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kode54 Aug 30, 2018 @ 4:41pm

How to trigger game updates on client startup

This isn't necessarily for me, but for a friend who shuts their computer off at night. How would they go about expecting their Steam client to start downloading game updates the instant they become available, or if they're already available, the instant they log into Steam upon logging into their computer?

They have a problem that Steam ends up scheduling updates for just about the time they shut their computer off for the night, or even seemingly for periods of time when the computer is actually powered off.

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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments

TristanMike Aug 30, 2018 @ 6:12pm

Under Steam->Settings-Downloads you can set Download Restrictions to auto-update between certain hours.

Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ) Aug 30, 2018 @ 6:13pm

Hello, If you have steam started up, click in the top menu item most left (the word Steam), then select settings, in there you will find also a Downloads item. When you have clicked on that there multiple ways to select for downloading, for instance during playing or not.
You can also set your own timeframe for updating downloads.
Same can be made when in Big Picture mode - click the icon next to the on/off button then the system tab shows the download settings
Hope this helps out for your friend

kode54 Aug 30, 2018 @ 11:36pm

The problem is, they have no restrictions configured, and it only seems to want to download at all in the middle of the night.

E: Speaking of which, I have no restrictions configured on my setup, and it has two updates sitting in the games list as "Update queued" and they're not going anywhere.

Last edited by kode54; Aug 30, 2018 @ 11:38pm

Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ) Sep 1, 2018 @ 11:18am

If the update is queued, it can be on pause, mostly there should be an icon to start them up again, line a pause symbol....

For the other one, do they have newest updates of steam, or perhaps somewhere else in their pc settings that updates are restricted?? Otherwise perhaps you should forward the question to steam support, they are not that quick in responding but they might know more..

999999999 Sep 1, 2018 @ 11:21am

Valve changed the way updates happen. They are trying to relieve stress on the DL servers by scheduling them at a later time. Mostly during off peak times.