Steam Deck is not recognizing the Library installed on SD-card (possible fix)

[MJ711]

I just received my second Steam Deck and after trying to use my SD card that already has games installed on it by my first Steam Deck, the new Steam Deck did not recognize the Library.

Checking the SD-card in desktop mode I could see that all the files are there.
My current data was structured like this:

• /sdcard/steamapps
  
• /sdcard/libraryfolder.vdf

After manually re-creating a Library on SD-card, I noticed a new folder called "SteamLibrary" and inside was another subset of "steamapps" and "libraryfolder.vdf".

So now my structure was like this:

• /sdcard/steamapps
  
• /sdcard/libraryfolder.vdf
  
• /sdcard/SteamLibrary/steamapps
  
• /sdcard/SteamLibrary/libraryfolder.vdf

I then cut my old "/sdcard/steamapps" pasted it over "/sdcard/SteamLibrary/steamapps", deleted the old "/sdcard/libraryfolder.vdf" and right after the cut/paste was done, the Steam immediately recognized everything.

I am not sure why there is now another parent folder called "SteamLibrary" while the SD-card worked without it on the first Steam Deck but it is what it is.

Hope this helps some of you who are wondering why their already existing library on a SD-card is not working anymore.

[Lala Satalin Deviluke]

good to know; but i thought steam locks the sd card to that unit like the switch somewhat, so maybe that is the reason it didnt completely recognize it the first time

[MJ711]

Originally posted by rstewart00:

good to know; but i thought steam locks the sd card to that unit like the switch somewhat, so maybe that is the reason it didnt completely recognize it the first time

I am not sure about any locking because I did not experience that but i can confirm that the path of the library on SD-cards changed for some reason.
Maybe some update to Steam Deck sd-card paths happened in last 2 weeks.

[invision2212]

Originally posted by rstewart00:

good to know; but i thought steam locks the sd card to that unit like the switch somewhat, so maybe that is the reason it didnt completely recognize it the first time

I was able to insert my sd card into my replacement unit and it worked immediately, which was nice because I didnt want to download all of it again.

[J06200]

Thanks, Had the same issue with this new folder created.
Your solution definitely fixed the problem !

[MJ711]

Originally posted by J06200:

Thanks, Had the same issue with this new folder created.
Your solution definitely fixed the problem !

glad it helped you

[imbe]

Bro oh my god you saved mee! Thank you so much i faced the same problem and now it solved. Thanks!

[MJ711]

Originally posted by Freakend:

Bro oh my god you saved mee! Thank you so much i faced the same problem and now it solved. Thanks!

[sagraten]

Posting here after AGES 'cause you saved my life too. MJ711 Thank you mate!

[MJ711]

Originally posted by sagraten:

Posting here after AGES 'cause you saved my life too. MJ711 Thank you mate!

[Waldherz]

This honestly starting to get so annoying that Im not using SD cards anymore. I had to do this 5 times now.

[MJ711]

Originally posted by Waldherz彡:

This honestly starting to get so annoying that Im not using SD cards anymore. I had to do this 5 times now.

Now that is interesting.
It looks like it only happens to some Steam Decks.
On my personal Steam Deck, it only happened once.

I wonder why SteamOS sometimes decides to create a different directory structure.

I hope some smart person will someday have time to check the Steam part that is responsible for creation of library on SD-Cards and give us a reasonable explanation on why Steam sometimes omit "SteamLibrary" sub directory.

[Syncronaut]

to me it seems like. If i have other folders on the sd card, it needs to create SteamLibrary Folder to get hotswap working again.
Cards without other stuff on it then steam games, it still works fine to have the library directly on the root of the sd card

[MJ711]

Originally posted by Syncronaut:

to me it seems like. If i have other folders on the sd card, it needs to create SteamLibrary Folder to get hotswap working again.
Cards without other stuff on it then steam games, it still works fine to have the library directly on the root of the sd card

ohhh that could be it

[Yinx]

Thanks so much, you saved me a massive headache of redownloading huge games on a very slow connection

Some additional steps I did since I ran into a problem of some games being recognized and others having a persistent cloud error:

After combining the two duplicates like described in the OP, I created a symlink from the original folders in /sdcard/SteamApps to the /sdcard/ root, which fixed the issue.

[RSebire]

Valve has borked the SD card with updates a few times now..
Probably best not to bother with them anymore.
The Deck is just a never ending beta.
And its gonna get even more funky with OS 3.5 onwards.
Plus there will be more unicode for the AMD processor they used as that has been hacked, so expect the device to only get slower from now on..