[SOLVED] Game is stuck at 0 bytes or doesn't download at all.

[Enmi]

Hello steam community,

So last night, I purchased TESO through steam and proceeded to download it.
I watched it go through the preallocatoin process, and it did, as expected.

Alt-tabbed, went on FB.

A few minutes after, I checked my downloads page and found out that it's updating a different game.
So I figured ok, i'll just pause it and move TESO up the queue, so I did and oddly enough, it won't let me. It just keeps downloading that other game. I can pause it but if i click resume it will only download the other game. A fairly common bug, I presume.
But I got frustrated and uninstalled that other game.

It should work now, right? Nope. It gets stuck on an ''Creating local game files'' and it cannot download the game. (this is the preallocation process where Steam allocates, I reckon around 60GB for TESO to write into).

And then I restarted it, and still nope, doesn't do any different.

So I surveyed the internet for fixes but to no avail.

A list of the fixes I've tried so far:
Turned off firewall
Cleared game cache
Changed download region
Deleted the steamapps>downloads folder
^^^the first time I deleted this folder, it was the size of TESO and subsequent attempts showed the folder was empty (0 byte)


10 hours later, I tried again and it's downloading. BUT its still stuck on ''Creating local game files Preparing TESO for install'' - and when I go to the download page on steam, it shows TESO is downloading but is still on 0 bytes. Here is a picture of it...

http://tinypic.com/r/29c12bm/9

I can't download it via their website because STEAM DOESN'T GIVE A CD KEY
and I can only link my steam account to their website IN-GAME, which is ridiculous.


No, I cannot copy it from somebody else's Hard Drive because nobody plays it where I'm from. And due to my country's ISPs bottle-necking, throttling and data-capping everyone my options are very limited.

I do have an idea but I'm reserving that as a final resort.


Edit:

I've tried downloading TESO on my desktop at work and it's perfectly normal. I noticed my PC at home never got past the preallocating process.

http://tinypic.com/r/iftwfc/9

This screenshot is from my Desktop at work. You can see that it's progressing through the preallocation. After a minute, it's downloading as per usual. It shows the progress, the total file size downloaded and the target size and also the Hard Disk usage value.

So now we have established the problem lies with my PC.

For obvious reasons, I am forbidden to download games from work.

Please help me.

[まりさ]

It's creating files for you before download. 85GB does not appear instantly.

[Enmi]

Thanks for the reply, Marisa, however, I've downloaded massive games like Tera, GTA V, BLR etc. and those games would always show on the designated folder showing the current progress (size of file downloaded).

And isn't it odd that it says 0 bytes / 0 bytes it's like there is no starting point and end point?

I also thought that it might just be downloading the launcher, similar to games like Trove, For Honor, etc.where a launcher is downloaded and that would serve as the actual data retriever.

But then why isn't there any ''Hard Drive Usage''? (as shown in the picture)
I am very sure there should always be Hard Drive activity when downloading. Obviously because it has to be stored in a HD.

Also, I had tried to leave it for a couple of hours hoping that It would ''write'' the files that it's claiming to be downloading, but sadly, it didn't.

[GRIMM]

Silly question, and maybe I missed it (I'm tired), but how much free space do you have?

Some games will actually require at least double the download requirement to be free to actually start the download. I know this is the case at least for decrypting.

If you do not have that enough free space required, it will just simply not download. It will remain in the queue.

[Enmi]

Hi King Grimroc and thanks for the reply.

I currently have at least over 200 GB on the particular storage drive I'm using to install TESO and at least 2 TB of collective free space across all drives so I'm definitely fine in that area.

I'm thinking of uninstalling again when I get home.

Also I've got another idea, thanks to you. I'm gonna try to change the directory to a different hard drive. Seems redundant but I got nothing else to go on at this point.

[Seven7]

TESO as many other thrid party MMO will be DL from its site

[GRIMM]

Yeah. Good point. Did not think about that. You'll probably get a launcher installed from Steam, and not the full game. The launcher will download from Bethesda's servers the entire MMO game.

[Seven7]

If you check game cache for such games you totally broke it

[Enmi]

Changing download directory didn't work.

Yes, I expect to get a launcher from steam as many other games.
Problem is, there is still no hard disk activity and the directory folder is still empty. Even after 2GB of download. It's like watching a video on youtube, you're using up bandwidth but the data is not ''written down'' it will be gone when you click on another video.

I suspect that is what's happening to my PC right now.

[McDelorean]

i have the same problem and i havent fixed it yet.. :(

[Enmi]

McDelorean, are you having the same problem with the same game or is it a different game?

[McDelorean]

its the same as the other games

[McDelorean]

im downloading dota 2 now.. i regret that i deleted the game and install it again

[maednaly]

You didnt even needed to do all those things, you could've just restarted your router for a minute then it should work! I experienced this, and that was the solution

[Enmi]

Mr.KrAborg eredeti hozzászólása:

You didnt even needed to do all those things, you could've just restarted your router for a minute then it should work! I experienced this, and that was the solution

I didn't include ''restarting my router'' as part of the list that I tried to do to fix this problem because that's one of the most common troubleshooting steps along with switching USB ports for my external drives. But yes, I already did that. Thank you for your input Mr.KrAborg

[McDelorean]

Mr.KrAborg eredeti hozzászólása:

You didnt even needed to do all those things, you could've just restarted your router for a minute then it should work! I experienced this, and that was the solution

i did restart my router