Problem with backup and restore feature.

[bill]

Edited on 25 May, 2018

I recently tried to use the backup and restore games feature in the Steam cleint and it is not working as expected. Below are the steps i went through to find what looks like a bug to me:

1. Backed up a bunch of steam games to a secondary hard drive using the "Backup and Restore Games..." under "Steam" menu.
2. Did a clean install of my OS. (Clean install means the primary drive is wiped and a fresh installation of an OS is performed.)
3. Installed Steam client.
4. Attempted to restore games from archive made in step 1 using using the "Backup and Restore Games..." option under the "Steam" menu. At this point the client requires a key to be entered, which I do not have for most of my games.

If anyone has seen this issue before (and knows about a work-around), I would welcome suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

[FFL2and3rocks]

If I'm remembering right, it asks you for a CD key if you try to restore the games onto the wrong Steam account. Make sure you're using the same account that backed up the games in the first place.

[bill]

I used the same accounts.

[pike]

are you referring to games like far cry 3 that require a login to ubisoft ?
after installing the game from back up i think it's "shift tab" then a copy paste the key to confirm ownership over at ubisoft .
i think i remember there being a prompt when you do the 1st startup
games like fallout4 i've never had to enter a cd key
what game is it ?
it would be a lot easier to give advise if thats known ,
did you ask in the games forum ?

[bill]

Originally posted by pike:

are you referring to games like far cry 3 that require a login to ubisoft ?
after installing the game from back up i think it's "shift tab" then a copy paste the key to confirm ownership over at ubisoft .
i think i remember there being a prompt when you do the 1st startup
games like fallout4 i've never had to enter a cd key
what game is it ?
it would be a lot easier to give advise if thats known ,
did you ask in the games forum ?

No, it is not an issue with after the games are restored. The games can't be restored because the Steam client is aksing for a CD-Key which I never even had.

[pike]

Originally posted by bill:

Originally posted by pike:

are you referring to games like far cry 3 that require a login to ubisoft ?
after installing the game from back up i think it's "shift tab" then a copy paste the key to confirm ownership over at ubisoft .
i think i remember there being a prompt when you do the 1st startup
games like fallout4 i've never had to enter a cd key
what game is it ?
it would be a lot easier to give advise if thats known ,
did you ask in the games forum ?

No, it is not an issue with after the games are restored. The games can't be restored because the Steam client is aksing for a CD-Key which I never even had.

what game ?

[bill]

Originally posted by pike:

are you referring to games like far cry 3 that require a login to ubisoft ?
after installing the game from back up i think it's "shift tab" then a copy paste the key to confirm ownership over at ubisoft .
i think i remember there being a prompt when you do the 1st startup
games like fallout4 i've never had to enter a cd key
what game is it ?
it would be a lot easier to give advise if thats known ,
did you ask in the games forum ?

I do appreciate your interest, but I don't think you understand the problem.

I used the Backup/Restore option on the Steam client as part of preparations for doing a wipe and clean install. I figured it would be more convenient to restore the game files from my secondary hard drive versus downloading them across the internet.

In any case, there were 87Gb of games in the archive, and the client seems to have some trouble restoring them, despite having the same accounts registered with the client as I had when i backed them up.

At this point it seems that trying to use the that feature was just a waste of time, since it isn't working on the restoration side of the process.

[pike]

i've used it before , never had a problem ,
so you re-installed steam , now you need to restore the games , all you do is open your library .
all your games will be there greyed out , rt click >restore from back up> select the back up .
thats it .
cd keys are located on the right when you high light the game with a left click
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1364147911
if you have more that one account and mixed up the games it might be a little more confusing ,
go watch a vid on how to do it , read the support/ help article .
you're doing something wrong ,and not explaining what you did at all .
all your saying is "it wants a cd key" .
good luck

[bill]

Originally posted by pike:

i've used it before , never had a problem ,
so you re-installed steam , now you need to restore the games , all you do is open your library .
all your games will be there greyed out , rt click >restore from back up> select the back up .
thats it .
cd keys are located on the right when you high light the game with a left click
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1364147911
if you have more that one account and mixed up the games it might be a little more confusing ,
go watch a vid on how to do it , read the support/ help article .
you're doing something wrong ,and not explaining what you did at all .
all your saying is "it wants a cd key" .
good luck

Thank you for pointing out that my original post might not be completely clear to everyone. Here is what happened:

1. Backed up a bunch of steam games to a secondary hard drive using the "Backup and Restore Games..." under "Steam" menu.
2. Did a clean install of my OS. (Clean install means the primary drive is wiped and a fresh installation of an OS is performed.)
3. Installed Steam client.
4. Attempted to restore games from archive made in step 1 using using the "Backup and Restore Games..." option under the "Steam" menu. At this point the client requires a key to be entered, which I do not have for most of my games.

I did a web search and forums search and found that this is an intermittent bug and a known issue. I only posted here in the hopes that someone had a suggestion for a work-around. If you are not aware of the existence of this issue, then you probably can not offer a meaningful reply for this post. Right?

[n0tone1]

hi

[bill]

Originally posted by Kent:

hi

Hi, Kent.