How to Fix ‘Steam Auth Timeout’ Error in Rust

Wondering how you can fix ‘Steam Auth Timeout’ error in Rust?

It’s rare to find such a liberating and enjoyable sandbox game like Rust. Gathering resources and scamming younger kids, eventually killing them, is an oddly satisfying and fun part of the game.

But whenever you launch into the game, you’re greeted by a ‘Steam Auth Timeout’ error. What is this, and why does it happen? Well, there’re a lot of reasons for this, and we’ll go through all of them one by one.

In this article, we’ve also compiled a list of methods that we’ve found online, from Steam’s support boards and other users who’ve submitted their personal solutions. Here’s how you can fix ‘Steam Auth Timeout’ error in Rust.

Let’s get started!

• 1. Check Rust’s Server Status.
• 2. Join Or Leave Steam Beta.
• 3. Verify Integrity Of Game Files.
• 4. Change Your Download Region.
• 5. Clear Steam’s Download Cache.
• 6. Repair Your Anti-Cheat Engine.

1. Check Rust’s Server Status.

First off, make sure to check Rust’s server status before anything else. There’s a lot of minimal but also major things you can do to your settings to try and fix this issue. Before proceeding with any of those changes, checking for Rust’s server status can save you a lot of time.

By checking for the server status, you’ll be able to make sure that Rust’s server is not down or under maintenance. If the servers are indeed down, then there’s nothing you can do on your side to fix this problem. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until the servers are fixed.

You can check for Rust’s server status in a variety of places, like an unofficial Steam Twitter page. However, our favorite place to check for server issues is on Downdetector. Not only are their servers specifically for Rust, but the feedback of this website is pretty quick.

Downdetector is a community-driven website where users submit feedback or reports whenever they have problems with a certain server. This way, since users won’t hesitate to report a problem, you’ll be able to see the number of reports displayed on their website every hour.

2. Join Or Leave Steam Beta.

The Steam beta program is a pretty cool feature that not a lot of people know about. By participating in the beta, you’ll be exposed to new features that have not been released to the general public.

Additionally, if you’re currently a part of the beta team then running into Steam-related errors like this is pretty common. Joining the steam beta, however, can also fix this server problem in the case that your Steam needs a refresh on network settings.

Here’s how you can join or leave Steam beta:

1. First, open up the Steam program on your computer and click on the Steam button at the top-left corner of your screen.
2. From there, navigate over to Settings and a new window should open up.
3. By default, you’ll find yourself on the Account tab, if you aren’t there then click on Account from the list of settings to the left.

4. Now, look for Beta participation and click Change. Either join or leave the beta program and click OK.

Steam will restart after these changes have taken effect. After restarting the program, go ahead and try to run Rust. Hopefully this method will help you fix ‘Steam Auth Timeout’ error in Rust.

3. Verify Integrity Of Game Files.

A really cool feature that was unique to Steam for a certain point is being able to verify the integrity of your game files. This works by letting Steam compare your local game files with the game files on their server.

All your files are compared one by one, and any missing or corrupted files are replaced and downloaded automatically from Steam’s servers. Since Rust is mostly played online, it’s important to have the latest authentic version of the game on your computer.

Here’s how you can verify the integrity of your game files.

1. Start by opening up the Steam app again and then head to the Library section.
2. A list of all the games you own on your Steam account should be displayed on the left side of your screen. Look for and right-click on Rust and then select Properties.

3. That should open a window on your screen. Navigate to Local Files and click on Verify integrity of game files.

The process is pretty automatic, so let Steam do its thing and it’ll download any necessary missing files back to your computer. Once that’s done, go ahead and run Rust to see if the issue is still there.

4. Change Your Download Region.

This might pass the minds of most Steam users, but every time you download a game from Steam you’re actually accessing a server that’s physically close to you. This greatly decreases the download time than if you were in the Philippines and downloaded from America.

However, sometimes these servers are either under maintenance or have a compromised connection to your computer. To mitigate this, we’ll be relocating the server you’re downloading from with the next best thing.

Here’s how you can change your download region:

1. Go ahead and open up the Steam app and go to the Steam button at the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Now, move your mouse down and click on Settings then navigate to Downloads.

3. Once you’re there, look for Download Region and change the region to another location that’s close to you.

Before you click on OK and exit the setting, go ahead and proceed to the next method to figure out what else you can do on the ‘Download’ tab.

5. Clear Steam’s Download Cache.

Even for those of you familiar with how Steam downloads, the cache files made by Steam can still be quite a mystery. To shed light on the details, Steam’s download cache is a group of files that are incompletely downloaded or will be used to complete a download in the future.

Whenever you download games, it’s inevitable for there to be a single file that’s megabytes heavy. For this exact purpose, Steam keeps a cache file of the incomplete file until the file has been fully downloaded. Clearing the cache can sometimes help iron out any errors or files that mess with your online Rust experience.

Here’s how you can clear Steam’s download cache:

1. If you’re still on the same page as the previous method, then go ahead and click on Clear Download Cache and confirm by clicking on OK.
2. For those of you who are lost, don’t worry. Open up the Steam app and click on the Steam button so you can get to the necessary settings. You’ll find the button at the top-left corner of the Steam window.
3. Next, move your mouse down and click on Settings and then navigate to the Downloads tab.

4. Finally, click on Clear Download Cache and select OK.

With that out of the way, you can either verify your game files again or try to run Rust. We suggest verifying your files for good measure, but it shouldn’t be necessary.

6. Repair Your Anti-Cheat Engine.

Familiar with VAC? CS:GO, Dota, and other triple-A games are usually protected by VAC, an anti-cheat software. For Rust, this should be protected under the Easy Anti-Cheat engine, which is another popular alternative.

In this method, we’ll be repairing your anti-cheat engine in case there’s something wrong with the current version installed on your computer. Running an anti-cheat engine that isn’t compatible with the latest version can cause connection issues since older anti-cheat versions are susceptible to hacks.

Here’s how you can repair Rust’s Easy Anti-Cheat engine.

1. First, open up the Start menu and type in ‘This PC’ to open up the File Explorer.
2. Once you’re there, navigate to the directory displayed below. If you installed Rust elsewhere, navigate to that folder instead.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common

3. You should be on a folder with a list of all currently installed Steam games on your computer. Open up the Rust folder and look for and navigate to the EasyAntiCheat folder.
4. From there, look for the EasyAntiCheat_Setup application and run it by double-clicking the program.

5. When you open the EasyAntiCheat program, click on Repair service and proceed through the prompts to finish repairing your anti-cheat engine.

If your anti-cheat engine did repair anything on your computer, this should have the biggest chance of reconnecting you to Rust. Open up the game and see if the issue persists.

Unfortunately, that about ends this article with all the necessary methods available. As a last resort, you can always try to reinstall Steam. However, it does take a while to transfer your games back and forth, especially if you have a lot of games.

We recommend waiting this one out for a couple of days or by searching through the internet for users who are experiencing a similar problem. If you’ve exhausted all the methods above with no success, our strongest hunch is that there must be a problem with Steam’s servers.

Now that you’ve reached the end of this article, we hope to have helped you fix ‘Steam Auth Timeout’ error in Rust. If you have any questions, feel free to leave us a comment down below.

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂