Copy already installed game from PC to DECK

[cee]

I have slow internet and benefit tremendously from copying an already installed game from my PC to the steam deck. This works extremely well even for windows installed games.

I would love an interface in steam that lets me transfer games between two machines. It would replace the following steps I do manually.

1 - I enable SSH on the deck
2 - I use a program like filezilla and transfer via SFTP
3 - I copy the game's folder between the PC and deck
4 - I copy the game's app manifest (a number which I have to lookup every time by visiting the store and looking at the URL)
5 - Reboot the deck

Steam OS will autodetect the game fully installed, it will download a shader cache or proton layer if it needs to, but typically I can boot straight into the game.

We're talking hours of saved time being able to move between machines.

Wouldn't it be nice to go onto my desktop, have it see that my deck is online on the same network and click COPY to "steam deck"? It would be grand! This should work with any machine I'm logged into, for example family share with two desktops.

[Cypherous]

You don't need to enable SSH or use FTP, just add the steam install folder as a network share and just access it directly from the SteamOS desktop and copy and paste the files, this will also let you copy the files to another PC should you ever feel like adding a new machine to your network

[cee]

Cool alternative @Cypherous but I'm not looking for alternative methods outside steam itself that's not why I posted a feature request. This could be build into the steam interface itself, not needing to do something outside steam with the OS. The feature request is for an easy button in steam itself so I don't have to do network shares or SFTP and I can stop mucking with the tedium of looking up ID numbers to transferring app manifest files and managing multiple machines outside the steam interface on a network.

SFTP and networking sharing both ways of achieving this, but both require setup and this would be better if it was directly implemented in the steam interface.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Christopher:

Cool alternative @Cypherous but I'm not looking for alternative methods outside steam itself that's not why I posted a feature request. This could be build into the steam interface itself, not needing to do something outside steam with the OS. The feature request is for an easy button in steam itself so I don't have to do network shares or SFTP and I can stop mucking with the tedium of looking up ID numbers to transferring app manifest files and managing multiple machines outside the steam interface on a network.

SFTP and networking sharing both ways of achieving this, but both require setup and this would be better if it was directly implemented in the steam interface.

Why would they build it in when you can literally already do it?

There's a reason the Deck has a desktop mode. For stuff like this.

[cee]

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Originally posted by Christopher:

Cool alternative @Cypherous but I'm not looking for alternative methods outside steam itself that's not why I posted a feature request. This could be build into the steam interface itself, not needing to do something outside steam with the OS. The feature request is for an easy button in steam itself so I don't have to do network shares or SFTP and I can stop mucking with the tedium of looking up ID numbers to transferring app manifest files and managing multiple machines outside the steam interface on a network.

SFTP and networking sharing both ways of achieving this, but both require setup and this would be better if it was directly implemented in the steam interface.

Why would they build it in when you can literally already do it?

There's a reason the Deck has a desktop mode. For stuff like this.

Why would I ask a billion dollar company to make an enhancement to their UI?

♥♥♥♥ me I dunno I thought that was the point of a "feature request" forum.

I just love looking up the application ID for the right appmanifest of steam games all the time...

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Christopher:

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Why would they build it in when you can literally already do it?

There's a reason the Deck has a desktop mode. For stuff like this.

Why would I ask a billion dollar company to make an enhancement to their UI?

♥♥♥♥ me I dunno I thought that was the point of a "feature request" forum.

I just love looking up the application ID for the right appmanifest of steam games all the time...

It's something you can already do. It is already a "feature" just not the specific way you want it.

[cee]

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Originally posted by Christopher:

Why would I ask a billion dollar company to make an enhancement to their UI?

♥♥♥♥ me I dunno I thought that was the point of a "feature request" forum.

I just love looking up the application ID for the right appmanifest of steam games all the time...

It's something you can already do. It is already a "feature" just not the specific way you want it.

Yes............. feature requests can be very specific or redundant honestly...

Look, it would save me a step to have an easy button in the steam UI in replacement of SFTP or network sharing. Simple.

What are you the steam-feature-police? Only here to say no? You think valve would have made steam-OS if you came along and said "hey windows and direct-x already does this, no need to make proton and use Linux"

The less the deck is only for the power-user, the easier to do specific things - the better for everyone.

You can let random people on the internet want something even if it's redundant you know?

[Xakic]

I would love this feature. Like have a little drop down when you can stream from your desktop or install it.. add another option "Install From" so it would just copy files from the desktop (or what ever computer has it installed) to the new device.. yes you can do it going in to desktop mode and accessing the drive via server copying everything over then telling steam to install it had having it then see the existing files.. Unless you dont have enough space to install it twice.. then it wont even LOOK for the existing files.. it will just say NOPE not enough room i'm not going to do anything

This would help valve out a TINY bit in saving them bandwidth. not having to sent it out again. but it would save people like me and the OP alot of time in that we can install from our local network basically so instead of downloading 100gig game at 3mb/second i could be going at 80-120mb/second.

Again i know you can go around and mount a network drive and copy it from that into steam yadda yadda yadda.. i did that today.. but you have to be in desktop mode to do that.. and again you really need to have twice the space the game needs to do it this method. because you copy it over then tell steam to install it.. steam then looks to see if it has space, if you had 140gigs free and are trying to download 100gig game.. nope not going to work because still will not look for existing games until it tries to allocate room which is after it checks for space.. it would be SO much better from a USER perspective to just be able to select a option "install from desktop" and enjoy the faster speed of local install

I've briefly looked into setting up my own steam cache server but i dont run linux on my server computer and thats ALOT more complicated for the average user to get into to just have faster downloads every once in a while for 1-2 people in a house

[Xakic]

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

Originally posted by Christopher:

Why would I ask a billion dollar company to make an enhancement to their UI?

♥♥♥♥ me I dunno I thought that was the point of a "feature request" forum.

I just love looking up the application ID for the right appmanifest of steam games all the time...

It's something you can already do. It is already a "feature" just not the specific way you want it.

being able to do something that is undocumented and not advertised is not a feature, a feature is something they design into the system and encourage people to do and try and make better.. setting up a network drive share between windows and linux on a private lan isnt something steam is going to help a user do

I dont think steam as a whole REALLY wants the average computer user just poking around in the file system of there steam installs. just because you might not mess things up ALOT of people will.. and giving out recommendations sending people out into files systems can lead to many issues that steam tech support might have to deal with if someone randomly finds instructions in the steam forums on how to move files around on multi-able computers/OSs

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Xakic:

Originally posted by KittenGrindr:

It's something you can already do. It is already a "feature" just not the specific way you want it.

being able to do something that is undocumented and not advertised is not a feature, a feature is something they design into the system and encourage people to do and try and make better.. setting up a network drive share between windows and linux on a private lan isnt something steam is going to help a user do

I dont think steam as a whole REALLY wants the average computer user just poking around in the file system of there steam installs. just because you might not mess things up ALOT of people will.. and giving out recommendations sending people out into files systems can lead to many issues that steam tech support might have to deal with if someone randomly finds instructions in the steam forums on how to move files around on multi-able computers/OSs

There are step by step tutorials that show you exactly how to do it. If you mess it up watching the videos then maybe you shouldn't be using a Deck.

[Finaldest]

+1 for this feature request.

I really hope Valve could add this feature as a priority. I just wasted around 4 hours today trying to get Spiderman copied over to my deck. Re downloading would have taken me over 11 hours.

A simple "Copy game to another device" button in the steam ui would make a huge difference.

[Danigrith]

I would +1 this. It would help save bandwidth and also negate for a normal everyday user to stand up a cache server.

I don’t understand where the counter statements thus far are even coming from. Just because the deck has a desktop mode doesn’t mean all Deck users want to or even should need to use it. Think of it from the normal everyday person who just wants play a game. The reality is ISPs want to put caps on your bandwidth. Comcast is an easy example. If I can download a 120GB+ game to one machine and have it easily copied to my steamdeck without wasting my datacap and getting in the way of the family that would be preferable. The additional benefit is it would be faster because more than likely my local network speed is faster than my internet, even more so if I plug in Ethernet through a dongle. I wouldn’t have to trudge through steams file system, I wouldn’t need to look into setting up a steam cache server, I could just queue it up like any other game on the platform and simply wait. We should want the platform to get better to use for the normal everyday person who has limited time and bandwidth to game. So let’s not use the desktop feature of the Deck as a gate keeping excuse. This would also be useful for even between Steam desktops, so it helps both Steam platforms.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Danigrith:

I would +1 this. It would help save bandwidth and also negate for a normal everyday user to stand up a cache server.

I don’t understand where the counter statements thus far are even coming from. Just because the deck has a desktop mode doesn’t mean all Deck users want to or even should need to use it. Think of it from the normal everyday person who just wants play a game. The reality is ISPs want to put caps on your bandwidth. Comcast is an easy example. If I can download a 120GB+ game to one machine and have it easily copied to my steamdeck without wasting my datacap and getting in the way of the family that would be preferable. The additional benefit is it would be faster because more than likely my local network speed is faster than my internet, even more so if I plug in Ethernet through a dongle. I wouldn’t have to trudge through steams file system, I wouldn’t need to look into setting up a steam cache server, I could just queue it up like any other game on the platform and simply wait. We should want the platform to get better to use for the normal everyday person who has limited time and bandwidth to game. So let’s not use the desktop feature of the Deck as a gate keeping excuse. This would also be useful for even between Steam desktops, so it helps both Steam platforms.

You don't have to setup a server. You can literally transfer the games from PC to Deck, there are videos on YouTube showing how.

[likilike]

+1
This feature would be amazing. It would be even more amazing if it would work on a local network(P2P even) for all users. It would help decrease bandwidth usage for Valve in some instances by a serious amount.

[BrotherO4]

Xbox has this feature. you simple go into the menu and turn it on.
what it does it locates any other xbox in your local network and if you try to download games it will first scan your xboxes for said game.

Steam could do the same and it be great to complete the ecosystem. download Spiderman on my pc and then click install for Deck. 1 download.

[Eispala]

This feauture sounds very useful to have.
It also helps people who don’t have the technical knowledge to do the copying in desktop Mode.
It‘s a nice touch That really tells people that this is a polished system.