Game downloaded on an external hard drive

[Thepunkyponk]

Hello,
I've downloaded The Elder scroll online on my external hard drive because I didn't have enough space on my computer. It worked well for a few month without any problem. Now, after a while of not playing, I try it again and it won't work. The game tells me I'm supposed to open it on steam because I bought it on steam. And steam tells me to download it even when I have the external hard drive connected.
oh and I also tried to re-download the game on the external hard drive, there's a constant error message telling me steam can't create folders while downloading.

Does anyone know what I should do ? Very frustrating to be able to open the game and hear the music but not log in the account.
Thanks !

[Sr. Xyz]

"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&l=english

[Phantom]

If you have a reputable USB 3.0 drive, performance shouldn't be the issue.

The main issues with external drives, is the fact that they have the tendency to disconnect and re-connect.

This is a part of their normal operation and seems rather straight-forward.

Steam pings the drives constantly looking for libraries and updates.

If it doesn't see the drive, it assumes it's offline and disconnects the library.

Thus, your games appear as uninstalled.

[76561198868545037]

laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

[tacoshy]

Originally posted by Sr. Xyz:

"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&l=english

steam does not recommend it because it has issues - it is because steam does not want to support it it for varios reason. The performance issues onyl exist when ppl just buy random stuff instead of doing it right.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Master_Race_Geeks/discussions/0/1735466157768391213/


You can set USB port in power setting and/or devcie manager not to power down. Thatw ay youc an fix potancial disconnect to the drive aswell.

For your current issue:
-is the installation fodler set as steam library?
-is the appmanifest.acf file included?