Steam opens "Watch on YouYube" videos no longer in your $BROWSER

[notpentadactyl]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Stable Client (1721173382) and Steam Families Beta (1722380543)
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Arch
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Both
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes
• Steam Logs:
• GPU: Nvidia

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

When clicking on a YouTube video in Steam to "Watch on YouYube" Steam opens a new browser (?) window to play the video, instead of opening the video in your $BROWSER as before.

Stable Client:

Steam Families Beta:

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Click "Watch on YouYube" on any YouTube video, e.g. here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/582010/view/4326355263803368127?l=english

There is a workaround to restore the old and expected behavior: STEAM_DISABLE_BROWSER_SHUTDOWN_WORKAROUND=1 steam.

Workaround works on both Stable Client and Steam Families Beta.

edit: my settings:

➜  ~ echo $BROWSER                                
firefox
➜  ~ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/http 
firefox.desktop
➜  ~ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/https
firefox.desktop

[TTimo]

This problem doesn't seem to be happening consistently across the entire steam client. If I go to Castle Story in my Library, scroll to the community content and try to play on YT those open externally as they should (I'd guess that's not specific to that game, but probably works for anything out of the games library). But out of the community tab they open within Steam still. Does this match what you are seeing?

[notpentadactyl]

This problem doesn't seem to be happening consistently across the entire steam client. If I go to Castle Story in my Library, scroll to the community content and try to play on YT those open externally as they should (I'd guess that's not specific to that game, but probably works for anything out of the games library). But out of the community tab they open within Steam still. Does this match what you are seeing?

I have the same issue in the community content (tried Slay the Spire, I don't have Castle Story).

FYI: when I use KDE Plasma the issue does not happen.

The issue is when I use xmonad.

[notpentadactyl]

FYI: when I use KDE Plasma the issue does not happen.

It actually does happen there. Just encountered it.

After restarting Steam it went away. The inconsistency is driving me nuts. lol

[notpentadactyl]

On Plasma Wayland: STEAM_DISABLE_BROWSER_SHUTDOWN_WORKAROUND=1 steam I see the issue again.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1364780/view/4663004408918100047?l=english

Steam Beta Branch: Steam Beta Update Steam Version: 1726683985

[faattori]

I can repro this on Ubuntu 24.04 GNOME X11 with deb version. Latest Steam beta version.