Constant Disk Write Error on Update?

[VibrantVector]

I was wondering if this has become a common experience in this community? This is the only game that this happens to me, and I have run through all the suggested steps (clearing caches, verifying files, moving directories, etc), but none seem to work other than reinstalling Steam from scratch.

[ShutEye_DK]

Never seen it.
You write "moving directories" - does that also mean to another drive?
You have a recent backup of important stuff, right?

[VibrantVector]

Yeah, I have all the backups of saves and mods.

Its just irritating that I have to re-install the game constantly.

Moving game files to another directory is one of the suggested fixes.

[ShutEye_DK]

You did not answer - is that other dir also on another drive?

[juliejayne]

Have you any mods installed that might be misbehaving?

[AlexMBrennan]

Disk write errors are caused by faulty hardware or incorrect permissions; either way mods cannot possibly be the cause (especially since mods are not even loaded when Steam tries to update the game files)

[VibrantVector]

Interesting question on the mods. Not sure how that would affect the disk write.

Re the dir is on the same drive, and I am able to install and update other Steam games, just not Factorio. So not sure how permissions are changing this.

Im playing on MacOs as well for additional detail, which uses a different packaging model than windows.

[ShutEye_DK]

You really need to test on another drive.

[DukeXar]

This is not faulty hardware, this started happening for me after they've updated to M1/M2 support, and every once a while it just does not install (at least I can remember two updates in a row already).
All other games are updating normally without problems.

[ShutEye_DK]

Before it has been ruled out, that is a risky conclusion.

[GAMING_Alligator]

引用自 DukeXar：

This is not faulty hardware

Except, it could be. It always starts with small things.

[オルゴール]

This happened for me aswell, and I am on linux.
But for me the reason had been that the drive is formatted using NTFS which creates a problem inside steam... Dont know if this is at all applicable to you

[DukeXar]

So what I can reproduce:

1. Check `/Users/aaa/Library/Application Support/Steam/logs/content_log.txt` - it complains that it can't write into tight-spot.cfg

[2022-12-21 12:19:01] AppID 427520 update canceled : File commit failed: failed to move in file (Disk write failure) "/Users/aaa/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/factorio.app/Contents/data/base/campaigns/tight-spot/locale/ca/tight-spot.cfg"

2. Checking that directory shows it is empty, I don't see anything suspicious in terms of permissions:

% ls -la
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 aaa staff   64 Dec 21 12:04 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 aaa staff 1536 Dec 21 12:22 ..

3. If I remove the whole factorio directory (mv it somewhere outside), it installs the new one without problem.
4. If I put it back with mv, it fails to update.
5. If I copy it back, it updates.
6. Restarting the app, OS, doing "Aid" in diskutility does not help.
7. Found this on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/yrwlfu/steam_disk_write_error/ - enabled "System Settings/Privacy & Security/Full disk access" for Steam, and after restart it updated successfully.

HTH

[tonkachai]

While the solution in the previous comment didn't help me, it pointed me to another comment in https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/yrwlfu/comment/j03egie/ that did help. The comment doesn't spell out all the steps, so here's my version:

- In the top bar, go to the apple menu → System Settings
- In the modal window, on the left sidebar, select "Privacy & Security"
- Select "App Management"
- For "Allow the applications below to update or delete other applications" make sure Steam is selected.

Expect to restart at least Steam, if not your entire machine.

Finally, I can get back to making over-complicated assembly lines in Factorio!

[Saviliana]

Most definitely was your hard disk had a bad sector, which you had your steam/game installed on, if the buffer files can't validate while patching, it would come up with Disk Write Error, rebooting your machine would solve the problem most of the time, but if your hard disk is dying, the more chance the message would show up.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

引用自 Saviliana：

Most definitely was your hard disk had a bad sector, which you had your steam/game installed on, if the buffer files can't validate while patching, it would come up with Disk Write Error, rebooting your machine would solve the problem most of the time, but if your hard disk is dying, the more chance the message would show up.

Aside from the fact that it usually occurs on healthy drives because it is usually a permissions issue. Even on systems which have neither a failing drive or permissions issue it can happen because of the fact that all computers have flaws because they were made by people with flaws.