The joy of being able to play your favourite games on the go has been always great, ever since the early days of the Game Boy. But today we have much more convenient ways to play on the go, with the Switch and, of course, the Steam Deck. But if you've been having Steam Deck Wi-Fi issues that can be bothersome.
Overall, the Steam Deck is a fine device, even compared to its competitors such as the Asus ROG and GPD Win 4, but there have been a few issues popping up such as infinite loading screen and Cloud Sync error.
But if your Steam Deck is not downloading games via Wi-Fi that makes it quite a problem, so let's get to solving it.
How to fix the Steam Deck Wi-Fi issues
Since this problem can be caused by a number of possible things, we have to start eliminating the more generic causes and then get down to more specific fixes.
Reset your router
Despite your Wi-Fi apparently working right, still, your router might be having issues with the Steam Deck, so it is a good idea to power cycle your router. Perhaps also resetting its settings to default might be a good idea. While you don't need to change the Wi-Fi name or settings, just do a quick reset and try again.
Reboot the Steam Deck
A force reboot of the console might definitely help with these kinds of issues. Here's how to do it:
- Press the Power button, holding it for approximately 12 seconds.
- Press the power button again once you see that the console has been turned off.
- Once the restart has been completed, make sure that there's no other software running.
Try again to connect to your Wi-Fi connection and downloading games.
Change the router's channel
Modern routers often have a dual connection (2.5/5ghz) which can be configured both as a single channel and dual ones. It might be worth it to try on both channels to see if the problem is fixed.
Here's how to do it:
- Log in to your router page via Wi-Fi or using a WLAN cable.
- Go into the Wi-Fi settings and change the channel of your router (2.4GHz or 5GHz) from the menu.
- After you have chosen a frequency, click on Wireless Settings.
- From the Channel option, a drop-down menu will appear.
- Then select Save to create a new channel.
Now you will see two different channels for the frequencies you have chosen. Try connecting to these new ones and see what happens.
Disable Wi-Fi power saving mode on the Deck
It has been reported that this mode could be causing problems with your connection, and sometimes results in Steam Deck can’t reach Steam servers issue. So, here's how to disable it:
- In the Steam Deck, head to Settings.
- Under Library settings, you’ll find Developer Mode, which has to be enabled first.
- You will find there an option for Wi-Fi Power Saving, right under the Developer Mode tab.
- Reboot the Steam Deck.
After rebooting you can try again, to see if the problem has been fixed.
What is the cause of the Steam Deck Wi-Fi issues?
There might be a number of reasons why the Steam Deck is not connecting or just downloading slowly from your connection. For example, your ISP might be throttling your connection because it's peak hours and they are trying to make sure everyone can download at the right speed.
Valve itself reported, also, that the following ISPs have been blocking ports required for Steam Deck to work correctly:
Some ISPs have been found to block ports required for the proper operation of Steam and Steam games:
- 012.net (Steam traffic blocked)
- Bluewin (Firewall blocks Steam from provider side)
- Dutch Telecom (Steam traffic blocked)
- ISPFree (Steam traffic blocked)
- Micronet Broadband (Steam traffic blocked)
For these particular cases, we recommend hitting up Steam Support to see if they can offer a solution.