Steam Not Recognizing Games Installed on External Drive (Solution)

[WaterMullins]

My laptop has a fairly small internal drive so I have to use an external drive connected by usb. I used to always have this frustrating issue where games I had previously installed on my drive would no longer show "play" as an option when trying to launch, but "install" instead. I've found 2 solutions to this issue.

1.) Restart Your Computer This usually fixes the issue for me. Sometimes I even have to restart my computer a couple times before steam finally recognizes the installs on my drive again.

2.) Remap Downloads Destination Just like you had to do when you first set downloads to go to your external drive on steam you may find that steam has forgotten how to find your installed games. If restarting a couple times doesn't work then follow this path:


steam> settings> downloads> steam library folders> add library folder

At the drop-down at the top select the location of your external drive. If you aren’t sure which location letter is assigned to your drive open file explorer and find the name of your external drive where it will be listed at the end. eg. (E:)

Once you’ve selected the folder containing your steam files you should be good to go.

[ReBoot]

Better solution: keep Staem & the games together.

[Levi]

Steam and libraries on external drives aren't a good combination.

There can be obvious performances issues as well as...

External Hard Drives

External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998#

[WaterMullins]

This is a guide for very casual players who use a laptop with a smaller internal drive and aren't necessarily looking for the best possible setup, just one that works.

[nullable]

An alternative to your wall of text:

Make sure your drive is plugged in before starting Steam. Don't unplug the drive while Steam is running. I mean that's ultimately the source of the issue you're trying to solve and why you generally don't experience that behavior with internal drives.

I suppose people are bound to forget or accidents happen, so yes remapping the drive would be the appropriate solution most of the time.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

Steam and libraries on external drives aren't a good combination.

There can be obvious performances issues as well as...

External Hard Drives

External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998#

Well, no that's not entirely true.

I've run Steam this way for 9 years, and I've never seen any performance problems, so it is perfectly do-able.

I get it - there's some old data running around where there CAN be performance problems, but it's not a taboo.

How I have my system setup has been either a desktop or laptop with a couple of USB external drives, all with sprinklings of Steam games across them. Simply done this way originally so I can remove drives then take them into work and play.

But I still use this now, as currently it's just a laptop, with two or three USB 3.0 drives, and things run fine. I've compared it against installing certain games on SSD, and aside from load times there's no real difference.

Of course, people's mileage may vary but the point is it ain't the big problem some like to think.

The key thing is to make sure that Steam is shut down properly each time and the drives are installed BEFORE starting Steam. Simples.

[Levi]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

I've run Steam this way for 9 years, and I've never seen any performance problems, so it is perfectly do-able.

That's true, especially if the drive that you're using is a reputable USB 3.0 drive.

Of course, people's mileage may vary but the point is it ain't the big problem some like to think.

I'm still of the belief that it's not a worthwhile investment because of how these drives are passively cooled.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1631916887494217238/#c1631916887494070482

The life-span of a drive i used in the past was cut in half, and as the post above described, what actually happened was the USB controllers dying.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

I've run Steam this way for 9 years, and I've never seen any performance problems, so it is perfectly do-able.

That's true, especially if the drive that you're using is a reputable USB 3.0 drive.

Of course, people's mileage may vary but the point is it ain't the big problem some like to think.

I'm still of the belief that it's not a worthwhile investment because of how these drives are passively cooled.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1631916887494217238/#c1631916887494070482

The life-span of a drive i used in the past was cut in half, and as the post above described, what actually happened was the USB controllers dying.

Sounds completely reasonable, to be fair.

Especially with modern drives, I've never been a fan (pun intended) of the warnth these drives put out. So whenever I buy any console or computer (or peripheral) that puts out heat, I religiously cut up wine corks and make larger feet for them to sit on to increase airspace ALL around them.

[TylerKai421]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Better solution: keep Staem & the games together.

a lot of people use a small SSD to boot/run steam off of, with a larger HDD to store their games on, buddy. It's incredibly economical, and sometimes makes it *safer* to store games.

[Companion Cube]

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