Yeah, this is a common issue on Steam even with everything set to public. Sometimes Steam’s privacy settings can still block invites unless the person is on your friends list, even if Destiny settings are wide open.
Double-check your Steam settings under:
Steam > Settings > Friends & Chat > Privacy Settings,
and make sure “Who can send you friend requests” and “Who can join your game” are both set to Everyone.
Also, in Destiny’s in-game settings under Roster, confirm fireteam privacy is set to Public or Invite Only — not Closed.
If everything’s already set right, a workaround is to use Bungie’s Fireteam Finder on the app or website — people can invite and join you from there without needing to be friends.
yep everything is public on both and cross save is enabled. Are there any other known causes? Like another machine in offline mode, guardian name change, or multiple steam instances enabled?
Good question. A few things can mess with invites like that:
Guardian name changes sometimes cause issues until they fully propagate across Bungie's systems — especially if it happened recently.
Multiple Steam instances (like a second account running in background or Family Sharing) can confuse network permissions.
Offline mode on another machine with Steam open can block incoming connections or invites depending on how Steam handles your session.
Also worth checking if Steam Overlay is enabled — Destiny’s invite system sometimes breaks if it’s disabled. Go to:
Steam > Library > Destiny 2 > Properties > General and make sure “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game” is checked.
If all else fails, Bungie’s Fireteam Finder really is the most reliable backup right now.