut, right-click it and select Properties.

Step 2: Under the Shortcut tab and in the Target field, add the following argument.

-nofriendsui

Now restart Steam, and it should work fine if it doesn’t try adding -nochatui to the Target field. 

Also read: Steamworks Common Redestributables explained