How to fix Steam error code 2 in Windows?

Steam error code 2 is Valve's generic failure result. It appears as "The Steam servers are too busy to handle your request" when a game starts, and as "Error code: 2" in the cart. Codes with a minus sign, such as -102, -118 or -105, are network errors of the browser built into Steam: check that Steam is up, then open the same page in a normal browser.

Facts checked on 14 October 2026. Steps written for the Steam client on Windows 11 (25H2 and 26H2) and Windows 10 22H2, read against Steam Support, the Steam client's own text files and Chromium's error list.

What Steam error code 2 means, and why -102 is a different kind of code

Steam shows numbers from two unrelated lists, and the minus sign tells you which list you are in. We read both on 14 October 2026: the text files of the current Steam client for Windows, and the public lists the numbers come from.

The client's text file holds this sentence: "The Steam servers are too busy to handle your request for %game%. Error Code (%error%)". The window title is Steam - Error. The client puts the name of your game and a number into the two placeholders, so the same sentence serves every failure of that request.

• The error page has six possible sentences. Besides the unknown error one, the client file holds "Unable to connect to server. Server may be offline or you may not be connected to the internet." and "Unable to connect to HTTP Proxy. Your proxy may be misconfigured or offline."
• Code 2 at sign-in is another screen. There it is printed as e2 under a sign-in message. That case is covered in our guide to the Steam sign-in error.
• "Failed to start (error code 2)" is not confirmed. Valve does not say which list that number comes from. Treat it as a launch problem of the game and start with Fix 4.

Steam error codes decoded: 2, -102, -118, -101, -105, -379, -21, -109, -107, -310 and -201

The first table is Valve's own list, published for game developers in the Steamworks documentation under the name EResult. Valve does not state that the number in the "too busy" window is an EResult. It fits: in the cart's code the number is passed in a variable called result, and 2 is the list's generic failure.

The second table is Chromium's list, the file net_error_list.h in the browser's source. The middle column quotes the comment that the Chromium authors wrote above each entry. Chrome shows the same entries with ERR_ in front of the name.

• Neighbours you may also see: -100 is a closed connection, -106 "The Internet connection has been lost.", -130 a failed connection to a proxy server, -137 a failed name resolution, -138 network access denied, which Chromium ties to a firewall.
• The ranges help with any other number. Chromium's file sorts them: 100 to 199 are connection errors, 200 to 299 certificate errors, 300 to 399 HTTP errors.

What causes Steam error code 2 and the minus codes, from most to least likely

Valve publishes no numbers on this, so the order is ours. It follows Steam Support's page for the "too busy" message, its network troubleshooting page, and the meaning of each code in the two lists above.

How to fix Steam error code 2 and the codes with a minus sign

Fixes 1 and 2 are for everyone: they show whether the fault is on Steam's side or on yours. Fixes 3 and 4 are for the plain code 2, in the cart and at game start. Fixes 5 to 8 belong to the minus codes, one group of numbers each. Fix 9 repairs the client and is the last step for both kinds.

Fix 1. Check whether Steam is down, then wait and try once

2 minutes, then waitingNo riskEveryone starts here, with code 2 as well as with any minus code.

The text of code 2 says it openly: the servers are too busy. A generic failure from the server cannot be repaired on your PC, and the codes -118 and -379 can also appear on a healthy PC while Steam's web servers are overloaded.

1. Select OK on the error and write down the full text with the number and its sign.
2. In a normal browser, open https://store.steampowered.com/stats/. Steam Support links this address as its server status page.
3. Watch how the page behaves. Steam Support: timeout errors on Steam's sites mean "it is very likely that there is a system-wide issue".
4. Ask one more device: open the Steam store on your phone over mobile data, not over the same Wi-Fi.
5. If both are slow or fail, stop here and wait. If both are fine, the cause is closer to you: go on to Fix 2.
6. After the wait, repeat the action once: start the game, or add the item to the cart.

Fix 2. Open the same page in a normal browser

3 minutesNo riskYou have a minus code, or a cart error, and do not know whether it is Steam, your network or the client.

The pages inside the client are ordinary web pages from the same servers. A browser on the same PC uses the same network but its own engine, cookies and proxy handling. One load there splits the causes in two.

1. Open Chrome, Edge or Firefox on the same PC.
2. Go to https://store.steampowered.com/ if the Store failed, or https://steamcommunity.com/ if a Community or profile page failed.
3. Sign in with your Steam account if the action needs it, such as the cart.
4. Repeat the exact action that failed in the client.
5. Compare the result with the table below.

Fix 3. Cart error code 2: reload, sign in again, buy from the other side

5 minutesNo riskYou see "There was a problem updating your cart." with Error code: 2 when you add, remove or change an item.

The cart message is built by the store page itself and prints the result number its request received. A generic failure there is either the server, covered in Fix 1, or the session of this one page. A fresh page and a fresh sign-in replace the session.

1. Close the message and reload the store page. In a browser press F5. In the client, right-click the page and select Reload.
2. Add the item again, once.
3. If the code returns in the client, open https://store.steampowered.com/cart/ in a normal browser, sign in to the same account and add the item there.
4. If the code returns in the browser, do it the other way round and use the Store page of the client.
5. Still there on both sides: sign out of the store website, sign in again and add the item once more.
6. Check the item's store page for a note that it is not available in your country or that you own it. Those cases have their own messages in the cart.

• Users report a router restart helped. In a Steam Community thread from May 2024, the poster could not sign in to the website either, and restarting the modem and router cleared the cart code. That is a connection fault: see Fix 5 and Fix 6.
• Others report that a page refresh was enough, or a restart of Steam from Task Manager. That is the stale session this fix is written for.
• These are reports, not Valve's advice. Valve has no support page for the cart code.

Fix 4. Error Code (2) when a game starts: sign in again and change the download region

5 to 10 minutesLow riskYou see "The Steam servers are too busy to handle your request" for one or more games while Steam itself is up.

Both steps come from Steam Support's page for this message. It advises a new sign-in after a recent purchase, to see whether the purchase was processed. Another download region should send the request for the game's data to other content servers.

1. Select OK on the error and wait a minute. Start the game once more.
2. In the top left corner of the client, open the Steam menu and select Change Account...
3. After Steam restarts, sign in with your account name and password.
4. Start the game. If the error is gone, stop here.
5. Open the Steam menu again and select Settings, then the Downloads page.
6. Under Download region, select a different but relatively close region. That wording is Steam Support's.
7. Start or install the game once more.

If the region did not help, the same page has one more control. Next to Clear Download Cache, select Clear Cache. The client's own description reads: "Clearing the download cache might resolve issues downloading or starting apps".

• Set the region back later. A region far from you slows every download. Return to your own when the error is gone.
• One game only, for days. The fault may be on the game's side of Steam. Look at the game's Community hub for an announcement before you change more on the PC.

Fix 5. Codes -102, -118, -109 and -21: turn off the VPN and proxy, restart the router

10 minutesLow riskYou have -102, -118, -109, -21 or -130, or the browser test in Fix 2 failed in the same way.

These numbers say that the connection was refused, got no answer, had no route or lost its network. Steam Support names VPN software as able to keep the client from the Steam network, and a router restart as the step to take "before trying anything else".

1. Disconnect the VPN and exit its app, so that it cannot reconnect in the background.
2. Press Win + I and open Network & internet, then Proxy.
3. Under Manual proxy setup, next to Use a proxy server, select Set up.
4. Turn Use a proxy server off and select Save.
5. Switch the modem and the router off, wait half a minute and switch them on again.
6. When the connection is back, exit Steam through the Steam menu and Exit, then start it again.
7. Open the Store page in the client.

• Test a second network. Connect the PC to your phone's hotspot and open the Store once. Steam Support advises a test on "an entirely different network, preferably from a different internet service provider".
• It works on the hotspot. The home router or the provider is the cause. Steam Support lists router services to switch off for a test: stateful inspection, dynamic packet filtering, QoS and UPnP.
• It fails only at certain hours. Steam Support: the provider may be blocking or "shaping" your connection. Test at another time of day and contact the provider.
• A proxy was on and you did not set it. On a work PC it belongs to the organisation. On your own PC it deserves a scan: How to scan for malware with Microsoft Defender

Fix 6. Code -105: flush the DNS cache and check the DNS server

5 minutesNo riskYou have -105 or -137, or the browser says it cannot find the site's address.

-105 means the name store.steampowered.com could not be turned into an address. Windows remembers failed lookups for a while. Microsoft's documentation for ipconfig /flushdns says it lets you "discard negative cache entries from the cache", which is exactly that memory.

1. Open an elevated command window. Right-click Start and select Terminal (Admin), or type cmd in the search box, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Select Yes when Windows asks for permission.
2. Flush the DNS cache. Type the command below and press Enter. Windows forgets the website addresses it looked up earlier and asks for them again.

   ipconfig /flushdns

These steps were written for Windows 11 24H2 and later. The full page with the other versions and what each result means: Reset the network and flush DNS

1. Exit Steam through the Steam menu and Exit.
2. Start Steam again and open the Store page.
3. If -105 returns, restart the router. In most homes the router is the DNS server that Windows asks.
4. Open https://store.steampowered.com/ in a browser on a phone that uses the same Wi-Fi.
5. If the phone fails as well, the router or the provider's DNS is at fault, not the PC.

• Only Steam's names fail. A DNS filter is the usual reason: parental controls in the router, an ad blocker that works through DNS, or a security product with web filtering. Allow the domains from the table in Fix 7.
• A VPN is on. Many VPN apps replace the DNS server while they are connected. Disconnect, flush again and retest.

Fix 7. Codes -101, -107 and -201: security software, the firewall and the clock

10 to 15 minutesLow riskYou have -101, -107, -138 or -201, or a browser opens the page that the client cannot.

A reset connection or a failed secure handshake inside the client usually means that a program on the PC stepped into the traffic. Steam Support says antivirus software "hooks very deep into user systems" and can affect network operations. -201 is simpler: Chromium blames the clock.

1. For -201, set the Windows clock first: turn on automatic time and sync it. Step by step: How to fix the date and time in Windows
2. Exit Steam through the Steam menu and Exit.
3. Open the settings of your firewall program and remove every entry for steam.exe and steaminstall.exe from its permissions. This is Steam Support's method.
4. Start Steam. The firewall should ask for new permissions. Allow Steam on all TCP and UDP ports.
5. In your antivirus, add the Steam folder to the exceptions. The default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam.
6. If the antivirus has a setting for scanning encrypted or HTTPS connections, exclude Steam from it. The name of the setting differs by product.
7. Restart the PC, start Steam and open the Store page.

• After a Steam update. Steam Support warns that a firewall may block Steam after an update "even if Steam worked correctly before the update was applied".
• One test with protection paused. Pause real-time protection, open the Store once and turn protection back on at once: Turn off Microsoft Defender protection for a moment
• An old antivirus version. In a Kaspersky forum thread from May 2024, users report that -101 stopped while the product was off, and the forum's answer was to update the product. This is a report, not a statement by Valve.
• University, office or hotel networks. Steam Support: many of them block Steam's ports, and the ports "can not be re-mapped to HTTP or reconfigured to a custom port range". Only the administrator can open them.

Fix 8. Codes -310 and -379: delete the web browser data of the Steam client

3 minutesLow riskYou have -310, or -379 on one page while Steam is up, or the browser test in Fix 2 worked.

Too many redirects is the classic sign of a bad cookie: the page sends the browser to a sign-in address, which sends it straight back. The built-in browser keeps its own cookies and cache, apart from Chrome or Edge, and the client has a button that empties them.

1. In the client, open the Steam menu in the top left corner and select Settings.
2. Open the In Game page.
3. Next to Delete Web Browser Data, select Delete.
4. Confirm the question "Delete all Steam browser cached files, cookies, and history?"
5. Open the Steam menu and select Exit. Do not only close the window.
6. Start Steam again and open the Store page.

• -310 in a normal browser too. Then the cookie lives in that browser. Delete the cookies for steampowered.com and steamcommunity.com there: Clear the browser cache and cookies
• -379 on every page. That is a server answering with an error status, not your cache. Go back to Fix 1 and wait.
• The Settings window does not open. The settings are drawn by the same web engine. Use Fix 9, which rebuilds it.

Fix 9. Repair the files of the Steam client

15 to 20 minutesRead the warningCode 2 or 53 for many games, or minus codes in the client only, after the fixes above.

Steam Support's page for the "too busy" message has a section called "Repairing corrupted Steam files". The client's web engine and its text files are part of what gets downloaded again, so the same repair also serves the minus codes that only the client shows.

1. Exit Steam through the Steam menu and Exit.
2. In a browser, open https://store.steampowered.com/about/ and download the installer.
3. Run it and install into the folder where Steam already is. Steam Support: this "will preserve all installed games".
4. Start Steam and repeat the action that failed.

If the code is still there, do the deeper repair from the same Support page. It deletes the client and lets steam.exe download every file again.

1. Exit Steam. In Task Manager, end any entry that still starts with Steam: Close a frozen app (Task Manager, Force Quit)
2. Open the Steam folder in File Explorer. Steam Support gives the default as C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\.
3. Select everything except steam.exe, the steamapps folder and the userdata folder.
4. Delete the selected files and folders.
5. Start steam.exe from inside the folder and let it update.
6. Sign in and repeat the action that failed.

If the Steam error code is still there: the log to read and what to send to Steam Support

The first record is the screen: the window title, the full sentence and the number with its sign. For game starts and downloads the client also writes a log. Valve's Steamworks documentation names it: the file logs\content_log.txt in the Steam folder "lists all logged SteamPipe operations and errors". SteamPipe is Steam's system for delivering game content.

1. Take a screenshot of the error with the number visible.
2. Note the time, the game or page, and your network: home, VPN, campus, hotspot.
3. Open C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\logs in File Explorer and find content_log.txt.
4. Open it in Notepad and scroll to the end. Look for lines from the minute of the error that name your game.
5. Sign in at https://help.steampowered.com in a browser and choose the game or the purchase the error belongs to.
6. Describe what you tried and attach the screenshot. Add the log only if Support asks for it.

• When it is the provider, not the PC: it works on a hotspot and fails at home. Steam Support keeps a list of providers that were found to block Steam traffic and tells you to contact your provider.
• When it is another program: Steam Support names VPN clients, peer-to-peer programs, IP filters and download managers. Start Windows once without them: How to perform a clean boot in Windows
• When it is the router: Steam Support notes that Steam does not support a network DMZ, and that wireless and powerline links cause intermittent failures. Test once with a cable.
• When it is Steam and nobody else: code 2 for one game, for every owner, after an update of that game. Only the publisher or Valve can repair that.
• When it is the drive: Steam Support names disk and memory errors as causes of damaged Steam files. If Fix 9 helps for a week and the error returns, test the drive that holds the Steam folder.

How to keep Steam error code 2 and the minus codes from coming back

The two families of codes need two habits. Code 2 mostly asks for patience, because the failing part is on Valve's servers. The minus codes ask for a tidy path between your PC and Steam: one connection, no stray proxy, and security software that knows the client.

Frequently asked questions

What is Steam error code 2?

It is Steam's number for a generic failure. In Valve's public result list, 2 is named k_EResultFail and described as a generic failure. You meet it in a window that says the Steam servers are too busy to handle your request for a game, and in the cart as "Error code: 2" under the text about a problem updating your cart. In Turkish searches it is written as Steam hata kodu 2, and the meaning is the same. The number does not name a cause. Most of the time Steam's servers are overloaded or down, and the error clears by itself within minutes to an hour.

What does error code -102 mean on Steam?

It means that the connection to the page was refused. The Store and Community pages inside the client are shown by a built-in Chromium engine, and -102 is Chromium's CONNECTION_REFUSED: "A connection attempt was refused." Something answered the request with a no before Steam's page could load. The usual suspects are a proxy setting that points to a program which is not running, a VPN, or security software that filters the client's traffic. Open the same page in a normal browser first. If it loads there, the network is fine and the client's browser is being blocked.

What do Steam error codes -118, -101 and -105 mean?

They are three different stages of a failed page load. Code -118 is CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT: the request left your PC and no answer came back, which happens during Steam outages and on VPNs. Code -101 is CONNECTION_RESET: the connection was opened and then cut, often by security software or a filter on the network. Code -105 is NAME_NOT_RESOLVED: Windows could not find the address behind Steam's name, a DNS problem. So -118 starts with waiting and the network check, -101 with the firewall and antivirus, and -105 with flushing the DNS cache.

How do I fix "There was a problem updating your cart" with error code 2 on Steam?

Reload the store page and add the item once more, then try from the other side. If the cart fails in the Steam client, open store.steampowered.com/cart in a normal browser with the same account. If it fails in the browser, use the client. Signing out of the store and back in replaces a stale session. When both sides fail, either Steam's store servers are busy or your connection does not reach them properly. Users on the Steam forums report that restarting the modem and router cleared it. Valve has no support page for this code.

What are Steam error codes -379, -310, -21, -109 and -107?

All five are entries of Chromium's network error list. Code -379 is HTTP_RESPONSE_CODE_FAILURE: the server answered with an error status, so wait and retry. Code -310 is TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS, usually a bad cookie, which the Delete Web Browser Data button in Steam's settings clears. Code -21 is NETWORK_CHANGED: the PC switched connection while the page loaded, so reload it. Code -109 is ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE, a missing route that often comes from a VPN. Code -107 is SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR, a failed secure handshake that points at software inspecting encrypted traffic.

What is "Steam error -201 status 2"?

We could not find a Steam screen with exactly that text, and Valve documents no such message. The first half can be decoded. In Chromium's list, -201 is CERT_DATE_INVALID: the certificate of the site looks expired or not yet valid by the clock of your PC, and Chromium names a wrong clock as one reason. So check the Windows date, time and time zone first, and sync the clock. What "status 2" adds is unknown to us. If the message comes from a game and not from Steam itself, ask the game's support with a screenshot.

Is Steam down right now, and how can I check?

Open store.steampowered.com/stats in a browser, the address Steam Support gives as its status page. When we loaded it, it opened Steam Charts with the number of players online. Steam Support's rule of thumb is simple: if Steam's own sites give timeout errors, a system-wide issue is very likely and Steam will not work until Valve resolves it. Check from a second connection too, such as a phone on mobile data. If Steam is slow there as well, wait. Valve says planned downtime usually lasts less than an hour.

Is error code 2 the same as the e2 code on the Steam sign-in screen?

It is the same result number on a different screen. At sign-in, Steam prints the letter e and the number under the text "Something went wrong while attempting to sign you in", so a generic failure shows as e2. The meaning is identical, but the fixes differ: at sign-in, repeated attempts can get your network address limited for a while, and Steam Guard adds its own failure points. If your code appears on the sign-in window, use the guide for that screen, which we link in the first section of this page.

Does running Steam as administrator or turning off Family Sharing fix error code 2?

We found no Valve source for either. Both tips are repeated across the web for code 2, and the older version of this page listed them too. Steam Support's page for the "too busy" message does not mention administrator rights or Family Sharing. It names the download region, damaged client files, the network, interfering programs and a purchase that the client has not registered yet. If one of the two tips seemed to help, the restart of Steam that it involved is the more likely reason.