Steam seems like it won't let me download any updates. [SOLUTION FOUND]]

[lets be real here]

I've been having this stupid problem for 5 days now and nothing seemed to work. Did Half-Life 2 even get an update? I have tried every solution and nothing. I have good internet speed yet it just stuck at 0 bytes / 0 bytes and worse of all, it won't let me stop the download. I can't seem to play any game anymore. I need help.

Edit:
It got worse...
I can't even connect to steam.
(Not a problem anymore)
Edit 2:
Steam says Half-Life 2 update required but there's no half life files in steam folder
Edit 3:
I think I might have found the problem. It seems like it gets stuck at "creating local files" pre-installation.
Edit 4:
I reset everything, even including logins, downloads, etc. That did not work too. I deleted all games and also did not work. Current solutions still don't work. All I can do now is wait for Steam to update and fix all these.
Edit 5:
It's downloading again. I have no idea how it happened because all I did was install another launcher.
That launcher was Garena. I don't know how this happened but I don't think this is the solution.
Edit 6:
I have found a solution and y'all might hate it. You only have to be patient. It might take days of weeks but it will work. It happened again today that it didn't install anything but I waited. Of course, you can still install while playing (I recommend single player games) by allow downloads while playing through settings.
Other Solution:
It's a VPN. Check Page 3.

[Hatsune Miku]

Im having the exact same issue right now and nothing seems to help at all to fix this.

[The Giving One]

Your internet speed might not be relevant, if something is causing an issue with downloading from the Steam network :

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

Are you using a wireless connection ? If you are, bypass that for now with ethernet only and test it again.

Also, you can change download regions to see if that helps. Maybe the servers in your region are having issues.

[lets be real here]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Your internet speed might not be relevant, if something is causing an issue with downloading from the Steam network :

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

Are you using a wireless connection ? If you are, bypass that for now with ethernet only and test it again.

Also, you can change download regions to see if that helps. Maybe the servers in your region are having issues.

I tried these solutions and it did not work.

[xarvn]

I don't know if this works but try this:

1. Click on "Downloads" at bottom of page and click "Pause" on the the Half-Life 2 item that is presently stuck at 0 bytes.
2. Click the "X" to dismiss download.
3. Go back to "Game Library" where you will find Half-Life 2 "paused" and highlighted in blue.
4. Right-click on HL2 and choose properties.
5. Choose "Local Files" tab and click "Verify Integrity of Game Files"
6. Go back to "Downloads" to see if HL2 is downloading files

[lets be real here]

Bump

[lets be real here]

Originally posted by xarvn:

I don't know if this works but try this:

1. Click on "Downloads" at bottom of page and click "Pause" on the the Half-Life 2 item that is presently stuck at 0 bytes.
2. Click the "X" to dismiss download.
3. Go back to "Game Library" where you will find Half-Life 2 "paused" and highlighted in blue.
4. Right-click on HL2 and choose properties.
5. Choose "Local Files" tab and click "Verify Integrity of Game Files"
6. Go back to "Downloads" to see if HL2 is downloading files

Nope

[ambosen]

A lot of times, this issue can be cleared up by clearing your download cache. I won't guarantee it will 100% of the time, but I've often been able to clear that up by that measure.

Click on the steam icon on the upper left most portion of the steam client, click settings, click on downloads, then click on clear download cache. Make sure you pause or stop any downloads in progress before you do this. I personally recommend stopping them entirely.

After a few minutes, you'll want to restart the steam client entirely. After that wait to see if the updates start, and if not, do exactly what Xarvn told you earlier, and you should be able to download and install the missing files without to much difficulty.

Barring some other issue being the cause, obviously.

[xarvn]

You may have to reinstall Steam if you have not already. Just make sure you move the userdata and steamapps folders somewhere safe on the same drive beforehand so you don't have to re-download all your games.

[ambosen]

Originally posted by xarvn:

You may have to reinstall Steam if you have not already. Just make sure you move the userdata and steamapps folders somewhere safe on the same drive beforehand so you don't have to re-download all your games.

You don't need to do that for most cases anymore, I believe. At least I didn't last time I experienced what I have good cause to believe is the cause of the OP's issue, namely the steam file validation loop.

[Crashed]

Try to run Steam as Administrator then check for updates. This can get around any permissions issues that may be preventing updates.

[lets be real here]

Originally posted by ambosen:

Originally posted by xarvn:

You may have to reinstall Steam if you have not already. Just make sure you move the userdata and steamapps folders somewhere safe on the same drive beforehand so you don't have to re-download all your games.

You don't need to do that for most cases anymore, I believe. At least I didn't last time I experienced what I have good cause to believe is the cause of the OP's issue, namely the steam file validation loop.

I uninstalled everything. I think I had this problem before so I'm going to assume that maybe this time it would start downloading.

[lets be real here]

Originally posted by Marco.:

Originally posted by ambosen:

You don't need to do that for most cases anymore, I believe. At least I didn't last time I experienced what I have good cause to believe is the cause of the OP's issue, namely the steam file validation loop.

I uninstalled everything. I think I had this problem before so I'm going to assume that maybe this time it would start downloading.

Nope. I added a possible problem to this.

[Swagger]

I've been having this problem for the past 5-6 hours. Internet connections all fine, haven't changed anything on the computer in years, and all of a sudden no updates work. I have a dota 2 / poe / and now a "Steamworks Common Redistributables" update. No matter which one I choose it's download speed is under 10kb/sec, eventually goes to 0kb/sec, then stops and needs to be restarted.

Have tried changing locations 10+ times, have tried clearing the steamapps / downloading folder, tried removing firewalls (even though steam was already whitelisted and it's worked fine for years), temporarily removed the built in windows 10 antivirus. I've tried every solution I can find online.

My internet is fine, I don't have a virus/malware, nothing on my end changed in the past 2 years of owning the computer to cause this issue out of the blue. Just doing google searches it's appearing like this is becoming a common problem as of late.

[lets be real here]

Originally posted by Swagger:

I've been having this problem for the past 5-6 hours. Internet connections all fine, haven't changed anything on the computer in years, and all of a sudden no updates work. I have a dota 2 / poe / and now a "Steamworks Common Redistributables" update. No matter which one I choose it's download speed is under 10kb/sec, eventually goes to 0kb/sec, then stops and needs to be restarted.

Have tried changing locations 10+ times, have tried clearing the steamapps / downloading folder, tried removing firewalls (even though steam was already whitelisted and it's worked fine for years), temporarily removed the built in windows 10 antivirus. I've tried every solution I can find online.

My internet is fine, I don't have a virus/malware, nothing on my end changed in the past 2 years of owning the computer to cause this issue out of the blue. Just doing google searches it's appearing like this is becoming a common problem as of late.

Well ♥♥♥♥, if there's an update tomorrow that fixes this then all my uninstalled games we're for nothing.

[The Giving One]

You don't have to lose your games if you ever uninstall Steam :

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9609-OBMP-2526