Repair Library (in storage) / verify all games broken

[fathamburger]

I've already seen the billion unaddressed threads for the need for a "verify all games" feature over the years and won't rehash those.

I will say that with the most recent Steam update and UI change, the external / non Steam default drive where I keep most of the "non SSD critical" games now have to be verified one by one. And this is AFTER moving everything properly to "SteamLibrary" which there wasn't even a notifiction to tell us to do. This is horrible.

I do get that it's not just a matter of pointing to the location but that the new version of the app does want to make sure to validate and generate a manifest file for every game. It seems "repair library" is supposed to be the one click version of this but.. it isn't or maybe it isn't intended to be.

Anyway as someone with 920 steam games (fortunately about a third to half of them not installed from what I remember) and a 10tb drive just for them, it's going to take me way too long to do this by hand but I'll probably end up getting it done before you ever code up a solution. Still... it needs to be done

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

If these are games not appearing from other drive, try one of these.

A) Relaunch Steam.

B) Rename folder on problem drive adding -old at end of it, open Steam settings add new library folder in same location on problem drive, then shutdown Steam, delete new folder, then undo the rename of your Steam folder then launch Steam should see it again.

You want to make sure drive is ready to read, and no 3rd party app causing problems like halting Steam client form reading, or writing, not the permission being mess with.

Repair drive is if something that prevents Steam from functioning correctly for the app, and hopefully address any issue from not being able to see, read, or write from that location.

[Iceira]

"it isn't intended to be." Do the math here steam users 1 billion users, and ppl already have dl issue with steam doing event sale , and what prevent users not to click it again check all.

steam can though your request at DL CUE , but it will never be you that tell steam check all my files NOW. ( you will get frequent access files asap, rest never going to happend. require steam server is idle and not have anything else to do from other users.

feel free to ask steam suggestion about it, but dont count on it, they will do this.

you need to see it from server point of view, not a gamers, data has to come from Original sources, not other steam users.

gl with it.


ps.
and what prevent you from use windows check disk, you sure you even has corrupted files.
most only do this then game dont work, and you also read own forum, what if game actual is the problem.

gl with it.

[woken]

DX

[fathamburger]

Originally posted by Iceira:

"it isn't intended to be." Do the math here steam users 1 billion users, and ppl already have dl issue with steam doing event sale , and what prevent users not to click it again check all.

steam can though your request at DL CUE , but it will never be you that tell steam check all my files NOW. ( you will get frequent access files asap, rest never going to happened. require steam server is idle and not have anything else to do from other users.

feel free to ask steam suggestion about it, but dont count on it, they will do this.

you need to see it from server point of view, not a gamers, data has to come from Original sources, not other steam users.

gl with it.


ps.
and what prevent you from use windows check disk, you sure you even has corrupted files.
most only do this then game dont work, and you also read own forum, what if game actual is the problem.

gl with it.

This isn't about checking all the files. This is about why this update basically invalidated the previously working and validated collection again. Do you think I want this to happen and the time since I made the post to be rechecking and revalidating every category and having to check myself what's been installed/uninstalled? no.

It also got stuck moving a mess of files trying to troubleshoot this and as a result I now have to actually apparently redownload huge chunks of games now. Fortunately on relatively fast and uncapped internet. This was all unnecessary and a TERRIBLE update

To address your concern, what it could have done is just checked for all the paths for now referencing path names to what their defaults are and just making the manifest files etc. Most of the time we are not playing all these games or even have them installed so the validation/troubleshooting can happen when they are actually played and having any probs etc. Right now I just want my installed library to show and I have to validate EVERY game just to get them to fricking show when most of the installations are fine although some are now not :P

[fathamburger]

*** POSSIBLE FIX ***

Ok i've realized the problem. The key thing is the new update MUST use a directory called SteamLibrary instead. Understandable they want to clean things up. To avoid the crap that i just went through, you probably need to copy over all the "appmanifest" files with .acf extension over to the Steam library too. Each file is essentially the way each game gets "seen"

The damn update should just do this for people. Since I broke some of the games at least while moving files and now I probably *do* need to check all of them but this should work for others. Ive just confirmed this randomly (with Limbo's manifest file) and yup it's showing. The manifest files do NOT contain hardlinks to game paths, only the game launcher. You dont need to regenerate via validation those unless you've somehow installed Steam into a different drive or directory

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by fathamburger:

*** POSSIBLE FIX ***

Ok i've realized the problem. The key thing is the new update MUST use a directory called SteamLibrary instead. Understandable they want to clean things up. To avoid the crap that i just went through, you probably need to copy over all the "appmanifest" files with .acf extension over to the Steam library too. Each file is essentially the way each game gets "seen"

The damn update should just do this for people. Since I broke some of the games at least while moving files and now I probably *do* need to check all of them but this should work for others. Ive just confirmed this randomly (with Limbo's manifest file) and yup it's showing. The manifest files do NOT contain hardlinks to game paths, only the game launcher. You dont need to regenerate via validation those unless you've somehow installed Steam into a different drive or directory

Steam looks for "steam library" folders it makes via the steam setting.

Also this always been the case with "appmanifest" if Steam client can't see those files it will think your games are uninstalled, which why it won't detect your games at all until it see those files, as these files tell your client if game up to date, or installed.

[fathamburger]

I would assume the app manifest files would be inside the directories for any similar type system, hence confusion. Only realized when compared to the fresh SteamLibrary folder it makes on any drive (you can no longer set a path) I saw the app manifest files growing as I manually started verifying games again. The whole system is a fricking mess

[Satoru]

There's functionally no need to 'verify all games'

How To Move Steam Games 

A Guide for Steam

By: Satoru

Guide on how to move your steam games between drives or between computers

Moving an entire library of games takes all of 5 seconds and immediately adds all the games to your library and confirms if they need updates or not

The 'verify all games' is only if you moved the library incorrectly, which is why there's no feature for it.

I have over several OS rebuilds added several hundred games back onto steam spanning 6 different drives each time. This process took all of 2 minutes. It took longer to install and log into steam, than it took to add my libraries back.

[fathamburger]

Originally posted by Satoru:

There's functionally no need to 'verify all games'

How To Move Steam Games 

A Guide for Steam

By: Satoru

Guide on how to move your steam games between drives or between computers

Moving an entire library of games takes all of 5 seconds and immediately adds all the games to your library and confirms if they need updates or not

The 'verify all games' is only if you moved the library incorrectly, which is why there's no feature for it.

I have over several OS rebuilds added several hundred games back onto steam spanning 6 different drives each time. This process took all of 2 minutes. It took longer to install and log into steam, than it took to add my libraries back.

I never wanted to move *anything*. The damn update should have predicted this and done it all for me if they wanted everything moved. It never checked to also auto-update other drives beyond the Steam install drive. That's the real problem.

"Repair library" seems to be for a lot of these issues but it doesn't do anything or detect any o this properly which is why it's in the thread title

[Satoru]

Originally posted by fathamburger:

I never wanted to move *anything*. The damn update should have predicted this and done it all for me if they wanted everything moved. It never checked to also auto-update other drives beyond the Steam install drive. That's the real problem.

"Repair library" seems to be for a lot of these issues but it doesn't do anything or detect any o this properly which is why it's in the thread title

Again there's no situation where 'repair all' is ever needed

The repair is only useful for individual games where such a thing is necessary

There is no valid situation where a 'repair all' would be needed

If you move games, do so using the tools built into steam and it will 'verify' all the game. If you do not use steam's built in tools to move games, or do things like install games on external/network drives which steam outright tells you is not supported, then don't expect there to be 'fixes' for things that are by definition unsupported and unnecessary

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

External Hard Drives

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.

To 'detect' a library you literally just add a Steam library folder as library. It takes all of 5 seconds, instantly detects and 'repairs' all the games. Again I have added the several hundred games, spanning 6 drives, over a dozen steam reinstalls and this process takes all of 2 minutes to do for each OS reinstall. Never have I needed to 'verify all games' because adding the library, already does this, takes all of maybe 5 seconds, and my games appear in my library instantly.

[fathamburger]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by fathamburger:

I never wanted to move *anything*. The damn update should have predicted this and done it all for me if they wanted everything moved. It never checked to also auto-update other drives beyond the Steam install drive. That's the real problem.

"Repair library" seems to be for a lot of these issues but it doesn't do anything or detect any o this properly which is why it's in the thread title

Again there's no situation where 'repair all' is ever needed

The repair is only useful for individual games where such a thing is necessary

There is no valid situation where a 'repair all' would be needed

If you move games, do so using the tools built into steam and it will 'verify' all the game. If you do not use steam's built in tools to move games, or do things like install games on external/network drives which steam outright tells you is not supported, then don't expect there to be 'fixes' for things that are by definition unsupported and unnecessary

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

External Hard Drives

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.

To 'detect' a library you literally just add a Steam library folder as library. It takes all of 5 seconds, instantly detects and 'repairs' all the games. Again I have added the several hundred games, spanning 6 drives, over a dozen steam reinstalls and this process takes all of 2 minutes to do for each OS reinstall. Never have I needed to 'verify all games' because adding the library, already does this, takes all of maybe 5 seconds, and my games appear in my library instantly.

you cant use any official "move game" feature if it's not picking up the games or the drive at all

[Satoru]

Originally posted by fathamburger:

you cant use any official "move game" feature if it's not picking up the games or the drive at all

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

External Hard Drives

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.

Again if you use unsupported mechanisms. Then dont expect support when that breaks.

The steam library overhaul happened over a year ago. There is no 'recent' update that did anything substantial to library management. If you're 'losing' games then the #1 reason is because you're using external /netwrok drives which have never been supported. The most recent update to the steam beta client added the new video/screenshots UI and feature. It didn't do anything to the library or library structure that hasn't been in place for over a year.

[fathamburger]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by fathamburger:

you cant use any official "move game" feature if it's not picking up the games or the drive at all

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

External Hard Drives

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.

Again if you use unsupported mechanisms. Then dont expect support when that breaks.

The steam library overhaul happened over a year ago. There is no 'recent' update that did anything substantial to library management. If you're 'losing' games then the #1 reason is because you're using external /netwrok drives which have never been supported. The most recent update to the steam beta client added the new video/screenshots UI and feature. It didn't do anything to the library or library structure that hasn't been in place for over a year.

It doesnt matter if a drive is external or not (yes mine is and Ive been forced to do it this way, they are right about performance), from a coding standpoint you should just scan for all logically mapped drives. This is just a staggering dev oversight.

The overhaul must have been staggered out in stages over time. I didnt get mine till recently and I know because I was also moving over Fallout 4 mods + the game only about a week ago.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by fathamburger:

I would assume the app manifest files would be inside the directories for any similar type system, hence confusion.

They are inside the library directory.

There are not inside the game directory, likely for two reasons:

a) Steam can just read all "*.acf" from each library directory to learn what's going on. I would probably have put them into a separate directory, but that's just me.
b) The game directories remain the realm of the publisher, without Steam putting its own files there

[Iceira]

Well atleast i and other user now know why it was so.

gl with it.