(SOLVED - Read for help) Downloads stuck on pre-allocation: a few tips & clues

[Clemember]

Hi! Since yesterday until right now, all my downloads were stuck on "pre-allocating disk space" (the equivalent in English) and never started. After hours of troubleshooting, I managed to fix it! Here are a few tips for those who seek help. I came up with these by reading a frickton of posts on this forum, reddit, and other gaming forums.




1. Clear download cache. This is probably the most given advice. Go to parameters --> downloads --> Clear download cache.

2. Reboot. Quit steam, use task manager to kill every steam process, reboot and launch Steam again.

3. Try installing a lighter game first. For some reason, that seems to work for some users. Start with a tiny game before you install a bigger one.

4. Clear Steam app cache. Navigate to your Steam directory, find the folder "appcache" and delete it after exiting Steam. Relaunch Steam.

5. Make sure the problem is on your computer. If you have another drive (for instance, a SSD for Windows and an HDD for your games), try downloading a lighter game on your SSD. Maybe your drive had a write issue with Steam. To install a game on another device, go to settings --> downloads.

6. Use Windows to make sure your drive is healthy. Go to the file explorer, right click on your drive and go to Properties. Go to the "Tools" tab and run "Check drive" (or whatever it is called in English). If the drive is not okay, try to fix it. You can also defrag it (only HDDs, not for SSDs). You can use Windows built-in defrag tool, or download one such as Piriform's Defraggler. Caution: I used Defraggler but it refused to work on Windows 10. Apparently, the version 2.19 works way better than the 2.22.

7. Check your router settings. If your drive is healthy, make sure your router have the open ports required for Steam. You can check them here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711

8. Change your download region. Maybe the problem is on Valve's end and your server has some issues. Try changing the download server location. Go to steam's Settings --> Download --> Change the region to one that is close to you. It didn't change the issue for me but it did for some people.

9. Change your download server region to NY. THIS IS THE STEP THAT FIXED THE ISSUE FOR ME. Go to steam's Settings --> Download --> Change the region to US - New York. I found a thread where an user said it fixed it for them so I decided to try, even if I'm closer to the French locations. Do that, reboot Steam and it should work.



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I hope I saved you some time. If you have any advice or additional info for users, as well as other threads about this issue, feel free to drop them here.

[Iceira]

no smoking gun found here, all this is done by many, but what does this tell you, ISP to steam is the problem and if you look at it, funny that you get it to work then you are in frence and connect to NY , as i told many before look like congesstions network issue, you need to be network engineer to understand this. and only ISP can see what is going on at backbone, hey they even maybe lie to you and say no problem here, ask any freelance network specilist they can tell you this.

ps.
world is round = there is no night and day in network = means its humans that need bedtime, so prime time network in local area is heavy and thats why NY work for you they are at sleep.

problem is this is not a solution ( isp most work at night most do that to avoid DC own custommer so then you connect there could be a issue. ) again im only telling people this, play hardcore charector and you can die with DC, nah only steam can solve this with loadshare data comes from multi sources among all users maybe, or maybe this is just a ISP local issue and all blaim steam then prime time hits your area.

sure i get it you got it fixed, problem is i dont think it will work then USA is primetime again.
maybe steam should get some Network technician that actual know how to spread load share out on the world better, because this can only get worse. in every region and all keep getting better lines also dont make it better.

to even understand this require global view and not region only.

[8114]

Yeah I had the same issue after I got a few games from the sale, I changed my download region to New York and that seem to have fixed it as I've switched back to my old region now and it still works. Thanks for the tips.