Can i tranfer games to a external hard drive?

[thinbezels]

I am currently gaming on a macbook (yes go ahead and laugh, i am to, but the mac is for work and the alternative is buying or building my own PC) but there isnt enough space for all my games. can i transfer the games to and external harddrive and then plug it in and play the games?
thanks

[iokenai]

Greetings, if you go to your Games libary. There should be an option to move the games Location to a specific one. If its not in there, it will be a setting in the main Steam Settings.
~

• Steam -> setings
  

  -----------------------------------------------RISK WARNING------------------------------------------------------

  Warning:
  It is highly recommended that you create a backup of your SteamApps folder before attempting this process. If there is a problem in this process and you do not have a backup of your games or the SteamApps folder, it will be necessary to reinstall the games individually. Please see the Using the Steam Backup Feature topic.
  
  

  --------------------------------------------------GUIDE tutorial-------------------------------------------------------

  The following instructions are a simple way to move your Steam installation along with your games:
  
  Exit the Steam client application.-
  
  Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation you would like to move (C:\Program Files\Steam by default).-
  
  Delete all of the files and folders except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe-
  
  Cut and paste the whole Steam folder to the new location, for example: D:\Games\Steam\
  Launch Steam and log into your account.-
  
  Steam will briefly update and then you will be logged into your account. For installed games, verify your game cache files and you will be ready to play.-
  
  All future game content will be downloaded to the new folder (D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\ in this example)-
  

  ----------------------------------------------------Closing words------------------------------------------------------

  
  Greetings yet again.
  This took some time for me to get Infomation about, and finding personal details myself.
  ~ If this does not help. Or is too advanced
  - Then reply to this post, as I will be more than happy to help you out.
  Stay safe, have fun!

[HLCinSC]

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 ensure that you do not encounter this issue, always allow Steam to close properly when shutting down your computer. Allowing Windows to force Steam to close when it is writing to a hard drive may cause Steam library and installation information to become corrupted.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998&l=english

[iokenai]

Originally posted by #Let Girls Learn #Sunshine Week:

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 ensure that you do not encounter this issue, always allow Steam to close properly when shutting down your computer. Allowing Windows to force Steam to close when it is writing to a hard drive may cause Steam library and installation information to become corrupted.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998&l=english

This does not mean, it's not compatable with running games on it.
So using External Drives for a Disk space. Is surely a valid option.
Doe the causes and help is something to risk and bear in mind :D
~Thanks

[Seven7]

External hard drives are acceptable if you are using a fast connection interface (USB3.x, eSATA or Thunderbolt) and properly configure the power saving mode for it - otherwise the drive will go to sleep, and the Steam client has been losing external library configuration, showing games as not installed