Reconnecting to existing library

[Thiccolas Cage]

Hiya, had some troubles with Win10 that resulted in reinstalling the OS. Now, I can't seem to reconnect Steam to my games folder on my D drive.

When I try to create a new library it only lets me use an empty folder. So I did that and then dropped the games in and it still won't pick them up. All my games on PC are purchases through Steam (or Origins/Uplay) so I'm at a bit of a loss..

...I had over 100 games currently installed so I'm really hoping I don't just have to redownload.

Any thoughts?

[Snapjak]

Move the entirety of the steam library into the new one, including all the appmanifest files. Then restart Steam.

[Thiccolas Cage]

So that's the entire SteamApps folder then? I'm moving into D:\Steam Games.... will that do it?


And thanks for hte response snapjak, appreciate it :)

[Snapjak]

Yeah the whole library folder. Those appmanifest files tell Steam what games are actually installed. Without them it doesn't know to look for the files.

[Thiccolas Cage]

Hmmm... moved the SteamApps folder across and still hasn't picked it up. Would you mind telling me exactly what root folder to move over?

[Snapjak]

So let's say you have D:\SteamLibrary as your old one that Steam hasn't recognized and demanded you make a new empty one.

You create D:\SteamNewLibraryYouSuckSteam as the new empty library.

Copy everything inside of SteamLibrary into the new one, restart Steam and it should show up.

[Thiccolas Cage]

Ahhh okay, I see the problem here.

I have my steam games on my D drive under ProgramFiles (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\Common

so of that string, which files should carry across?

[Thiccolas Cage]

EDIT: Figured it out. Just had to reinstall and then steam discovered the files. Now to do that to all 100 installed games and then finally delete a bunch of them that I never play.

Can anyone help with this? I have 100GB of games installed in D:Steam Games\Steam Library... however steam is only picking up the 5 that I've installed since I had the issue with my PC.

I need the space back too and I don't want to just manually delete folders and lose all my user configs and possibly saves.

So to clarify, ALL games are in the one folder on D drive yet it's not picking up on all the ones that are already instealled.

[Regicide]

Sry for necroing this, but I had the same problem and was able by solving it by just doing what Snapjak said:

I had to reinstall Steam, but 5 years later you are still unable to install it in the same directory as before.

So I installed Steam in the same location as before, but in a new Folder (Steam2). I started Steam once, logged in etc. then completly closed it (not just minimize). Then I just grabbed all leftovers from my "Steam" folder (the first location), every folder and file (steamapps etc.) and threw it into the Steam2 folder and clicked "yes" to overwrite files.

Then restarted Steam and everything was back to normal, all installed games are back.

Just typing this here in case someone else stumbles on this Thread when looking for a solution.

[Satch]

Heya !
For anybody encountering this issue, here is the fix :

The problem is that you reinstalled steam somewhere else on you PC, so the app automatically create a new library, usually located in the newly created steam folder.
So if you did this process like me, the new library should look like this :(D:\Steam\steamapps\)

Steamapps is the library in this case.

Now, what you want to do, is simply delete this steamapps file and replace it by your "old" library folder.
I would tell you then to rename that folder into steamapps.(To be certain)
Then restart steam and all should be running well.

Keep in mind that in order for steam to recognize your installed games, you MUST copy or move the game file AND the appmanifest files.

[SyxAxis]

To anyone else from 2023 onwards.

1. Install Steam
2. Login as your user account
3. Select Steam -> Settings -> Storage
4. Click the little (+) icon
5. Locate the existing folder "steamapps" where all you previously installed games are ( eg D:\SteamGames\ )

It shoudl then reconnect and they will appear as installed and ready to go.

[Mr_Placeholder_2345]

Originally posted by SyxAxis:

To anyone else from 2023 onwards.

1. Install Steam
2. Login as your user account
3. Select Steam -> Settings -> Storage
4. Click the little (+) icon
5. Locate the existing folder "steamapps" where all you previously installed games are ( eg D:\SteamGames\ )

It shoudl then reconnect and they will appear as installed and ready to go.

Thank you so much!!! You have no idea how much you helped me and a bunch of other people!

[tomajino]

Yes! Just add the drive in Storage settings. It worked after I put a rather large game on a removable SD drive.

[Steven]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.