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TACticalFrog01 Mar 15, 2023 @ 5:31pm

Internal Storage Full

My internal 64 gb drive is almost full, but it only has proton files on it. I have all my games on a 1 tb sd card. What could be taking up all the space?

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Showing 1-14 of 14 comments

Man's Best Friend Mar 15, 2023 @ 5:46pm

It'll likely be the Proton files, and shader caches.

JarJut Mar 15, 2023 @ 8:01pm

i think its shader caches. you can install disk usage analyzer to check what files taking up all the space

invision2212 Mar 15, 2023 @ 8:31pm

If you have the sd-card almost filled with games it will be the shader cache. I have 16 games installed and it takes up 50gb of space for proton and shader cache.

TACticalFrog01 Mar 15, 2023 @ 10:11pm

I’ll look into “disk usage analyzer”. Thnx.

alexvermaning0 Mar 16, 2023 @ 2:39am

you an move the shader cache and compdata to SD card.

1. Go to Desktop Mode

2.Drag the compatdata and shader cache folders from your SSD to your microSD card and hit "Move". Let them copy over.

/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata
and
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache

3.Drag the compatdata and shader cache folders from your microSD card to your SSD (the same location you moved them from) and hit "Link".

It's SUPER easy to do, and works like a charm. By doing this, I went from 10GB free on my SSD to over 30GB free.

IMPORTANT: By the way, by doing this your games wont launch without the sd card, even the ones that are installed internal. The original comment suggested to move just the folders inside compatdata that are associated with the sd card. i also recomend to revert the changes if you are experiencing lag spikes.

Last edited by alexvermaning0; Mar 16, 2023 @ 2:42am

Dosashi May 27, 2023 @ 1:15am

I just found this explanation on how to use Deck Cleaner: https://steamdeckhq.com/tips-and-guides/save-storage-with-the-deck-cleaner/

Works like a charm! Just followed the mentioned steps and within a minute I've removed 20GB of shader data from my internal drive.

Ranger Zenith Jun 19, 2023 @ 2:46pm

Originally posted by alexvermaning0:
you an move the shader cache and compdata to SD card.

/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata
and
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache

Do the games grab from here as needed then instead of just remaking them on Internet?

Your Dad's Boyfriend Nov 24, 2023 @ 2:04pm

Originally posted by d-_-b:
how are we supposed to know what you store on your deck?

THEY TOLD YOU. Only Proton files. Learn how to read, and if you can't be helpful, don't be a prick.

PopinFRESH Nov 24, 2023 @ 2:31pm

Originally posted by Your Dad's Boyfriend:
Originally posted by d-_-b:
how are we supposed to know what you store on your deck?
THEY TOLD YOU. Only Proton files. Learn how to read, and if you can't be helpful, don't be a prick.

Take your own advice. Did you really need to necro a dead thread just to be a prick as well?

EDIT: also learn to quote properly so you aren't foolishly misattributing your words to someone else.

Last edited by PopinFRESH; Nov 24, 2023 @ 2:32pm

Fahaka_97 Jan 24, 2024 @ 6:52pm

Originally posted by alexvermaning0:
you an move the shader cache and compdata to SD card.

1. Go to Desktop Mode

2.Drag the compatdata and shader cache folders from your SSD to your microSD card and hit "Move". Let them copy over.

/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata
and
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache

3.Drag the compatdata and shader cache folders from your microSD card to your SSD (the same location you moved them from) and hit "Link".

It's SUPER easy to do, and works like a charm. By doing this, I went from 10GB free on my SSD to over 30GB free.

IMPORTANT: By the way, by doing this your games wont launch without the sd card, even the ones that are installed internal. The original comment suggested to move just the folders inside compatdata that are associated with the sd card. i also recomend to revert the changes if you are experiencing lag spikes.

Would it not be better to have the compatdata / shader cache on the internal storage (more specifically for the 256/512gb models with the faster hardware? Genuinely asking I don't know much about tech period. In my head it is more logistical to aide the purpose of having the files in the first place?

I always look from more then one pov.
Thinking there will always be a bottleneck in anything, right? Id prefer to bottleneck the loading screen time / what all comes with slower game file read/write speeds V.S any of the fps drops and stuttering from reading the slower drive... or is it time to butt out this spliff for the night? Open to learning new things, otherwise I'd never of asked.
Thanks in advance folks

#10

Hiro Jan 25, 2024 @ 5:15am

Valve did release a fix a while ago to remove compdata / shaders when you uninstall the game.
You could have old files there, check if the ones you have installed are the ones on the folder, and delete any extra.

Other solution, less ideal, is to uninstall games you are not playing right now.

----

Originally posted by alexvermaning0:
you an move the shader cache and compdata to SD card.

DO NOT DO THAT!!!
This will hurt your performance in most cases!

People will do that, forget they done it, and blame Linux for the lower performance...

#11

deaddoof Jan 25, 2024 @ 6:01am

Originally posted by Hiro:

Originally posted by alexvermaning0:
you an move the shader cache and compdata to SD card.

DO NOT DO THAT!!!
This will hurt your performance in most cases!

People will do that, forget they done it, and blame Linux for the lower performance...

Yep. Internal eMMC have better read performance. Even better, the shaders are on a separate storage medium so it is unaffected by sdcard performance.

People forget shader is GPU code. The code needs to be loaded and executed as fast as possible. I do find this community strange because many users like dGPU like Nvidia... Yet, I keep finding reason why they hate GPU design.

#12