Steam folder and junk files

[MasterP]

I am mostly used to console gaming, so it may be a dumb question, but i want to make sure (i hadnt to worry about it until now), after i uninstall a game, some files remain in the steam common folder or on the game own folder and in the %appdata% folder, its ok to delete these files? My other question is, do games usually leave other kinds of junk files behind after being uninstalled, or i am fine by deleting the mentioned files? (to make myself clear, i mean folders with the game name)
My understanding is that if i download the game again, these files will simple be created again and if the game uses the cloud feature, then nothing will really be lost by deleting these files, is this right?

[ReBoot]

Yes, it's fine to delete the remaining game folder. What's needed, will be recreated.

The only exception are certain games that don't use Steam Cloud and store their saves there. Rule of thumb: if you uninstall a game without clicking on HD saves and you care about those saves, you should make a manual backup of said saves either way.

[Iceira]

Rule is in pc, if you know what leftover data is from , and dont need its save game or config files of past game you won't ever play , go ahead delete it.

You will get use to many left over things, its been this over 40+ years, but lets be fair with all them change and Dlc and mods and whatever things user might have done, it will lead to things game devs did not know or forgot to add to its uninsstall procedur.

And thats why you see app like CCleaner and other things try cover leftovers but, there never will be a 100% app or gamedevs that dont make leftovers by mistake, point is get use to it,

Other rule is , if you have plenty of free space, learn to use trashcan to when you delete something its there for a long time, ( one of the past windows tips ) that seem relevant again then SSD disk is so fast today, ) its not a back its more a dump site until space is needed again.

And we have other past windows user that dont like it and micro manage such minor data,
point is watchout for not waste hours to fetch 1 to 3 gb data, ( then joke reflect on our self here,
and thats the sade part of it, then we all know job task is good , but not as effective as we think.

We could also say you can delete anything you want , nothing prevent you from not can dl it again, ( try use uninstall app first, mosta app has such or its in windows system or free to play games then check own license for remove content from account.

https://store.steampowered.com/account/licenses/

[MasterP]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Yes, it's fine to delete the remaining game folder. What's needed, will be recreated.

The only exception are certain games that don't use Steam Cloud and store their saves there. Rule of thumb: if you uninstall a game without clicking on HD saves and you care about those saves, you should make a manual backup of said saves either way.

Ok, thank you! Its kinda jarring that not everything goes away when you uninstall a game.

[MasterP]

Originally posted by Iceira:

Rule is in pc, if you know what leftover data is from , and dont need its save game or config files of past game you won't ever play , go ahead delete it.

You will get use to many left over things, its been this over 40+ years, but lets be fair with all them change and Dlc and mods and whatever things user might have done, it will lead to things game devs did not know or forgot to add to its uninsstall procedur.

And thats why you see app like CCleaner and other things try cover leftovers but, there never will be a 100% app or gamedevs that dont make leftovers by mistake, point is get use to it,

Other rule is , if you have plenty of free space, learn to use trashcan to when you delete something its there for a long time, ( one of the past windows tips ) that seem relevant again then SSD disk is so fast today, ) its not a back its more a dump site until space is needed again.

And we have other past windows user that dont like it and micro manage such minor data,
point is watchout for not waste hours to fetch 1 to 3 gb data, ( then joke reflect on our self here,
and thats the sade part of it, then we all know job task is good , but not as effective as we think.

We could also say you can delete anything you want , nothing prevent you from not can dl it again, ( try use uninstall app first, mosta app has such or its in windows system or free to play games then check own license for remove content from account.

https://store.steampowered.com/account/licenses/

At least, what i see from steam, most of the junk is confined to the game own folder in the steam common folder or the game own folder and somewhere in the %appdata%. It isnt THAT bad.

[MasterP]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Yes, it's fine to delete the remaining game folder. What's needed, will be recreated.

The only exception are certain games that don't use Steam Cloud and store their saves there. Rule of thumb: if you uninstall a game without clicking on HD saves and you care about those saves, you should make a manual backup of said saves either way.

Another question if you wouldnt mind, could i make a partition within my SSD with its own %appdata% folder to store the steam games related stuff and junk files, or it wouldnt work?

[Iceira]

Yeah we all get that but most %appdata% is so tiny in mega bytes or kilo byets, we all understand what you are doing , and effort to do it look good for try keep a neat pc and clean up after them, but with then you look at it from a 10TB hard disk, then things change and it now a cost/time effort and play time instead issue, then task seem not so importen, thats all i point out, you could play a game in that time.

its like clan up in bits and bytes, delete empty folder, aient that vital. we only try to tell you this, but go ahead and learn this yourself as we all did, dont forget we other learn this from DOS age with it and back then its was vital, or things and space size matter alot, so we do get you here.

I think you can get more free space with run disk clean up in advance mode and remove all junk from system own junk information from there.

[Iceira]

Originally posted by MasterP:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Yes, it's fine to delete the remaining game folder. What's needed, will be recreated.

The only exception are certain games that don't use Steam Cloud and store their saves there. Rule of thumb: if you uninstall a game without clicking on HD saves and you care about those saves, you should make a manual backup of said saves either way.

Another question if you wouldnt mind, could i make a partition within my SSD with its own %appdata% folder to store the steam games related stuff and junk files, or it wouldnt work?

No dont do that, thats old ways split , you force the disk to copy/move data on same disk.
thats lifetime tear over time downs on SSD disk.

Past ways is outdate in so many ways. today.

ps.
You only do such the you have education in this, to why you most do this, huge diffrence with company ways that do it and privat person, company ways do alot of crazy things as backup or can afford it.

You only split disk if lets say 8TB to what ever , and do not fall in the trap with move thing on same disk to other partitions, then you did not get why you dont make a split.

Reason for split hug disk is more a window check disk (chkdsk) will go faster on smaller disk size other then that still a issue depend on big file size or folder there is games today thats past 1TB with all them DLC, so size matter here.

[MasterP]

Originally posted by Iceira:

Yeah we all get that but most %appdata% is so tiny in mega bytes or kilo byets, we all understand what you are doing , and effort to do it look good for try keep a neat pc and clean up after them, but with then you look at it from a 10TB hard disk, then things change and it now a cost/time effort and play time instead issue, then task seem not so importen, thats all i point out, you could play a game in that time.

its like clan up in bits and bytes, delete empty folder, aient that vital. we only try to tell you this, but go ahead and learn this yourself as we all did, dont forget we other learn this from DOS age with it and back then its was vital, or things and space size matter alot, so we do get you here.

I think you can get more free space with run disk clean up in advance mode and remove all junk from system own junk information from there.

I get what you mean, i am simple trying to understand the possibilities and see if it may be worth to have a bit more of work now to have a easier time going forward.
I say this, mostly because while most of this stuff is indeed very small in size, i just found a random 10gb leftover unity folder from a single game in %appdata% yesterday while trying to figure why uninstalling the game removed only 3gb from its 13gb.

[MasterP]

Originally posted by Iceira:

Originally posted by MasterP:

Another question if you wouldnt mind, could i make a partition within my SSD with its own %appdata% folder to store the steam games related stuff and junk files, or it wouldnt work?

No dont do that, thats old ways split , you force the disk to copy/move data on same disk.
thats lifetime tear over time downs on SSD disk.

Past ways is outdate in so many ways. today.

ps.
You only do such the you have education in this, to why you most do this, huge diffrence with company ways that do it and privat person, company ways do alot of crazy things as backup or can afford it.

ok, thank you!

[Iceira]

added some more info, if disk is 8TB/10TB, not funny to do chkdsk on big disk.