Can I delete the contents of the "downloading" folder in my "steam" folder to restart game update downloads?

[Eizen745]

As the title says...
Situation: I have a game with a large update pending, and not enough hard drive space (<1gb) to download said update on my laptop. (This game has had many large updates lately with their UI changes.) So, the "steam\downloading" folder has about 75gb sitting in it, but the only pending download is 63gb for this game... So if I deleted the contents of "downloading", it would clear enough space for the update of 63gb to start fresh. I just need to know if that will work, or if I will bork something else by doing that?

[MancSoulja]

Just delete Steam's download cache.

Steam->Settings->Downloads->Clear cache

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Dont recomend deleting steam cache will require a log in again. Best to uninstall old games you dont play. Keeps the screenshots and saves

[Eizen745]

I did delete the steam download cache, and it worked. I had to log in again, which is no big deal... but it also reset a few other settings, like my starting page (switched back to store instead of library) and my login preferences. I think my original idea of deleting the folder contents from file manager would have worked better, as it wouldn't have changed my settings.

Thanks all the same!

[MancSoulja]

Sorry guys I forgot it logs you out and that >_<

[Blaagh]

when the game is updated the files are copied from common to downloading then patched then written back into common. deleting the files in downloading would just result in steam to copy the files again and start the patch all over

if it is your system drive you have more luck with diskcleanup tool in windows. that will delete old updates and empty trashbin, image cache etc.

[Eizen745]

Originally posted by Blaagh:

when the game is updated the files are copied from common to downloading then patched then written back into common. deleting the files in downloading would just result in steam to copy the files again and start the patch all over

Yeah, this is exactly what needed to happen on my laptop, b/c clearing the download cache from settings emptied that folder of 73gb and I was able to restart the download. Steam also reset some preferences at the same time doing it this way, so I would not recommend it either. Manually deleting the files from file manager would have achieved the same result, and having only modified the "downloading" folder, presumably would not affect my user settings. In my case, The game had attempted to download a previous patch, but got paused and didn't finish before the game had it's UI downgrade, which was rolled out in stages and got started and stopped at least once, so all the copying back and forth left me <1gb on my system drive (only drive in the machine), and the final package ended up being about 63gb, so no way disk cleanup was gonna find me that much space.