Steam Broadcast: Not working on PC, but fine on phone

Satsumomo

So this one is a bit weird.

I can't broadcast, or watch other people's broadcasts using my PC. However, if I use my phone it works fine.

What happens is that the broadcast is on an endless loop of loading, it seems to load for a split second and then I see the loading icon again.

PC: Connected via LAN, already tried within Steam and on different browsers, same results. I turned off the Firewall, same results. Windows 10.

My phone is connected to the same network, and it loads broadcasts fine.

Any idea where to start troubleshooting? Could it be some sort of system-wide codec?

Satsumomo

Update: I installed a VM on my PC and it streams fine through it.

So I guess it's how my PC is handling whatever format Steam Broadcast is, right?

This is what Firefox loops on when trying to watch a broadcast:

https://imgur.com/iB4SrcN

ani_game_bum

Here is the Steam KB thread for troubleshooting the Client issues, which to me sounds like you need to update/reinstall a client file that is missing or corrupted if your VM install worked OK but not your main system (the second fix under the Basic section may be the way to go first):

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3352-RYON-4107

Do read up and take care, though; sounds like if not done correctly your games and user data can get deleted if you do a straight-up uninstall.

Satsumomo

Just a note, I did not install the Steam client on the VM, I simply put the broadcast on the browser and it worked instantly, on the pre-installed version of Edge.

Orogogus

Are you running any antivirus or antimalware programs, or adblocker extensions? Or did you edit your Windows HOSTS file to block ad or malware sites?

Satsumomo

Only Windows Defender, have tried it with them disabled, same issue. Nothing in my hosts files, and only ublock origin, but happens even if its disabled (And I can't see broadcasts on Edge or Steam anyways).

I find it weird that I'm getting 404 errors in the log. I assume something is simply blocking it right? Is there a way to see if a process blocks a connection?

Satsumomo

Yeah just did a test on both my PC and the VM:

ping steambroadcast.akamaized.net

On my PC: Ping request could not find host steambroadcast.akamaized.net/. Please check the name and try again.

And it worked perfectly on the VM, with an average 2ms response time.

EDIT
Interesting development, when I ping said address above, the VM gets a response from a1507.w16.akamai.net and if I try to ping that in my PC, it works.

This seems like a DNS issue, I did a flush and switched to Google's DNS and it still isn't working. Arghhh!

Orogogus

Try in Windows Safe Mode?

Satsumomo

FIXED!!!

I managed to get some really good support from Steam (I had to insist on escalating because they were just sending me to the FAQs) and after several back and forths, we found out that this was being caused by my Windows 10 computer not syncing time correctly. Yup, weird but that was it.

For some reason if I sync my time with microsoft time, it goes 4 minutes into the future. So I manually set my time to match my phone and voilá, I can view streams.