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depot / troubleshooting / depot-key-denied

"Not available from this account" — but I own it!

The second-most misread error after the 401. Your login worked perfectly; what failed is the license check — Steam looked at your account's packages and didn't find one that covers what you asked for. The frustrating part is that "I own the game" and "this account holds a usable license for this depot" are different statements more often than anyone expects. I've tripped over that distinction myself more than once, so this isn't theory. Here are the five ways they diverge.

~6 min read| updated june 2026| error database

01The error, word for word

It comes in two grain sizes, and the difference is diagnostic:

App 312530 is not available from this account. Depot 312532 is not available from this account.

The app-level version means your account holds no license touching the app at all. The depot-level version is subtler — you own the app, but the specific depot isn't covered: that's DLC, language-restricted or region-restricted content territory. Related shapes from the same family: Unable to get appticket and depot-key requests failing with AccessDenied — different plumbing, same verdict.

02What actually failed

Every depot download starts with Steam checking the chain described in the glossary: account → license → package → app → depot. Then, and only then, comes the depot key that decrypts content. This check is the actual anti-piracy wall in the system — and the practical consequence for diagnosis is that nothing about your command, network or tool version matters here. The question is purely: does this account's set of packages cover this depot? Five reasons it might not, in order of how often I see them:

03The five causes

1. Family Sharing. The big one. A shared library lets the Steam client play the game; it does not put a license in your account's packages, and depot access checks packages. There's no flag for this — the downloading account must own the game itself. (If the owner can run DepotDownloader on their account, the files they download are ordinary files; that's between you and them.)

2. The anonymous inversion. My favourite, because it's so counterintuitive: a dedicated server app that downloads fine anonymously fails with "not available" when you log in with your real account (issue #633 is exactly this). The anonymous account holds the free server license automatically; your personal account only holds it if you've claimed it. Logged in for some other reason and hit this on a server app? Drop the -username — anonymous is the correct identity for that download. This one caught me out the first time too: I assumed logging in could only help, and for server depots it does the opposite.

3. The depot is DLC or restricted content. Depot-level message, base game owned. DLC ships as its own depots under the base AppID, covered only if you bought the DLC. Same pattern for region-locked language packs — the "Japanese voice for Japan only" depots from the language guide are licensed, not just flagged.

4. Regional and bundle package quirks. Packages with the same store name don't always carry identical contents — regional editions, ancient bundle SKUs and "episode" arrangements (the half-owned EFLC case is the classic) can cover a different depot list than the modern package. You own a version of the game; the depot you asked for belongs to a different one.

5. The license is actually gone. Retired and delisted games are occasionally pulled from accounts entirely (subscription-style licenses, expired free promos, publisher retirements). If the game has also vanished from your library on the Steam website, DepotDownloader isn't wrong — there's genuinely nothing to download with.

Two false alarms that look like this Before you conclude it's a license problem, rule out two impostors. The wrong AppID. If "not available" names an app you don't recognize — something like "Resume Maker for Mac" when you meant a game (issue #341) — you've simply typed the wrong number; DepotDownloader echoes whatever app that ID actually is, which looks like an ownership denial but is a typo. Re-check the App ID on SteamDB. The empty success. A run that ends Total downloaded: 0 bytes (0 bytes uncompressed) from 0 depots with no error isn't a successful nothing — the depot key came back Blocked, so it "completed" by downloading nothing (issue #349). That's this same access wall wearing a friendlier face: you don't have the depot.

04What helps

  • Audit what you actually hold. Steam's licenses & subscriptions page lists every package on your account with its contents — two minutes there usually identifies which of the five cases you're in.
  • Server app? Go anonymous. Cause #2 has a one-word fix: remove the login.
  • Free license missing? Claim it. For free games and some server apps, "owning" is one click on the store page — after which your real account passes the check too.
  • Cross-check with the client. If the Steam client will install the thing but DepotDownloader refuses with a depot-level error, you're likely in package-quirk territory (#4) — worth a look at which depots SteamDB says your package grants, and an issue report if it's genuinely inconsistent.

05What this isn't

Two near-neighbours get mixed up with this constantly. A 401 / No manifest request code failure is the other gate — you passed the license check and Steam declined the specific manifest; that's the request-code diagnostic, and its causes (old builds, the 2025 tightening) have nothing to do with ownership. And login failures (InvalidPassword and friends) happen before any of this — the decoder table covers those. The order of gates is: login → license → request code → download. This page is gate two; knowing which gate refused you is most of the diagnosis.

the next gateThe 401 diagnostic tree →