Any way to change where steam downloads the update files?

[Dojilol]

I had 2 hard drive set up. The bigger HD has started to fail. I have Dota installed on the good hard drive. However when it updates the update file tries to download on the faulty HD.

Ive made the good HD into the default folder, gone into the download folder and deleted the half downloaded update. But when the update starts again it puts the files on the bad HD.

Any way to set where steam will download an update file?

[aiusepsi]

Steam always downloads updates on the drive that the game is installed on, unless there isn't enough free space on that drive for the temporary files Steam needs to construct during the update, in which case it will use whatever space is available.

If you make more space on the good hard drive, the update should start to download there if you make enough.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Do you have enough space on the good drive? I remember Valve updated Steam to let game updates go to the next Steam folder if you don't have enough space for the update on the current installation drive.

Edit: Here http://store.steampowered.com/news/32099/

Steam will now use library folders on other drives to download game updates if the primary drive doesn't have enough space left

[Dojilol]

Thanks for the advice. However the working drive had about 50gb (250gb SSD) free, but for some reason it kept downloading to the faulty bigger drive (3TB regular HD).
Managed to work around it, since removing a steam library folder required you to empty the folder. With the HD being faulty deleting all the content would take hours or more. Closing steam and renaming the library folder on the faulty hd was a quick workaround to removing that folder from steam.

[D1st0rT]

Same problem here, though I am having difficulty figuring out how much space is needed by steam for the update to be installed, im currently trying to fill up the faulty drives with useless stuff so that steam is "forced" to try on another drive.... dont know if it's gonna work or not but fingers crossed...

[HuggyDeathBunny🐰💀]

...I have discovered a problem where if you have MOVED the folder, the updates will still acumulate in the old install paths' Steam Library drive location.

This is remedied by a full install, or NOT using the built in Steam Move feature. Simply copy the data folder, uninstall, then re-install after moving the folder back. It should auto discover and solve future patch issues to boot.

Not "necro posting" as this comes up first in google search.

[EONS]

Originally posted by HuggyDeathBunny🐰💀:

...I have discovered a problem where if you have MOVED the folder, the updates will still acumulate in the old install paths' Steam Library drive location.

This is remedied by a full install, or NOT using the built in Steam Move feature. Simply copy the data folder, uninstall, then re-install after moving the folder back. It should auto discover and solve future patch issues to boot.

Not "necro posting" as this comes up first in google search.

Fixed the same problem using your method, really appreciated it !!!!
A little tip: changing the game folder name instead of physically moving the data folder works too

[Dolph Vader]

Originally posted by HuggyDeathBunny🐰💀:

...I have discovered a problem where if you have MOVED the folder, the updates will still acumulate in the old install paths' Steam Library drive location.

This is remedied by a full install, or NOT using the built in Steam Move feature. Simply copy the data folder, uninstall, then re-install after moving the folder back. It should auto discover and solve future patch issues to boot.

Not "necro posting" as this comes up first in google search.

Thank you, I was getting so god awful sick of reading years and years worth of replies to these posts saying.

"It always downloads to the install folder"
"Check you task manager/resource manger/etc.. "
"Do you have enough space"

OMG why do people do this on literally every question anyone ever asks? Do you ever go to the mechanic and say "My car doesn't have any oil" and they say "No, cars have oil"

[domadora]

Well, as this is the first result on Google, I figured sharing should help some people. This happened to me because when Steam started updating the game I didn't have enough space on the disk where the game is located, but even after freeing space on that disk it continued to download on another disk. Clearing download data (on Settings > Downloads) seemed to fix it, but you will need to download it again.

[Emerald]

I installed Dead by Daylight on a new drive (1TB) and it keeps on doing this same thing, except it keeps adding stuff to the "downloading" folder in the Steam root folder, which is in my local disk.

[crunchyfrog]

I've just bought a new laptop last week, after 5 years away.

I have a separate external hard drive with all the games I have downloaded, but I also bought an SSD and installed that too, so I had three hard drives in total.

I've moved Windows to the SSD, naturally, and kept the games as they are on the external drive. New downloads I've pointed to download to that external drive as default.

A couple of games that take ages to start, for example, 7 Days to Die, I simply downloaded to the SSD. I've had one update pick up since then and it's gone onto the SSD as it should.

What I would say is to not piss around with moving files manually. Backup any saves, then delete the game files from the drive you no longer want it on. Reinstall it where you want, they manuall move the backed up save to where it should be.

By keeping things as clean as this, and letting Steam do the work, it ensures it doesn't get waylaid downloading elsewhere.

Hope this helps.

[Trekky1701A]

Yes you can change the location easily.

Necroing this post to describe a way how to consolidate the steam download folders into one location for example on different disk in case you have multiple library folders, without messing around with Steam Client.
By using this, you do not need to worry anymore what happens when you move a game between library folders.

The trick is to use Symbolic Links (a feature widely known in Linux, but not so much in Windows) to let each "downloading" folder of the various Steam Library folders point to the same, centralized location/drive.

Example : Games in Steam Library folders on smaller SSDs in C:\Steam and D:\Steam, the desired central download location on the slower but bigger HDD E:\SteamDownloads.

Be sure you have all current downloads finished and applied to their games (as you will temporarily delete the downloading folders).
Then exit the Steam Client completely and open an Administrative Command Prompt.

Type :

md E:\SteamDownloads
C:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads
D:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads

This folder redirection is transparent to Steam Client and Windows Explorer - the only difference is a little arrow in the folder icon.

Regardless which ......\steamapps\downloading folder is selected, it will always end up in E:\SteamDownloads

[Liqa Madihq]

Originally posted by Trekky1701A:

Yes you can change the location easily.

Necroing this post to describe a way how to consolidate the steam download folders into one location for example on different disk in case you have multiple library folders, without messing around with Steam Client.
By using this, you do not need to worry anymore what happens when you move a game between library folders.

The trick is to use Symbolic Links (a feature widely known in Linux, but not so much in Windows) to let each "downloading" folder of the various Steam Library folders point to the same, centralized location/drive.

Example : Games in Steam Library folders on smaller SSDs in C:\Steam and D:\Steam, the desired central download location on the slower but bigger HDD E:\SteamDownloads.

Be sure you have all current downloads finished and applied to their games (as you will temporarily delete the downloading folders).
Then exit the Steam Client completely and open an Administrative Command Prompt.

Type :

md E:\SteamDownloads
C:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads
D:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads

This folder redirection is transparent to Steam Client and Windows Explorer - the only difference is a little arrow in the folder icon.

Regardless which ......\steamapps\downloading folder is selected, it will always end up in E:\SteamDownloads

THANK YOU so much for this, i was looking for exactly this workaround. Since my tiny 120 gb SSD always has problems containing both the game itself and the wonky way that steam downloads take up 40 gb, even though the download itself is 5gb

[ShoshonElegant]

Originally posted by Trekky1701A:

Yes you can change the location easily.

Necroing this post to describe a way how to consolidate the steam download folders into one location for example on different disk in case you have multiple library folders, without messing around with Steam Client.
By using this, you do not need to worry anymore what happens when you move a game between library folders.

The trick is to use Symbolic Links (a feature widely known in Linux, but not so much in Windows) to let each "downloading" folder of the various Steam Library folders point to the same, centralized location/drive.

Example : Games in Steam Library folders on smaller SSDs in C:\Steam and D:\Steam, the desired central download location on the slower but bigger HDD E:\SteamDownloads.

Be sure you have all current downloads finished and applied to their games (as you will temporarily delete the downloading folders).
Then exit the Steam Client completely and open an Administrative Command Prompt.

Type :

md E:\SteamDownloads
C:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads
D:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads

This folder redirection is transparent to Steam Client and Windows Explorer - the only difference is a little arrow in the folder icon.

Regardless which ......\steamapps\downloading folder is selected, it will always end up in E:\SteamDownloads

DUDE, YOU ARE A LIFE SAVIOR
big thx

[Bip]

Originally posted by Trekky1701A:

Yes you can change the location easily.

Necroing this post to describe a way how to consolidate the steam download folders into one location for example on different disk in case you have multiple library folders, without messing around with Steam Client.
By using this, you do not need to worry anymore what happens when you move a game between library folders.

The trick is to use Symbolic Links (a feature widely known in Linux, but not so much in Windows) to let each "downloading" folder of the various Steam Library folders point to the same, centralized location/drive.

Example : Games in Steam Library folders on smaller SSDs in C:\Steam and D:\Steam, the desired central download location on the slower but bigger HDD E:\SteamDownloads.

Be sure you have all current downloads finished and applied to their games (as you will temporarily delete the downloading folders).
Then exit the Steam Client completely and open an Administrative Command Prompt.

Type :

md E:\SteamDownloads
C:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads
D:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads

This folder redirection is transparent to Steam Client and Windows Explorer - the only difference is a little arrow in the folder icon.

Regardless which ......\steamapps\downloading folder is selected, it will always end up in E:\SteamDownloads

Thanks! This worked like a charm!

[skofdo]

Originally posted by Trekky1701A:

Yes you can change the location easily.

Necroing this post to describe a way how to consolidate the steam download folders into one location for example on different disk in case you have multiple library folders, without messing around with Steam Client.
By using this, you do not need to worry anymore what happens when you move a game between library folders.

The trick is to use Symbolic Links (a feature widely known in Linux, but not so much in Windows) to let each "downloading" folder of the various Steam Library folders point to the same, centralized location/drive.

Example : Games in Steam Library folders on smaller SSDs in C:\Steam and D:\Steam, the desired central download location on the slower but bigger HDD E:\SteamDownloads.

Be sure you have all current downloads finished and applied to their games (as you will temporarily delete the downloading folders).
Then exit the Steam Client completely and open an Administrative Command Prompt.

Type :

md E:\SteamDownloads
C:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads
D:
cd \Steam\steamapps
rd /s /q downloading
mklink /D downloading E:\SteamDownloads

This folder redirection is transparent to Steam Client and Windows Explorer - the only difference is a little arrow in the folder icon.

Regardless which ......\steamapps\downloading folder is selected, it will always end up in E:\SteamDownloads

Thank you! This saved me from a lot of headache! There really should be a native way to set the order of preferred drive to download to, since by default it was using my slowest hard disk.
Using this symlink I was able to default to another, faster disk.