Steamworks Common Redistributables being auto-deleted

[harl windwolf]

The following issue's been trying my patience for some time now.

Steam auto-deletes Steamworks Common Redistributables (parts of it or even the whole thing) every time it can't find or access an install location (SteamLibrary directory) that just isn't available all the time (when it's on an external or networked drive etc). So, whenever Steam considers certain games to be not installed at that moment, it also simply deletes SCR.

I don't know for sure what that's good for, but it can't be just the damn disk space, right? (It's just about 1.1 GB at max.) - The only good reason I can think of atm is, that licenses for certain libraries/redistributables could be tied to owning their corresponding games. In which case they shouldn't be part of SCR to begin with - nor should they be automatically deleted because I still own the games after all.

And that's where my issue lies with Steam's behaviour in such situations. Feel free to correct me, but there seems to be no way to control it, either turn the auto-delete off or have it at least ask the user before it does anything, and I think something like this should be implemented rather sooner than later.

Subsequently, when an install location becomes available again, Steam of course goes on to re-download SCR (partially).
It does that again and again. Suffice it to say that this can be annoying, and not just with an internet connection as slow as mine these days (around 50 KB/s).

Opinions/Experiences? (Workarounds that can be automated?)

[Satoru]

Workaround :

Step 1) Do not use steam libraries on network or removable drives
Step 2) Look at step 1

Steam does not support network or removable drives for its libraries

If you use them, you do so at your own risk, because the problem is literally the thing you are experiencing, because you're doing something that is unsupported.

[Johnnie_Worker]

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3761103845935603891/

Good luck harl windwolf with the advise you will get on these forums.

Satoru is supposedly all knowing here, but even when describing the SWR behaviour in my posts all he came forward with was that my SSD was toast and corrupted and my PC was totally hosed, yet he can freely tell you that what you're experiencing is down to what you're doing by using a networked drive.

If he knew the deleting of SWR happens when a drive (or Library) is not discoverable then wtf didn't he explain this to me? Instead he sat back and watched me posting, describing the behaviour of SCR deleting files each time it updated, when now I know why it's deleted the files if what you say in your post is the actions it takes if a drive is disconnected or undiscoverable.

Thanks Satoru you're a legend keep up the great work, BTW I fixed the problem solved by someone on Discord who had suffered the same issue for weeks, the solution? Delete the DayZ Documents folder, not spend $140.00 on a new SSD or outlay more money on a new PC.

[harl windwolf]

Thank you, Johnny_Worker.
I think Satoru didn't understand the purpose of my post (or didn't read all of it).

My situation is, that a large portion of the games I play are not on the local drive(s) because (when I'm on the laptop) I need the space for other things (mainly work and other hobbies), plus I want to be able to play the same games from either the laptop or the PC.

We also don't always have everything powered, but Steam auto-starts on every machine, so it often happens that I'm on either one without wanting to make sure all the sources/drives are available at that moment. Or even if they were available at first, of course sometimes they'd become unavailable later. Any of this is enough for Steam to consider the games not installed (or removed or whatever) and just delete SCR.

I really can't change much about my current situation, anyway.
In my opinion, this is a very inconvenient behaviour by Steam and could be remedied rather easily with just a few lines of code.

[Satoru]

And again if you run in an UNSUPPORTED configuration, then you will encounter problems

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

External Hard Drives
External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.

the solution to this, is to run in an supported configuration

Steam is not going to fix something that they themselves say is broken and unsupported

SOLUTION: Do not store games or steam libraries or steam on remote or removable drives. Move your Steamworks Common Redisributables back to your local drive.

That is the solution.

The solution is not "here is the myriad of weird things you have to do like hand stands and sacrifices to Gaben in order for things not to break"

If you want to store games on network drives, you're free to do that.

But realize that you will encounter problems and those problems are known by Steam and they outright tell you to not do this.

[harl windwolf]

My Steamworks Common Redistributables were never not on the local drive(s).

[Satoru]

Originally posted by harl windwolf:

My Steamworks Common Redistributables were never not on the local drive(s).

Note the Steamworks depot is dynamic. It depends on the games you have installed.

So here's how the redisributable depots work

* A game is made up of 'depots' think of them like ingredients
* A specific game that might need say DotNet4.0 will add that 'depot' to their game
* When you install a game, it checks and sees "Ah you need DotNet4.0" and adds that to the Steamworks Common Redistributable

When you delete a game aka, when your network dies and your library dies with it

* Steam checks if any other game needs DotNet4.0
* Steam sees "oh cool no other game needs DotNet4.0"
* Steam deletes DotNet4.0
* Steam might also see your locally installed game X still needs say vcredist2015. so that won't be deleted

Again steam is doing exactly what it was designed to do. You 'delete' your games from your libraries. Steam correctly detects that installed games, no longer need various redistributables, and removes them, because again you don't need them anymore

Solution : Stop installing games on the network

[harl windwolf]

Yes, I implied some of that in my first post.

And of course you're free to voice your opinion, that one should just accept Steam as it is when they don't recommend to use external or networked storages, but your "solution" just doesn't seem constructive at all to me, but rather fatalistic / submissive
.
My stance in this matter is different and I think that there's always room for improvement, or methodical changes as long as they involve improvement in one or another form. In my opinion, everything is open to be criticised, discussed or expanded.

I'm not expecting this to be considered on a short-term basis, but the issue remains the same.

[Satoru]

Again the 'solution' is to not install games on non local drives because again, games on non-local storage is not supported and steam outright tells you this

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

External Hard Drives
External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.

If you make a problem of your own creation, the solution is to stop doing the thing you know is the problem.

[harl windwolf]

That's still very much beside the point (the one which I've clarified well enough for now).

[Satoru]

Originally posted by harl windwolf:

That's still very much beside the point (the one which I've clarified well enough for now).

So in your OP you want 'workaround/solutions'

I gave it to you

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

External Hard Drives
External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.