How to Fix “There was an error sending you trade offer. Please Try Again later (20)” on Steam

Steam is a video-game distribution platform that is used world-wide for buying, downloading, and playing games. It has gained fame because of its well-structured, secure, and user-friendly environment that allows the user to carry out several tasks related to his/her favorite game staying on a single platform. Since its release, developers at Steam are working to rectify all the problems that are reported by the users. Quite recently an error message has been reported by the users that states “there was an error sending your trade offer. please try again later. (20)” and prevents the gamer to send a trade offer to another gamer. After a thorough survey of different user reports and the solutions they adopted to get around this problem, we have illustrated some efficient solutions for you to rectify this error on your computer.

What Prevents you from sending a Trade Offer?

After analyzing some case studies and going through the strategies adopted to get rid of the error we came to know that error 20 occurs on your system if the steam servers are experiencing trouble. The Steam servers might be down for some time for maintenance purposes. You might encounter a different error code too while sending a trade offer, such as “2” or “28” if there is an issue with the servers

Pre-Tips:

If you have just encountered this error message, then before proceeding towards any major solution, verify whether the issue is at the client-side or the server-side. If the issue is at the server side then it is beyond your control and the only thing you can do is, wait for the design engineers at steam to fix the issue. To check whether the issue is with the servers, launch your favorite browser and go to the Down detector website to ensure if the steam servers are down or under maintenance.

Fixing the “There was an error sending your Trade Offer” error:

Solution 1: Restart Steam client

If the Steam servers are not down or under maintenance, then the most basic troubleshooting step to rectify this error is to close the Steam client and relaunch it again. Hence, follow the steps illustrated below to restart your steam client and check if the error persists.

1. Click on the “Steam” icon at the top-left corner and select “Exit”.

   

2. Now launch the Steam client again and check if the error is eliminated.

Solution 2: Enable Steam guard

Steam Guard is a security protocol that provides additional security to your account. If you are unable to send a trade offer then there might be a chance that the steam guard is disabled. Hence, enable the steam guard by following the steps indexed below and check whether the error still persists.

1. Click on the “Steam” icon at the top-left corner and select “Settings”.

   

2. From the left pane, navigate to “Account” and click on the “Manage Steam Guard Account Security” option.

   

3. Uncheck the button parallel to “Turn Steam Guard off” and check the button to parallel to the “Get Steam Guard Codes by email” option.

   

4. After following this procedure, you will have to wait for 15 days to verify whether the issue is rectified.

Solution 3: Switch to a Web browser

Many gamers have reported that if the error arises on the Steam client, then it can be eliminated simply by switching to a web browser and try to send the trade offer from there. It is always recommended to use “Google Chrome” to run steam if you are unable to terminate errors that occur on the Windows-client. Note: You must be running just one client at a time. If you are using a web browser to run steam, then it is recommended to logout from the Steam desktop-client, to rectify glitches.

Solution 4: Delete some Steam files

Many users have reported that there are some game files that might get corrupted, therefore, delete those files and restart the client to check if there was an error sending you trade offer. please try again later. (20) error is rectified.

1. Navigate to the following path and delete everything in the directory except the files named “steam.exe” and “steamapps” folder.

   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam

2. Now launch your Steam client and hopefully, the error would be gone but if the issue still persists there is no need to panic, just proceed towards the next potential fix indexed below.

Solution 5: Tweak Beta mode in Steam

Many gamers have reported that this is a temporary glitch on steam and can be fixed easily by firstly, opting in and afterward opting out of the beta participation programs. So, to get around this error on steam, follow the steps below to get rid of the issue.

1. Launch Steam Client.
2. Click “Steam” on the top right corner of the Steam client and select  “Settings”.
3. On the left pane, select “Account” and click on “Change”.

   

4. Select “Steam Beta Update” on the Beta participation drop-down menu.
   

   

5. Click “OK” and restart your Steam.
6. Now follow the above steps and select the “NONE – Opt-out of all beta programs”.

   

7. Save the settings and restart your steam client to check if the issue persists.

Solution 6: Send a message along with the trade offer

If you still can’t get rid of there was an error sending your trade offer. please try again later. (20) error message then while making a trade offer, make sure you type a short text message in the chatbox before hitting the send button. This will most probably make the trade offer successful.

Solution 7: Contact Steam support

If none of the solutions, explained above helped you to eliminate this error on your computer then the only option you are left with is to contact Steam support and explain to them the current issue. After submitting your token you will have to wait for the Steam support official to get back to you and provide you with a solution to rectify your error.

Hopefully, the error might have gone by now but if you need further assistance, contact here.