Steam Client downloads and installs the same update over and over

[Pharone]

Every time I load the Steam client, it downloads and installs an update. Every single time.

If I click the "Steam" drop-down and then the "Check for Steam Client Updates" menu item, it opens a window that says,
"A steam client update has been downloaded.
Would you like to restart Steam now to apply the update?"

The update that it shows is the one for March 31, 2016.

Scenario 1 that happens:
1. I load Steam client
2. It downloads an update and installs it
3. Load up Steam
4. Click "Steam" drop-down menu item
5. Click "Check for Steam Client Updates" drop-down menu item
6. A window opens that says "A steam client update has been downloaded.
Would you like to restart Steam now to apply the update?" It shows that there is an update for March 31, 2016.
7. I click Restart
8. Goto step 2
Repeat for ever.

Scenario 2 that happens:
1. I load Steam client
2. It downloads an update and installs it
3. Load up Steam
4. After looking around in Steam for a while, a window pops up to tell me that an update has been downloaded for March 31, 2016 that needs to be installed.
7. I click Restart
8. It downloads an update and installs it
8. Goto step 3
Repeat for ever.

Obviously, it is NEVER actually installing this update. That's why it tries to update again and again and again.

Things I have tried to fix the issue:
1. Uninstall Steam and re-installed

[Pharone]

I fixed the issue!

To fix the issue, I did the following:
1. Opened a command prompt (Windows Key + R)
2. Typed "steam://flushconfig" and hit enter
3. Confirmed the option to flush config
4. Restarted computer after it was done

It now loads up with out installing the same update over and over.

I also verified that when I click the "Check for Steam Client Updates", it said that my client is already up to date.

Yay!

[roadkill]

Thanks for the fix! I had the same issue.

This got me going in the right direction. I had to use a slightly different procedure:

1) Exit Steam
2) Open command Prompt
3) "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steam.exe" flushconfig
4) Reboot

steam://flushconfig looks like a URI so I wasn't sure how to plug that in the cmdline.

[Jaim Sandar]

This has happened to me several times during 2016, the last time with the December 12, 2016 update. On all three of my main PCs.
Neither of the suggested procedures above fixed it.