External hard drive has all my games on it, but Steam suddenly decided to not acknowledge that anymore.

[Gamingb1ll]

I always install my games on my external hard drive. I have my Steam Library on my external hard drive. Suddenly today, Steam decided to forget about that library and uninstall all the games. However, if I look on my external hard drive and the steam library, all the folders and files for all my games are there. Steam still won't see that and wants me to download all my games again. I already have all the game files, I don't need to install all my games again. Help me PLEASE I AM PANKING AND MY HEARTRATE GOING CRAZY I AM MAD AT MYSELF HELP WHAT DID I DO WRONG HOW DO I FIX THIS IMMA CRY

[Jaunitta 🌸]

You havent lost your games.
Even if the HDD has died you will still always have your games.

In Steamapps is the apmanifest files or acf if not present games will appear as uninstalled.
To ensure that you do not encounter this issue, always allow Steam to close properly when shutting down your computer.
Use the exit Steam and safely remove your USB HDD .
Allowing Windows to force Steam to close when it is writing to a hard drive may cause Steam library and installation information to become corrupted.

Check your library manager that the library is still registered as default.
Steam top left >settings>downloads>Library.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2919348665

[Gamingb1ll]

Originally posted by Jaunitta 🌸:

You havent lost your games.
Even if the HDD has died you will still always have your games.

In Steamapps is the apmanifest files or acf if not present games will appear as uninstalled.
To ensure that you do not encounter this issue, always allow Steam to close properly when shutting down your computer.
Use the exit Steam and safely remove your USB HDD .
Allowing Windows to force Steam to close when it is writing to a hard drive may cause Steam library and installation information to become corrupted.

Check your library manager that the library is still registered as default.
Steam top left >settings>downloads>Library.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2919348665

It still is there, but it says the folder is empty and now all my games are no longer there and uninstalled. Should I redownload all my games? This is just a big inconviniance

[Satoru]

Steam doesnt support external drives so if you use them, the issue you are having is the #1 thing that happens

[Gamingb1ll]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Steam doesnt support external drives so if you use them, the issue you are having is the #1 thing that happens

Thank you, but what do I do then if I have no room for but a couple games on my PC? I got the external hard drive so I could have more room. It has been working for a few months.. it just suddenly had this incident.

[Joke]

If you haven't already tried:

1. Exit Steam from the Steam menu (top left of the client)

2. Use Windows explorer to access the external drive where the Steam library is located. This is to make sure the drive is spinning, and not offline for inactivity.

3. Start Steam again, and see if the games show up as installed again.


If this didn't work, try "repairing" the Library:

1. Open the Steam settings dialog, and choose the "downloads" page.

2. Open the Storage Manager, by clicking the button "Steam Library folders"

3. Select the drive the library is located on.

4. Click the "three dots" to the right of the bar graph, and choose "repair folder".

If that didn't work either, just install one game. This might trigger all games in the library to be recognised.

[Alex Mason]

Might be late but, THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME AND IT WORKED, Go to your Steam area where you can choose another hard drive to add, and choose "find a new location" and choose your old steam common folder then bam you will be all good

[Engine&Tonic]

Originally posted by Alex Mason:

Might be late but, THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME AND IT WORKED, Go to your Steam area where you can choose another hard drive to add, and choose "find a new location" and choose your old steam common folder then bam you will be all good

Thanks so much, this saved me so much time!

[deathvalley200exo velk.ca]

I think I'm having a similar problem but doing the steam folder doesn't help. destiny 2 is in drive E but the steam settings storage isn't showing it and its in the folder. it keeps trying to download it to drive D. all the other games on drive E aren't having this problem just destiny 2. drive D doesn't have the space for destiny 2 if the game gets updated a little so that's why its a problem. this is like the 5th time it has happened. it seems to happen when I close steam ether by closeting steam or turning off my pc when it has a update.

[deathvalley200exo velk.ca]

downloading another game or repairing the drive didn't work either.

[Iceira]

because you already have DL to wrong drev , you need to wipe that folder first.

its like a lable point at wrong past settings and you keep dl to it.

ps.

how i know i have seen a failed stuck download cause issue to install and resume and nothing worked , locate that folder and wipe it, not even sure clear download cache will work, i have never seen this error again, its one of them rare bug you just say dont think over it, just accept you did wrong , and what prevent you from move game afterwards assume you have room for it.

so i now gave you 2 options to deal with it.

andf technicaly you hijack thread , OP talk about lost steam lib , you talk about 1 game
you might not have the knowledge in see the diffrence but we ar many that do see it.

in the future you might get ban from a steam moderator if they someday will clean up this hijacking post , and still get a 1 to 3 days ban if they choise to clean up this, but i doubt it,
im just saying you should know what you did.

and also send steam user a msg make your own post or read others post. dont add in other post if you dont know the diffrence.

and its to late for you if OP already make a complain over you, think over this, i and othter helper is not steam police or moderator, not our job, but i bet you will not like if other post in yours with diffrent issue. ( see it goes both ways )

[deathvalley200exo velk.ca]

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

because you already have DL to wrong drev , you need to wipe that folder first.

its like a lable point at wrong past settings and you keep dl to it.

ps.

how i know i have seen a failed stuck download cause issue to install and resume and nothing worked , locate that folder and wipe it, not even sure clear download cache will work, i have never seen this error again, its one of them rare bug you just say dont think over it, just accept you did wrong , and what prevent you from move game afterwards assume you have room for it.

so i now gave you 2 options to deal with it.

andf technicaly you hijack thread , OP talk about lost steam lib , you talk about 1 game
you might not have the knowledge in see the diffrence but we ar many that do see it.

sorry about that. Are you saying to delete the folder that has the game in it and let it install in the wrong area to then delete it from there and reinstall it where i need it. because if that's the case this will be the 4th time i've done that.

[Iceira]

Originally posted by deathvalley200exo velk.ca:

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

because you already have DL to wrong drev , you need to wipe that folder first.

it's like a lable point at wrong past settings and you keep dl to it.

ps.

How i know i have seen a failed stuck download cause issue to install and resume and nothing worked , locate that folder and wipe it, not even sure clear download cache will work, i have never seen this error again, its one of them rare bug you just say dont think over it, just accept you did wrong , and what prevent you from move game afterwards assume you have room for it.

and i now gave you 2 options to deal with it.

And technicaly you hijack thread , OP talk about lost steam lib , you talk about 1 game
you might not have the knowledge in see the diffrence but we ar many that do see it.

sorry about that. Are you saying to delete the folder that has the game in it and let it install in the wrong area to then delete it from there and reinstall it where i need it. because if that's the case this will be the 4th time i've done that.

Make a choise installl and move it or wipe it, if no room, you can only install on other disk is add steam lib is the and move to it , see move option is there if possible.

Only few exception that collection that do multi install titles games or all in-one patch, you cant split titles , and all this is game devs chois to make it so. ( there is always exception )

What if game devs had made sequel ot a title, then things could change,

But take Total war serie then there will be to many titles so thats is a bad idea to make all in one install place.


Pretend to move a liitle game then you know if multi libs is working as it should.

[Stormsmg]

Ok so I just dumped a broken hardrive and it had all of my steam game data on it. so I still have all of my games but the data on all of them is gone. Can anybody help?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Stormsmg:

Ok so I just dumped a broken hardrive and it had all of my steam game data on it. so I still have all of my games but the data on all of them is gone. Can anybody help?

Depends what you mean there.

Do you mean you've plugged it in and the PC sees the folders and files but Steam doesnt?
If so, then add the drive under steam settings >downloads. It should then pick them up.

If not and you mean you KNOW you had games on it but even the PC isn't seeing them then you're SOL.

[Steven]

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