Broken downloads breaks steam

[MajorFoley]

So quite frankly this is an issue ive been suffering for the last 6 bloody months in 2 different forms
the First time whenever i tried to see the downloads page id get some undefined error with an error code.
The second one is now a black screen and if i try to check it i cant even view my library of games without resetting steam to fix it.

The only fix i have found and its extremely temporary is delete my appcache and reset. This fixes it for maybe 3-6 hours before the crap starts again. Any ideas?

[Iceira]

Multi account issue ?, some game do not have same patch or dlc's , and then you switch account, things change, i have no other idea if its even that at all.

You have system check disk and steam own repair steam libray in steam storage manager or clear download cache and then validate game cache, i have only seen mods can effect this.

Assume hardware is not the issue or OC that technicaly can scamble data, but that years ago then ppl did that. not seen in over a decad, so i doubt its such issue. or bad cable to harddisk.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Things you can try out.

- Opt into Steam beta, if already in it, opt out instead.

- Clear cache and cookie, then restart client. Steam > settings > web browser > click two buttons to delete cache and cookies.

- Try these settings, see if any improvements on your client for you, then restart Steam, and test.
https://imgur.com/04dWpb7

- Last option, redownloading client files. Head to where you install Steam, go inside Steam folder, delete everything except for Steamapps folder, and steam.exe, once done then run Steam.exe, and see issue resolved.


Things to look into for yourself.
- Ensure not using something that hooks into client causing problems..

- Ensure nothing is causing problems with client, such as anti virus scanner, or whatever other 3rd party apps that trying to interact with client, that it shouldn't be doing.

- Ensure file, and permissions is not being changed by 3rd party app you use, or anything to cause permission issue for the client to function correctly.

[MajorFoley]

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

Multi account issue ?, some game do not have same patch or dlc's , and then you switch account, things change, i have no other idea if its even that at all.

You have system check disk and steam own repair steam libray in steam storage manager or clear download cache and then validate game cache, i have only seen mods can effect this.

Assume hardware is not the issue or OC that technicaly can scamble data, but that years ago then ppl did that. not seen in over a decad, so i doubt its such issue. or bad cable to harddisk.

Only 1 account issue, definitely not it.

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Things you can try out.

- Opt into Steam beta, if already in it, opt out instead.

- Clear cache and cookie, then restart client. Steam > settings > web browser > click two buttons to delete cache and cookies.

- Try these settings, see if any improvements on your client for you, then restart Steam, and test.
https://imgur.com/04dWpb7

- Last option, redownloading client files. Head to where you install Steam, go inside Steam folder, delete everything except for Steamapps folder, and steam.exe, once done then run Steam.exe, and see issue resolved.


Things to look into for yourself.
- Ensure not using something that hooks into client causing problems..

- Ensure nothing is causing problems with client, such as anti virus scanner, or whatever other 3rd party apps that trying to interact with client, that it shouldn't be doing.

- Ensure file, and permissions is not being changed by 3rd party app you use, or anything to cause permission issue for the client to function correctly.

One of steams supports suggestions each time they have a patch. Opt into the beta. Never works.
Already cleaned cache and cookies. Tried disabling hardware accel at one point didnt work.

I am tempted to delete everything barring steamapps and my screenshots but i cannot for the life of me remember which folder screenshots are stored in.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Screenshots are here. Steam\userdata\ *your id here* \760\remote just move 760 folder, and all good to go.

So when reinstall Steam, ensure Steam folder not still there as should've been removed when uninstall steam, but once reinstall Steam place back the Steamapp folder, login, and go ahead to placeback the 760 folder in it correct place, and restart steam, screenshots should be seen by steam when you choose to upload them later if wanted.

[Joke]

1. Make sure you are not running out of space on your hdd/ssd.

2, Do a checkdisk on your hdd/ssd.
(If you have everything on C:\, then right click the C-drive, select "properties" and then "tools" and then click the button "check disk for errors")

[MajorFoley]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Screenshots are here. Steam\userdata\ *your id here* \760\remote just move 760 folder, and all good to go.

So when reinstall Steam, ensure Steam folder not still there as should've been removed when uninstall steam, but once reinstall Steam place back the Steamapp folder, login, and go ahead to placeback the 760 folder in it correct place, and restart steam, screenshots should be seen by steam when you choose to upload them later if wanted.

Unfreaking believable. Not even doing this actually fixed it... Not even deleting appcache fixes it anymore. Ive had 4 tickets with steam and they always close saying unfortunately we cant do anything but wait for the next patch and the next patches just make it freaking worse!

Originally posted by Joke:

1. Make sure you are not running out of space on your hdd/ssd.

2, Do a checkdisk on your hdd/ssd.
(If you have everything on C:\, then right click the C-drive, select "properties" and then "tools" and then click the button "check disk for errors")

Nothings wrong there and plenty of space so no i dont think its a my windows issue.

[crunchyfrog]

When you say you have plenty of space how big is the drive and how much space is left?

Because if you're over 90% usage then it may well cause issues even if it's more than enough space you think is there.

[Iceira]

What is enough freee space im tired of explan that, if DL size *5 thats enough, and espect then 10% free left on drive, do note small disk size with 1TB lesser is seen as a issue then games is 100gb today thats 500gb ( many forget the dlc and extra things game devs do or even patch after main install. ( thats why multiplyed by 5 is my rule you could say *3. but many fail in know how supercompressed files can be more then 1 to 3 ratio.

We can also say ppl with new disk dont have this issue at all, its more then ppl disk is 90% FULL on a 2tb drive thats 10%

bah CF got same thoughts, lol

[MajorFoley]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

When you say you have plenty of space how big is the drive and how much space is left?

Because if you're over 90% usage then it may well cause issues even if it's more than enough space you think is there.

i have 250-300gb on 1TB drive and if that seriously causing steam to have this kind of issue id be pretty surprised.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by MajorFoley:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

When you say you have plenty of space how big is the drive and how much space is left?

Because if you're over 90% usage then it may well cause issues even if it's more than enough space you think is there.

i have 250-300gb on 1TB drive and if that seriously causing steam to have this kind of issue id be pretty surprised.

Well, let me explain it a little more fully. I agree that seems OK.

The thing is Steam needs no more than that 90% usage or things start going a bit wonky.

On top of this, because games are encrypted and compressed, they require up to THREE TIMES the total space required for the file size.

So, for example, if you have your 1TB drive and you've used 800GB< that's 80% and you've got 100GB to comfortably play with. But if you then try to download an 80GB game, you likely won't have enough as three times that takes you WAY beyond what is needed.

And the typical issues when occurs can be downloads starting and stopping, not starting at all, downloading to the wrong drive, really slow downloads, and much more.

So something to bear in mind and experiment with I guess.

[MajorFoley]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by MajorFoley:

i have 250-300gb on 1TB drive and if that seriously causing steam to have this kind of issue id be pretty surprised.

Well, let me explain it a little more fully. I agree that seems OK.

The thing is Steam needs no more than that 90% usage or things start going a bit wonky.

On top of this, because games are encrypted and compressed, they require up to THREE TIMES the total space required for the file size.

So, for example, if you have your 1TB drive and you've used 800GB< that's 80% and you've got 100GB to comfortably play with. But if you then try to download an 80GB game, you likely won't have enough as three times that takes you WAY beyond what is needed.

And the typical issues when occurs can be downloads starting and stopping, not starting at all, downloading to the wrong drive, really slow downloads, and much more.

So something to bear in mind and experiment with I guess.

I have 3 different libraries on 3 different drives depending on often i play them (unfortunately a hoarding issue when i had only 8Mbps download speed and games getting bigger) I have uninstalled more for testing but just from uninstalling a bunch and making sure i did have sufficient space on each drive the issue wasnt resolved so i can confidently say it isn't that. Unfortunately it looks like im just waiting on steam patches and hoping it gets resolved at some point. But thank you for the suggestions

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

No Steam doesn't matter what % free space, it only need enough space for itself to function like any other app.

The only reason to recommend % free space is due to games themselves such as downloading, and unpacking, add-ons, or updates that game got bigger that only reason why to consider have 10% ~ 20% free space.

Anyways I'm not sure exactly the issue for OP case is to why it acting like that for download section, but library is a web browser render that stop working if not able to refresh, this can relate to cache issues, or something stopping it from doing it job correctly.

The only things that I can think of is if using any custom fire wall, VPN, custom DNS, proxy, or something that mess with calling, and if there any other 3rs party apps running that trying to force scan, hook into, or block it permissions, and such that all I can think ATM.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by MajorFoley:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Well, let me explain it a little more fully. I agree that seems OK.

The thing is Steam needs no more than that 90% usage or things start going a bit wonky.

On top of this, because games are encrypted and compressed, they require up to THREE TIMES the total space required for the file size.

So, for example, if you have your 1TB drive and you've used 800GB< that's 80% and you've got 100GB to comfortably play with. But if you then try to download an 80GB game, you likely won't have enough as three times that takes you WAY beyond what is needed.

And the typical issues when occurs can be downloads starting and stopping, not starting at all, downloading to the wrong drive, really slow downloads, and much more.

So something to bear in mind and experiment with I guess.

I have 3 different libraries on 3 different drives depending on often i play them (unfortunately a hoarding issue when i had only 8Mbps download speed and games getting bigger) I have uninstalled more for testing but just from uninstalling a bunch and making sure i did have sufficient space on each drive the issue wasnt resolved so i can confidently say it isn't that. Unfortunately it looks like im just waiting on steam patches and hoping it gets resolved at some point. But thank you for the suggestions

Ah that could be the issue then.

If you had a load of packed drives and you've picked away at them and removed some, that data is split and fragmented.

It obviously worsens when fragmented.

And it's not "I have enough space".

You NEED no more than 90% used AND to allow more than three times the space for any download. BOTH.

If you have it fragmented on top then it's going to be slow as all hell.

[MajorFoley]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by MajorFoley:

I have 3 different libraries on 3 different drives depending on often i play them (unfortunately a hoarding issue when i had only 8Mbps download speed and games getting bigger) I have uninstalled more for testing but just from uninstalling a bunch and making sure i did have sufficient space on each drive the issue wasnt resolved so i can confidently say it isn't that. Unfortunately it looks like im just waiting on steam patches and hoping it gets resolved at some point. But thank you for the suggestions

Ah that could be the issue then.

If you had a load of packed drives and you've picked away at them and removed some, that data is split and fragmented.

It obviously worsens when fragmented.

And it's not "I have enough space".

You NEED no more than 90% used AND to allow more than three times the space for any download. BOTH.

If you have it fragmented on top then it's going to be slow as all hell.

Its more like it wont load period. Before it was just a black screen, it literally came up with an error code before that. Something like "cannot read property 'disconnect' of undefinied" After a patch that released a week or 2 ago it just became a black screen so yeah.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by MajorFoley:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Ah that could be the issue then.

If you had a load of packed drives and you've picked away at them and removed some, that data is split and fragmented.

It obviously worsens when fragmented.

And it's not "I have enough space".

You NEED no more than 90% used AND to allow more than three times the space for any download. BOTH.

If you have it fragmented on top then it's going to be slow as all hell.

Its more like it wont load period. Before it was just a black screen, it literally came up with an error code before that. Something like "cannot read property 'disconnect' of undefinied" After a patch that released a week or 2 ago it just became a black screen so yeah.

If that's the case then it might be worth using CrystalMark to do an intensive disk scan to see if your hard drive has any faults.

If you've had an update it could simply have written that to a part of thedrive playing up and bingo, there's your issue.

So yeah, get an intensive disck scan done even if just to discount that issue.