Non-Steam games not showing up in Desktop mode

[JackyBryant]

Just randomly today, none of my non-steam games are showing up Desktop mode. If i switch back into game mode, they're variably there - sometimes not, but if I reboot, they appear again - but if I switch back to desktop mode they're gone.

Things I've tried:
- Rebooting: as above
- Uninstalling all decky plugins: no effect
- Uninstalling Decky entirely (using Konsole): no effect
- Rolling back SteamOS to 3.5.17 (using ... + power button on boot up): This seemed to temporarily fix it when I was in desktop mode, but when booting back to game mode, and coming back to Desktop mode, the Deck crashes and autoboots back into 3.5.19, and the problem recurs. I've tried this twice.

Randomly, I also tried installing new steam games, but no effect.

Interestingly, if I add a new non-Steam game (or any .exe) in desktop mode, it will be visible in Desktop mode, but not in game mode.

Just really seems like a strange issue introduced by 3.5.19, hopefully you can fix it quickly, Valve. Pretty obnoxious as a frequent desktop user - it's very much disabled it's core functions for me.

---

EDIT (May 21, 2024): This seems to have been solved by the most recent SteamOS update:

General
- Fixed a case where the non-steam game list could load from an invalid user profile.

I'm not able to mark my own post as a solution, but if anyone else confirms, I'll mark theirs. Feel free to post if you're still having issues too.

[canucklesandwich]

+1. Happening to me too.

[Fabter]

Same

[JackyBryant]

Originally posted by canucklesandwich:

+1. Happening to me too.

Originally posted by Fabter:

Same

Curious, do both of you have OLED decks? And did you have Decky installed at the time the problem happened?

[keviin.aleexis]

same, any solutions?

[Noïram]

I have the same issue, with a few notes.
1. I have never used Decky, so that is unrelated.
2. I am using the original non-OLED Steam Deck, so that is also unrelated.

[JackyBryant]

Originally posted by Noïram:

I have the same issue, with a few notes.
1. I have never used Decky, so that is unrelated.
2. I am using the original non-OLED Steam Deck, so that is also unrelated.

This is helpful to know, thanks. If you guys have a moment, good idea to submit support tickets with valve as well so they’re alerted to the issue affecting multiple users (I think they check here too, but not as formally as support tickets)

[nachobh]

Happening to me in gaming mode. Literally thousands of games disappearing. Awful.

[nachobh]

Originally posted by nachobh:

Happening to me in gaming mode. Literally thousands of games disappearing. Awful.

After a hard shutdown/restart (pressing for some secs the shutdown button) they have reappeared.

[nachobh]

Originally posted by nachobh:

Originally posted by nachobh:

Happening to me in gaming mode. Literally thousands of games disappearing. Awful.

After a hard shutdown/restart (pressing for some secs the shutdown button) they have reappeared.

Just a small clarification, they are again in "out of steam" and in the collections, but they have disappear from "favorites".

[nachobh]

And... they are gone again

[keviin.aleexis]

i have read the same problem in other forums but i think there is still no solution

[JackyBryant]

Originally posted by nachobh:

Originally posted by nachobh:

After a hard shutdown/restart (pressing for some secs the shutdown button) they have reappeared.

Just a small clarification, they are again in "out of steam" and in the collections, but they have disappear from "favorites".

Originally posted by nachobh:

And... they are gone again

The behavior on mine is, almost universally, when I got into desktop mode, no non-steam games. If I go back to game mode via the desktop icon, there are also no non-Steam games - all collections are empty. If i then do a full reset back to game mode, they're back, and in their correct collections. If I go back to desktop mode, they're gone and the cycle repeats.

I think there are enough non-Decky affected users now to suggest this is not actually a Decky issue, but seems more likely something related to 3.5.19 itself.

I initially heard back from Steam Support that "they don't really have much to offer for non-Steam games not working and that I should just make sure the game/program was up to date". I think this was a canned response, so I clarified that it's not an issue with an individual non-Steam game, but with ALL non-steam games not showing up in desktop mode (and sometimes in game mode), and therefore very likely with SteamOS and the desktop Steam application itself. They just hit me back with a reply that they are collecting bug reports, that they don't have a clear solution at this point, but that posting in the Steam discussions (as we're doing) is the best bet as they review these.

So would definitely encourage everyone affected by this to post here (if you're reading and haven't already), and for good measure to submit a report to Steam Support for good measure.

[Fabter]

Originally posted by JackyBryant:

Curious, do both of you have OLED decks? And did you have Decky installed at the time the problem happened?

I have the LCD and no Decky installed. Happend after i installed the latest stable update. The Non-Steam games before the update are still shoving in both Desktop and Game Mode, but the one after only in Desktop

[Slavikbask]

Doesn't happen for me, even though I use Decky Loader.

[Toleman]

Same issue for me. LCD steam deck and decky loader user.