Errors
This page contains common errors and ways to fix them.
Steam Desktop Authenticator is a a desktop implementation of Steam's mobile authenticator app. Which you can use if you for example do not have a phone, or if you need easy access to your account secrets for a bot account.
You can download it here
You can find your shared_secret and identity_secret by going to your Steam Desktop Authenticator folder, then into the maFiles folder. Here you will find account files. Find the one with your steamID and open it.
If you are unable to read anything, your file is likely encrypted. Check out Decrypting and Encrypting below.
If it is not encrypted, simply copy and paste the shared_secret and identity_secret into your bots ecosystem.json or .env file. Depends on which one you are using.
If your file is encrypted, meaning the contents probably look something like AJHSASJLDHASKLJHD87ASDASLNJ3S..., you can decrypt it by opening Steam Desktop Authenticator, clicking Setup Encryption on the top right, entering your passkey and then click Accept 2 more times, without entering in a new passkey.
Now re-open your maFile. You should be able to get your secrets now.
When updating your enviromental variables, almost make sure you restart the bot with the --update-env option if you are using PM2. As explained here
You need to make sure your file is NOT called ecosystem.template.json. It needs to be ecosystem.json.
Before trying to fix this error, you should enable viewing file extensions.
MAKE SURE THE FILE IS NOT CALLED config.env OR bot.env OR ANYTHING. JUST .env.
If your computer does not allow you to name it .env, simply call it .env. (with the extra .).
In your .env or ecosystem.json, the ADMINS and KEEP options need to have valid SteamID64's in them. For example: "76561198144346135" is a valid SteamID64.
You can find this on SteamRep or on your Backpack.tf profile
The ADMINS and KEEP options are missing. This error usually appears after updating from V2 to V3.
In your .env or ecosystem.json, the ADMINS and KEEP options need to be an ARRAY ["steamid1"] and not non existant or a STRING "steamid1".
Your Steam account(s) needs to be unlimited. To make your Steam account(s) unlimited you need to add $5 or more to the Steam account(s) here (remember to be logged into the bot(s)' account). If you're using another currency than USD, you might need to add more than $5 due to conversion rates.
You have logged in too many times (possibly due to it crashing and restarting too often). Stop the bot for an hour and then start it again.
As it says in the console with the message about the error, set SKIP_ACCOUNT_LIMITATIONS to true in your .env or ecosystem.json.
There are multiple cases where this may happen. If your error looks somewhat like this:
Then something went wrong with your polldata.json file. This is located in the tf2-automatic/files/{your steamid}/ folder. Simply deleting it will fix the issue.
If this issue is not solved by deleting your polldata.json file, check your pricelist.json file for corruption. Making a regular backup of your pricelist.json file is always recommended.
If the error is bigger, and starts with
SyntaxError: Unexpected token o in JSON at position 1
at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
at new Bot (C:\Users\Name\Desktop\Edited\dist\classes\Bot.js:74:72)Or something similar, then you did not set your ALERTS properly in your .env or ecosystem.json.
It is supposed to look like ["trade"] or ["none"]. This error usually happens if you forget the [] brackets.
The bot may produce this error when a user attempts to trade using the !buy or !sell commands.
This issue occurs when SDA is left open. Please close SDA.