Steam folders are way too big.

[Sure-Dahl]

Hello,
I've been using steam for um.. quite long time and now, for the first time since... well I don't really remember - I'm cleaning my pc. I just delete all unnecessary stuff. When I was done with unneeded apps and other kind of rubbish I realised that I cleared suspiciously small amount of space. I began to check files manually and I found out that among steam folders there are still files of games I uninstalled ages ago. I deleted teamfortress about 2 years ago and now I've found a few folders with 700mb in each. That could be some stuff with engine you can say. Probably, but they are spread between a few folders of different users. When I played logged in my friends' accounts those were probably created. But why there are such big files? After the game has been deleted? Is this just a normal thing? Perhaps steam just keeps such mess and those are files of other games... Hope u'll know the answer.

[The Giving One]

Are you uninstalling your games using the Steam client and not simply just "deleting" the files like you seem to suggest here ?

There is "uninstalling" and then there is "deleting" and they are not the same. The games may be trying to update themselves if you are trying to delete files yourself that way.

The Steam client from your library has a "delete local game content" tab in your game properties window so is that how you are uninstalling the games ?

[Muppet among Puppets]

After uninstalling with steam and after free weekend games, its best to remove those folders after.
Mostly games do not leave them, some do.

[Sure-Dahl]

Цитата допису The Giving One:

Are you uninstalling your games using the Steam client and not simply just "deleting" the files like you seem to suggest here ?

Oh yeah I didn't define what that 'stuff' was. In the first few lines I made a humble introduction. It didn't refer to steam files. Anyway I did write that I deleted teamfortress indeed. To be honest I don't remember how I removed TF but I have never ever deleted steam files manually. What I could have done a few years ago was to uninstall games with revo uninstaller but I don't think it caused this mess because revo just triggers normal removal process (through steam).

By the way, why would steam try to update that game and put content into folders of accounts which I haven't used since the game was gone (I suppose it doesn't matter if I deleted or uninstalled it. I haven't logged in those accounts, so uppdate process should affect only my folder anyway)? And why have I found those TF files in folder of user who didn't even have TF in their library?

All this make me think that those are other game's files and steam just put them there.
Have I provided enough information?

[The Giving One]

Well, I am sorry if I was personally confused by your title post here, so that is why I mentioned about if you were deleting files manually and then the apmanifest file was still seeing your games as "installed" perhaps and trying to update them when you logged in and recover the missing files, but you said you are not doing that here so forgive me.

And about the other accouts, not sure. Maybe you at one point were installing Steam and games to a different directory and that is why you have those folders that are extra ? It may be a bit difficult to really tell what is going on with what you are doing there.

I only have one account and one installation of Steam, so therefore I only have one Steam directory and don't see these kinds of issues you are talking about. If I want to uninstall a game, (which is actually called by the tab "delete local game content" in the library game properties window), I always use the client and do that wtih that tab, and not with any other method.

Sorry if that does not really help here much, but the good Muppet is also right, as sometimes games leave folders behind after you "delete local content" as described above, and then you can usually just manually delete those folders after using the method above to uninstall the game with Steam.

Sometimes also, other folders are left behind such as save folders, and those are sometimes in your documents folder for example. King Arthur 1, if I remember correctly, actually makes a folder in documents called "Neocore Games" and inside that folder are your save games for that game, if you have it that is of course. Sometimes games store your saves in strange places and not in the Steam or game folder for the game you are making the save for.

This can be useful when you want to manually back up a save game for later use if you reinstall that game because the save will not be lost that way usually when you uninstall the game it is for using the "delete local content" tab as described above.

[Sure-Dahl]

Firstly I want to thank you The Giving One for your commitment to the cause:)

Цитата допису The Giving One:

Well, I am sorry if I was personally confused by your title post here, so that is why I mentioned about if you were deleting files manually and then the apmanifest file was still seeing your games as "installed" perhaps and trying to update them when you logged in and recover the missing files, but you said you are not doing that here so forgive me.

Oh well... I didn't feel offended, so I forgive you. It's more of my fault because I just didn't explain the situation clearly enough.

Цитата допису The Giving One:

Sometimes also, other folders are left behind such as save folders, and those are sometimes in your documents folder for example. King Arthur 1, if I remember correctly, actually makes a folder in documents called "Neocore Games" and inside that folder are your save games for that game, if you have it that is of course. Sometimes games store your saves in strange places and not in the Steam or game folder for the game you are making the save for.

After reading this I conclude that the folder I mentioned MAY contain other game's files. So I shouldn't delete them unless I'm sure that there are no such files? This means I have to check all folders in search of those? The problem is that there are so many of those folders I'm simply not willing to do that. I'd take a few... hours. Not to mention the fact that I don't know which are which as long as it's not written in the file's name (I didn't mention that I'm not a very geeky one but you probably noticed it). Well, provided that after recognizing a few of those files I was be able to determine if the whole folder belongs to a certain game or not it would help indeed. Are there any programs to clean the mess which steam does?

In the meanwhile I read something about TF2 leftover files and I'm not the only one experiencing the problem. But even if it's the answer (TF has just poorly designed uninstaller) I have more folders which I thought were removed a long time ago.

Цитата допису The Giving One:

Sometimes also, other folders are left behind such as save folders,

This is true but the user is asked if to leave some files such as saves during the process of uninstalling, am I right or am I right? I'm not sure if steam provides the possibility of choice as I haven't uninstalled any games recently but I as far as I remember the whole procedure I'm pretty sure it does. Those are definitely not the files I wanted to leave.

Thank you once again The Giving One I also appreciate your answer Muppet among Puppets :) I'm now richer in... knowledge :)

[The Giving One]

Hello again and thanks for the kind reply here. I am not sure if what I posted was hepful, but I do hope it was. Wherever your Steam is installed, there is a "steamapps" folder inside, and inside that folder is the "common" folder. This is where all of your games usually are installed, unless you have manually made other locations or folders for Steam to use and see your installed games.

This may be the case if you have ever used the "Steam Library Folders" menu tab selection in your Steam settings and then "downloads". I don't use this, as I just keep the one location.

Click Steam in the top left of your client and select "settings" and then "downloads". You will see the "Steam Librery Folders" tab at the top there. If you click it, it should show where Steam is downloading your game files to and has downloaded them to in the past.

For me, there is only one library and it is the "common" folder that I mentioned above. If you have ever had Steam back up game files before, or used a different location for your library folders, for example if your disk space became a bit short on one drive, then that COULD be a reason that you are seeing so many folders that you are talking about with game files in them...but like I said before, it is a bit hard to really tell what is going on there with you in this case without knowing what you have done in the past with Steam and where you have Steam set to download your games to by using the "Steam Library Folders" tab that I am talking about here.

My suggestion would be to just have the one place in "Steam" then "steamapps" then "common" and manually search your PC and delete all the rest.

If you are concerned with having to download games again that you want to play, you can try to drag those folders into the one location in the "common" folder for the game you are talking about after you have actually initiated a download of the game from your library in Steam and created the game folder for whatever game you are downloading. You have to make the folder first by using Steam to start the download, and then you can "drag" the stray folders that you are talking about into it after it is created.

Finally, it is always a good idea to "verigy the game cache" when you manually drag folders like this because there may have been a game update since you had the stray folder sitting about on your PC and it is a good idea anyway, in case any data gets corrupted during the moving process of files like this.

I am not really sure if I have explained this properly and clearly enough so please excuse me if I did not and you can ask more questions here if you wish and we will try to answer them for you.

OH, when you "delete local content" using that option in your library tab for a game you want to uninstall, the save is also deleted if the game in question actually saves your progress in the game files and not in a different place on your PC, as in documents for example. That is mostly why newer Steam games save your progress this way, because if you delete local content, your save is still kept in documents for future use if you redownload and install the game again in the future.

[sakamoto]

Hello, i wanted to confirm something before i run into problems, i know some games sadly like to save configs and/or data inside the install folder itself, so if i delete those folders, the next time i install those games i'll have to rebind and reconfigurate everything again. I know many others do save in the cloud or in the documents folder but, has this problem changed or is it been always like this? PD: this may be just an issue on my end, but i cant afford the risk of deleting some ~12gb folders of uninstalled games because of a lot of ingame configurations