Buying a game after downloading it from Family Shared Library made me have to download it again?

[Alecard]

So I had Baldur's Gate 3 downloaded & installed from my brother's library to try it out via Family Sharing, then I later proceeded to buy it for myself.

That's when I realized that it asked me to Install it again, where I should have it installed already.

The catch is, it did NOT uninstall my previous installment on my hard disk! Normally it wouldn't bother me but that is a hefty game on the hard drive (100+GB), and I can't seem to find out how I can uninstall the previous game to make room for the new install. I installed the new one on my second drive because I ran out of room on the drive it was on previously. (trust me, I would have noticed if 100+GB suddenly got freed up.

Can anyone help me figure out how I can get that hard drive space back? It would be greatly appreciated

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Whenever encounter an issue on Steam it possibly client side issue, and to see if can resolve it is by relaunching the client.

Now games are downloaded to common folder, these are located in Steam folder wherever you installed it, or Steamlibrary folder you setup via Steam settings.

Steam > Steamapp > common
Steamlibrary > Steamapp > common

Once you manually delete game folder wanted gone, you need make sure delete game app manifest file on that same drive this is in the Steamapp folder just before common folder, the name goes by game ID you can find ID by visit game store page, or community, the numbers at the end of url address is the game ID.

In this case Baldur's Gate 3 ID is 1086940, so you're looking for 1086940 in the file name, then delete the file, and that it. Reason delete this file is because file tells steam if game installed, updates, and so on, as steam client doesn't look for game folder it looks for app manifest files to read from.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1086940/Baldurs_Gate_3/

[Alecard]

I tried locating the old install folder and manifest file on my first drive but it doesn't seem to be there. I see the new install folder on the other drive so I see what you're talking about. I tried repairing the library but it didn't seem to change anything.

Maybe I'm going crazy and installed the game on the other drive in the first place, but one thing's for sure; I had the game installed, then bought it, then had to install it again. I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen without warning, or if it's an anomaly.

EDIT: I'm not sure if games installed via Family Sharing go to a different root folder, but I didn't customize its install location when I first downloaded it.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Try copying game folder name, and do full drive search for it if it appears, check where it located, and this will help unlock any mysteries going on.