Steam not recognizing installed games

[kaiservative]

I'm having a serious issue with Steam and I don't know how to solve it. This is my issue:

Using any of my three actively used Steam accounts, the Steam app refuses to recognize that there are games installed. Because my hard drive was as full as it was, I couldn't tell the Steam app to re-download a game, thereby forcing the app to realize that it is indeed installed. I have since uninstalled a few games to nudge the app into doing so, but the app simply attempts to download the full game again and ignores the game files that already exist. Attempting to "Repair the folder", the game folder, the option to do so being in the Downloads > 'add a steam folder' sort of button at the top of the Downloads page > hitting the "+" sign to the right of the displayed folder in which the games are installed, does absolutely nothing, even though the app returns with a message indicating that it has indeed been repaired. I have uninstalled the app and reinstalled it. I have attempted to allow the app to download the game entirely, which simply created another set of files and folders for that game. An option, to the best of my knowledge, does not exist for forcing the Steam app to check the integrity, even the existence, of the installed games when the app refuses to recognize that they're there. I've tried to move the installation folders around. I've tried to 'add a non-Steam' game. Nothing works. I don't know what to do.

The only option available is to restart my computer a few dozen times. My current chances of Steam recognizing that even one game is installed, completely random game, by restarting my computer sits at about 2% so far. I've found forums that are a few years old of this happening to others. As is with every forum, those threads were as helpful with providing a solution as a bicycle in space.

Does anyone have any experience in solving this issue? I'd rather not write off Steam; I've had a plethora of accounts since about 6 months after Steam initially released. But, as it stands, it's unusable. My internet connection is terrible for where I live; in the middle of nowhere through a dedicated hotspot. Downloading a game like Rainbow Six: Siege will take 4 to 9 days. If I'm forced to download it through the Uplay app in order to enjoy the game, that's what I'll have to do. It means getting rid of Steam, because I have no more patience to burn through time and hotspot data usage. I don't want to do so, but Steam is refusing to allow me to play anything.

Can anyone help me understand what's going on with it? Any pointers? I'm out of ideas and my frustration is at its limit.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

The steamapps folder requires the acf files, are all your acf in there as Steam needs them. appmanifest files.

[Bee🐝]

You also need to read this WHOLE page:

Official FAQ:

Installed games are appearing as uninstalled: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

[kaiservative]

Yes, the .acf files are there. Yes, I already read the WHOLE page. It didn't help. I have it running again, after another couple dozen times of restarting my PC, and I'm going to leave it running overnight so it can't forget that the game exists. It has indeed forgotten that one or more games exist a couple times previously while I was staring at my games list, after I'd just closed one of those games, but that hasn't happened for a good five or six days now.

But leaving my computer running isn't a solution, nor does that FAQ page touch on anything that I can relate to this issue. I can't find a reason for or solution to this issue.

Any other ideas?

[C0br4 | 3PARA]

Hi Guys,
I painfully came across this issue this morning.
Having gone through this issue at a time before and painfully having to re-install every game I had previously installed, this time I needed a better solution else a rage-quit would of occured.

One thing has worked for me though, I had to go to my folder settings and and myself as a user with Full Control permissions.
I let that tick over for a few minutes, then bam, when I restarted Steam all my games were there again.
I only thought of it as I'm currently installing Mircrosoft Flight X and it requires you to have permissions set in this way also.

Path: Exit Steam->Windows Folder->'Right Click' on appropriate drive->Properties->Security Tab->Advanced->Add->Select a Principal->In field type in your Windows user account name->Check Names, it should preload with the releavant user->Ok.

Let it run for a bit.
Restart Steam from your original steam folder (not sure if this is necessary, my one wasn't working before I added the security permissions but loaded after I did the 'write/full control' permissions).

Once done all your games should be in the relative drive.

Hope this works for you!

[Joke]

Do you have the steamlibrary on an external usb HDD?

When steam starts, it will check to see if it can access the configured steamlibrary folders.
If it cannot, then it will show them as not installed.

1. Make sure the hdd always gets the same drive letter (d:\ e:\ f:\ etc.)
If this changes when you start your pc, then steam will not find the installed games.

2. Consider not letting steam start automatically when windows starts.
Wait until windows is fully started, and check that the hdd where you have the games installed is accessible (access it yourself with the file explorer).
Then start steam manually (from start menu).

If you have steam configured to start when windows starts, then it's possible steam will try to access the steamlibrary before the external hdd has started.
I think this might be a problem with internal hdd's as well if they are allowed to go into sleep mode when not accessed.


If you still get this problem sometimes, don't restart your PC. Just exit steam ("Steam" menu -> Exit). Make sure your hdd is active, and start steam again.

[kaiservative]

The following is the majority of a message with which I replied to Steam's support response:

"
I haven't moved the game folder, I haven't moved any of the folders or files. Adding the folder doesn't work, because it won't allow me to add more than one Steam folder per hard drive. I can't start the download process in the attempt to force the app to recognize that the game already exists, because the app stops my attempt to download, because my hard drive is full of the games that it refuses to recognize. Neither of the suggestions that you sent me work. They don't solve the issue. I also won't download the game again through Steam on my internet connection, because my internet connection is metered; that means that Rainbow Six: Siege, an 80GB game, takes three quarters of my data usage to download at the fastest speed of five consecutive days during which my computer remains on and solely is tasked with downloading the game. I won't download it again through Steam, because Steam continuously refuses to acknowledge that the game is already downloaded. I've been trying to find anyone at all who would complain about this problem through the Uplay app and haven't found anyone. I have, however, found many complaints of this issue that I'm experiencing with the Steam app affecting others.

I'm about to turn off my computer for some required maintenance of my work station. This means that I'm taking what is currently a 15% chance that Steam, once my computer starts up again, will recognize that the game is installed. This is an issue that I'd very obviously don't want to deal with. I've had no issues with Uplay or Origin, or any standalone games It's just Steam. I no longer have Mass Effect, Halo, Sea of Thieves, Universe Sandbox2 or Kerbal Space Program; those games haven't returned like Rainbow Six: Siege sporadically has, hence why I've been playing it so much recently.

I've been using Steam for so long that every time I think about how long I've used it, a memory of an old friend showing it to me around the time that it was released comes to my mind. For the past couple years, I've had a few reoccurring problems that are exclusive to the Steam app. I've tried a lot. I've tested memory. I've tested hard drive. I've tested video cards, because I had nothing else to test. I've tested no other programs running. I've tested having a hundred programs running. I've tested a plethora of peripherals. I've tested spilling coffee onto my monitor. I've cast Harry Potter spells. I've calculated how far toward the sun a teapot would need to be in order for our telescopes to be incapable of noticing that it's there. I've turned on and off every option that I could with the Windows Defender spyware.

I've tried so much to solve the issue that I don't know what else to do but to, at some point, just pull the plug and move to Uplay. So, in other words, I'm open to any and all options that the Steam team could offer that I try, including taking the computer to a shop with full access and leaving it with them for a full work week.
"

I'm still having the issue.

Anyone here on the Steam forum have any ideas?

[kaiservative]

I don't have anything on an external drive. I don't have anything start automatically save for what Windows requires to be active for startup. It's still a coin flip... a die roll... worse than a die roll worth of a chance that Steam will recognize any games. I've changed nothing about my computer at all, save for using a different internet connection, since this issues has arisen. This has added to my frustration as to why this is happening. And it's just Steam. Everything else works perfectly. My frustration is also partially fueled by the fact that I'm having a problem with Steam. I love Steam. But it's virtually (no pun intended) unusable. I could be patient and restart my computer forty times and hope that it recognizes the game at restart number 22, or I could simply go on a drive down to Salt Lake for a week while my PC downloads it on Uplay and be done with it.

"cObr4": I'm running the PC as Admin, and have tried on other accounts to run as admin. That didn't work.

[kaiservative]

Telling the Steam app to repair the folder, through the downloads/steam folder, wherever that page is, just comes back almost instantly that it's been fixed, and that doesn't work. Steam won't check a game's integrity by right clicking it unless it's already installed (or, I should type, unless Steam recognizes that it's installed).

Curious that the app won't recognize that it's installed for the majority of the time, but on that one time in 8, it does, and that one time in 20, it lets me play without returning with "sorry, but the game you're trying to play somehow miraculously disappeared from your hard drive the instant you tried to run it. so, let's just go ahead and start downloading it, shall we?" ... "Oh, your hard drive is full? Sorry, you can't download it. And we won't tell you why you can't download it. You just need to accurately judge that it's because your hard drive is full of games that I refuse to recognize are actually already there."

[kaiservative]

Time to start my PC and... apparently I don't have an option to post the screenshot of Steam indicating that Siege is not installed.

[isomorphic_projection]

Originally posted by Bee:

You also need to read this WHOLE page:

Official FAQ:

Installed games are appearing as uninstalled: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

1 tip, in the links list. Prevent external drives. I do have a good and fast connection as if it would be an eternal drive. But i plugged the drive once in another rig. When the other broke. Al games showed as uninstalled.

[kaiservative]

I don't have an external drive. There is a nonexistence of an external drive connected in my computer. I don't think there's an external drive within a mile of my computer.