Tried adding steam library to another drive, says there's already a library folder there.

[RadishVapor]

So at some point steam stopped recognizing the games on my external, because i was doing some and probably unplugged it, so i figure, ok i'll just do the thing to make steam rerecognize the folder.

I click "Steam Library Folders" in the downloads section, it only lists the C drive as my libraries,

i try to add a library folder to my D: and it says "Selected Drive Already has a steam library folder" despite the list only saying C and none of the games being recognized...

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

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.

Installed games are appearing as uninstalled

Exit Steam, plug in the drive, start Steam and see if it see the games.

[RadishVapor]

Thank you!

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by RadishVapor:

So at some point steam stopped recognizing the games on my external, because i was doing some and probably unplugged it, so i figure, ok i'll just do the thing to make steam rerecognize the folder.

If disconnected at an inopportune time, that can cause corruption in the files for your game's library, so they "appear as uninstalled" as it explains from the support page the good Hotsauce linked.

That's one of the problems with using externals. For example, if the files were being written to when it was disconnected, this is almost surely going to happen.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Fully Exit Steam dont just close it then Plug in your USB drive. Wait till it has loaded in then Start Steam
I have 140 odd games on my 5TB usb drive and have never experienced this.
Many are not installed.
The reason is I always correctly close down friends and chat then exit Steam using the bootloder next to date and time running tasks right click it and exit .
My USB drive is always connected and on before starting Steam.
So because many donot apply the correct way to exit Steam, Steam does not recomend USB drives.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2498599668

[Chief Romanji]

Not sure if Im Necro-ing this thread but I've experienced this problem and I cannot seem to fix it.
I've shut down steam, restarted my computer, unplugged and replugged my drive, deleted my steam folder within it, searched for everything steam related on it and deleted that as well.

It still won't allow me to create or assign a new steam library folder within that drive. It says there's still a steam library folder in it and won't even show up on my list of steam library folders.

Im very perplexed and I need help

[The Giving One]

@Romanji

Is this an external hard drive, since you said "unplugged and replugged" above ? Seems so, and if it is, can you add games to your internal drive without problems ?

If it is an external, there might be something wrong with the drive. Maybe try a checkdisk scan from Windows to see if the drive is healthy.

[Chief Romanji]

I will try, i didn't know that a drive could be *un*healthy. It works fine for everything else. And worked

[Zurakk Vilto]

if your still having trouble I posted a detailed solution with a big help from DeltaFlux here https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3118160027731850229/#c3118160027735015811