Make Steam recognize game files moved to a different location?

[l1vv]

Alright,

so I recently moved a ton of games from 2 SSD's to my HDD since I don't play them very often anymore but still want to have them installed on my PC.

Only problem now is that Steam displays all the games as "installed" but when I try to launch a game it says "missing executable" so I have to "uninstall" the game, because Steam thinks the game is still located in the old directory, and then reinstall it in the new location to make Steam discover all the game files which are already there.

I wouldn't have any problems with having to do this for a game when I want to play it again one day, but the problem is that Steam obviously won't install any updates for these games...

So now I would have to "delete local files" and reinstall every game I moved manually to the new location to make steam recognize that the files are already available.. and I moved over 100 games...


Question: Is there a way to make steam recognize the game files in the new location without having to manually un- and reinstall every single game one by one?


Thanks in advance!

- Yanni :)

[76561198218426745]

When you moved the games, did you create a new library folder and copy over the appmanifest_#.acf files, or just the game folders?

[Pheace]

Don't know a way to make it recognize it in a different folder but the way I manage my Steam + SSD is to have Steam default install to my HDD and move games I want to play on my SSD to a folder there with SteamMover.

It basically uses a windows feature to move the game to another location but leaves a link at the old location connecting it to the new folder, so updates etc still work fine. Steam still thinks it's in the old location but in reality it's on the SSD.

http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

[l1vv]

Originally posted by Pheace #TeamRem:

Don't know a way to make it recognize it in a different folder but the way I manage my Steam + SSD is to have Steam default install to my HDD and move games I want to play on my SSD to a folder there with SteamMover.

It basically uses a windows feature to move the game to another location but leaves a link at the old location connecting it to the new folder, so updates etc still work fine. Steam still thinks it's in the old location but in reality it's on the SSD.

http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

that sounds nice, I'm gonna try that, thanks!

[l1vv]

Originally posted by habitualaction:

When you moved the games, did you create a new library folder and copy over the appmanifest_#.acf files, or just the game folders?

I created a new library and just moved the game folders :/

[76561198218426745]

Steam uses the appmanifest files to determine that the game is installed. Just copy the .ACF files from the "steamapps" folder on the old drive to the "steamapps" folder on the new drive.

[JustinMF]

I know this is really old, but I had the same problem and didn't find a solution, so I figured it out. My problem, I had a game installed on a external hard drive. I had the external drive unplugged and mistakenly opened steam and played a game that was stored there. Steam allocated the files and started installing it from scratch. Even after plugging the drive in, restarting steam and computer and deleting new install folder, steam still tried installing it.

I disconnected from the internet
Disconnected the hard drive the game was installed on;
Restarted Steam in offline mode;
Right clicked the game in Steam and uninstalled;
Closed Steam from the system tray;
Plugged in the drive;
Restarted Steam;
Clicked on the game, it should say play game, reconnected internet.

[Katie]

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