Error "SteamAPI_Init() failed; ipcserver init failed" when game tries to init Steam on Mac

Question

Full error log is:

[S_API FAIL] SteamAPI_Init() failed; ipcserver init failed .
[S_API] SteamAPI_Init(): SteamAPI_IsSteamRunning() did not locate a running instance of Steam.
[S_API] SteamAPI_Init(): Could not determine Steam client install directory.

Not sure why this is happening. I'm definitely running Steam, have the steam_appid.txt file in the executable's directory, etc.

Ideas...?

Ocana

Answer 1

Finally figured it out. I needed to remove "App Sandbox" from my project target's "Signing and Capabilities". Looks like sandboxing isn't compatible with Steam builds.

In addition, enabling "Hardened Runtime" is required for Notarizing, which is recommended I guess. But then I needed to check "Disable Library Validation", otherwise I'd get code-signing errors (lack of signing actually) for libsteam_api.dylib.

Hope those two bits help others save some head-banging.

Ocana

Thanks for this. I also keep running into code signing problems when copying steam_appid.txt and libsteam_api.dylib into the Executables directory. – Colleencollege

I ran into some issues around that as well. Maybe these answers help? #52385898 – Ocana