Mac Steam appears to not connect to game, not allowing me to join Co-op games

Hello. From what I understand, I have been having issues having steam connect to Stardew valley when attempting to join a co-op game. As I log into the game, and click on co-op, I receive a "connecting to online services..." then not showing the option to connect via game code or through steam friends. I had already faced being disconnected from our same co-op game many times, even though my internet connection is solid, so is the host's, and both of us don't have any firewalls on. This issue immediately came after the host's game crashed, and is present on both of our computers. Connecting through LAN doesn't work either. I have tried the following solutions:

1. the connecting to online services troubleshooting page found on this website,
2. general troubleshooting page found on this website,
3. restarting the game/wifi/router/device
4. restarting steam
5. uninstalling the game
6. removing vpns
7. modified router settings
8. restarted host's game/wifi/router/device
9. restarted steam on host's device
10. uninstalling and reinstalling on the host's device

I have no idea where else this problem can be solved. We are both running Stardew Valley 1.5.6 (most up-to-date) on Macs, mine being a MacBook Pro 13in M1 8GB on Sonoma 14.2.1, with plenty of storage & up-to-date developer tools. The host's device is a MacBook Pro M1 13in 8GB running Ventura 13.6.1. Although the older version of MacOS on the host's device did not affect previous co-op gameplay, as we've been playing for around a month now with no issues except my constant disconnecting.
 
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