[Solved] Game not installed but shows that it is installed

[zFery]

Hello, today I was going to install a game on steam, however it showed that it was already installed even though the game files were not on my computer, and when I press the play button literally nothing happens. Does anyone know what I can do?

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Games will appear uninstalled if and when the USB drive they are installed to is not connected before Steam is loaded.
Reconnect the USB drive and wait a minute the play should appear again.
Demo games will disappear altogether if installed to an external and its not connected.

[zFery]

Originally posted by Jaunitta 🌸:

Games will appear uninstalled if and when the USB drive they are installed to is not connected before Steam is loaded.
Reconnect the USB drive and wait a minute the play should appear again.
Demo games will disappear altogether if installed to an external and its not connected.

That worked, thank you very much!

[tintingaroo]

Try verifying the game files (right-click the game in the Steam Library > Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files)

Meh, needed to refresh...

[tintingaroo]

So when you eject that external drive Steam still shows you 'Play' for the games on it?
When I eject mine, I get instant uninstalled game behaviour ('Play' becomes 'Install', title in the list is unbolded, game image disappears etc). When I connect the drive, Steam open or closed, as soon as the drive is accessible for the system, I get installed game behaviour ('Install' becomes 'Play', game image appears, title goes bold etc).
Presumably, you get different behaviour? I wonder why...

[Jaunitta 🌸]

No once the USB drive is disconnected Games will still show in the library as all our games are by definition still owned to your Steam account however they will just appear uninstalled until the library manager see the USB drive Steam library. Greyed out.
Steam settings>Downloads>Steam Library Folders.
Every game we own has an ACF file, appmanifest which is required by the Steam library to identify where the game is installed.
Look in your SteamApps all your ACF files are there for every game you own.,
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2864417321

[tintingaroo]

Yeah, I get that.
OP was seeing 'Play', for them the game was showing as installed but it wasn't installed. They found your suggestion worked for them, so I take it they connected/re-connected their external drive. I was wondering how that would be the solution. As you write, if the drive is disconnected the games show as uninstalled. My thinking is if Steam wasn't reading their drive it would show as uninstalled and the button would be 'Install', if Steam was reading it then it could show as installed and so they get 'Play'.
I can't understand the situation... :/

Perhaps its my assumption of what they mean by "that worked" and the actual circumstance. The game wasn't installed to the ext drive either and "worked" = getting Install rather than Play, or the game was already installed to the ext drive and clicking Play functioned?

Some years back, when I would disconnect my drive, the games would still show as installed, then it seemed like there was a Steam update that fixed that and I no longer get that experience. So that was my question to OP: if they disconnect their drive are they still getting 'Play', then, if so, their experience would be something I could make more sense of.

[Tylernol32]

i am having this issue, but my EHD stopped working. now when i install the game and try to play it, it does not launch. i have uninstalled steam and reinstalled steam. i cannot uninstall the games because the EHD does not work.

when i do install a game again it doesnt launch and seems like steam is trying to launch the game from the EHD instead of the actual PC HD. I am at a loss for how to fix this.