how to add games back onto steam via backups after reinstalling steam?

[Mr Mage]

so to make a long story short I had to reinstall steam as nothing else worked for repairing this corrupt file, but creating a common file under steamapps in the new copy of steam and moving the files I had back into there does nothing as steam doesn't seem to be able to detect that there are full installations of my games in a manually created file of the necessary name, can anyone help point me in the right direction here? I'm sure most here can

[Glimmer]

Was it just the Common folder, or did you also grab the appmanifest files? You could try telling Steam to install the games, hopefully it will recognize the files are there and just rebuild the appmanifest.

[Mr Mage]

Originally posted by Glimmer:

Was it just the Common folder, or did you also grab the appmanifest files? You could try telling Steam to install the games, hopefully it will recognize the files are there and just rebuild the appmanifest.

I have no idea what appmanifest files are, but I already tried doing that with steam and it's just creating new copies of my files rather than rebuilding anything I missed in the exising files

[Callahan420]

Try this

Start downloading the game you wish to reinstall. Pause the download. Exit Steam and go to your backup game files and copy the files to the new game folder. Restart steam.

You might have to continue the download I can't remember and can't find the previous post about it.

Will take a little time but beats having to download them again. Next time remember to copy the app manifest files.

[Mr Mage]

Originally posted by Callahan420:

Next time remember to copy the app manifest files.

I beg your pardon? how can you fault me for having no idea what app manifest files are nor having heard anything about them until now?

[Callahan420]

Originally posted by Mr Mage:

Originally posted by Callahan420:

Next time remember to copy the app manifest files.

I beg your pardon? how can you fault me for having no idea what app manifest files are nor having heard anything about them until now?

That was just a reminder to not forget them next time. It will save a lot of time and headaches.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Callahan420:

Try this

Start downloading the game you wish to reinstall. Pause the download. Exit Steam and go to your backup game files and copy the files to the new game folder. Restart steam.

You might have to continue the download I can't remember and can't find the previous post about it.

Will take a little time but beats having to download them again. Next time remember to copy the app manifest files.

I don't think you even need to do this.

Whenever I've had issues in the past where Steam refuses to recognise game files, I've simply made sure to set Steam to look at the right drives, then start to download and it will usually APPEAR to download but it's actually scanning the files that are there already.

It has been a few years since I've doen this so it may have changed though.

[Iceira]

Ask steam support, maybe they have a mistake in forgot to backup those files, that belong to a game or have new issue with it.

ps.
dont forget many never do backup steam backup, so you could say no one have test such.

not sure did you use steam backup solution or made own backup with steam games, huge diffrence.

i think steam own backup solution is in there.
#:\program files (x86)\steam\Backups

[Mr Mage]

Originally posted by Callahan420:

Originally posted by Mr Mage:

I beg your pardon? how can you fault me for having no idea what app manifest files are nor having heard anything about them until now?

That was just a reminder to not forget them next time. It will save a lot of time and headaches.

sorry for the misunderstanding then

[Mr Mage]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Callahan420:

Try this

Start downloading the game you wish to reinstall. Pause the download. Exit Steam and go to your backup game files and copy the files to the new game folder. Restart steam.

You might have to continue the download I can't remember and can't find the previous post about it.

Will take a little time but beats having to download them again. Next time remember to copy the app manifest files.

I don't think you even need to do this.

Whenever I've had issues in the past where Steam refuses to recognise game files, I've simply made sure to set Steam to look at the right drives, then start to download and it will usually APPEAR to download but it's actually scanning the files that are there already.

It has been a few years since I've doen this so it may have changed though.

yeah turns out I had steam set to look at the right drives all along and all I needed to do is just uncheck the box that makes a desktop shortcut

ah well. thanks for making me certain in what I thought, and since I just wasted everyone's time here I'll give steampoints to yall because I can finally enjoy the new dlc

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Mr Mage:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

I don't think you even need to do this.

Whenever I've had issues in the past where Steam refuses to recognise game files, I've simply made sure to set Steam to look at the right drives, then start to download and it will usually APPEAR to download but it's actually scanning the files that are there already.

It has been a few years since I've doen this so it may have changed though.

yeah turns out I had steam set to look at the right drives all along and all I needed to do is just uncheck the box that makes a desktop shortcut :BL3Shrug:

ah well. thanks for making me certain in what I thought, and since I just wasted everyone's time here I'll give steampoints to yall because I can finally enjoy the new dlc

No worries!

And you didn't waste anyone's time. You got your answer :)

[Callahan420]

Glad you got it figured out. No time wasted here I always try to help if I can.

[Spine Tickler]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Mr Mage:

yeah turns out I had steam set to look at the right drives all along and all I needed to do is just uncheck the box that makes a desktop shortcut :BL3Shrug:

ah well. thanks for making me certain in what I thought, and since I just wasted everyone's time here I'll give steampoints to yall because I can finally enjoy the new dlc

No worries!

And you didn't waste anyone's time. You got your answer :)

Honesty thanks for having the same problem and being public about it

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Spine Tickler:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

No worries!

And you didn't waste anyone's time. You got your answer :)

Honesty thanks for having the same problem and being public about it

No problem. That's what I'm here for.

[bstory0808]

Sorry if this is a dumb question; how do you change what drives steam is looking at?

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Callahan420:

Try this

Start downloading the game you wish to reinstall. Pause the download. Exit Steam and go to your backup game files and copy the files to the new game folder. Restart steam.

You might have to continue the download I can't remember and can't find the previous post about it.

Will take a little time but beats having to download them again. Next time remember to copy the app manifest files.

I don't think you even need to do this.

Whenever I've had issues in the past where Steam refuses to recognise game files, I've simply made sure to set Steam to look at the right drives, then start to download and it will usually APPEAR to download but it's actually scanning the files that are there already.

It has been a few years since I've doen this so it may have changed though.

[Wren]

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