Restoring game from external HDD without steam re-downloading the game.

[twilight25ops]

FYI: I am not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, or if this fix will work for everyone.

When restoring games that I have backed to an external HDD,I have noticed that sometimes once I install the game through steam it will re-discover all the existing files and complete the installation with no issues, thus allowing me to play the game. However, with certain games (ex. Bioshock Infinite, Borderland 2), the above process will not work and after it has re-discovered the files it will basically download the game again and also delete most of the game files I transferred to the "commons" folder. I believe I have found a solution to fix this issue, although I would always recommend you try it the normal way first, transferring game files to
steam-->steamapps-->common since it will sometimes complete the installation with no issues from steam on certain games.


Step 1: Make sure the game is completely deleted from steam. To be sure, delete local content of the game. Then you want to go ahead and start the download from steam like normal so it will get the appmanifest id and place it in the "steamapps" folder (this id is unique for each game, ex. appmanifest_8870.acf for Bioshock Infinite). Also, we want steam to start the download so it will populate the "downloading" folder in "steamapps" as well.

Step 2: Pause the download on steam and then go to steam-->steamapps-->downloading--> {insert name of folder}. The folder inside the "downloading" folder will vary depending on the game, but I believe it will always match the appmanifest id (ex. Bioshock Infinite appmanifest id was "8870" and the folder inside the "downloading" folder was "8870" as well). Once you have determined the correct folder, go ahead and copy/paste all your game files from your backup device.

Step 3: Once all files have been transferred, go ahead and resume download from steam.


Results: My download for both Bioshock Infinite and Borderlands 2 went from 0% to about 97%-99% almost immediately. I am not sure what files it is downloading afterwards, but it mostly recognizes the game after these steps. I imagine this will work for all other games that have this issue, but as of now I have only successfully tested this on the above two games.

[JasonB54]

doesnt work for me. It downloads 30 GB again. I did copy data files from another HDD where I had all my backed up games. All those backups are now uselness. Just great.

[Cathulhu]

Did you copy the appmanifest files as well?

[marcf]

I had success with another process:

1: copy content from the backup into steam\steamapps\common\*game name here*
2: copy appmanifest_###.acf to steam\steamapps\
Find number from google or other method
3: install game through steam, right after preallocating space it says 'Discovering local files' or something like that
4: download jumps to 99% or 100% (maybe less if you haven't played for a while and updates released.

Done

[Lüübeki Lits 69 - Allkeyshop]

1) first i have to add a new default Steam Library folder under Settings->Downloads?
edit:
2) so Steam basically created its own steamapps folder in my custom folder and then i just had to create the "common" folder and copy the game files from another drive (and the appmanifest_ID)
3) then i just relaunched Steam and then it said that the game is already installed...
4) and when i pressed "Play", it just started to download the necessary update for the game...

[DextreBeDextre]

Update for those coming after 2022:

Steam no longer will check the `/common/` nor `/downloading/` folders for changes; it will simply continue on its way.

The newest way to fix this:

1. Delete the `/downloading/` directory/make sure there are NO downloading games.
2. Quit the Steam client.
3. Copy your backed up files to `/steamapps/common/`.
4. Open steam again.
5. Click the "Download" button on the game you want, and Steam will solely do a file-validation step, not a redownload-step.

[[WASD]Valdisnei]

And for those coming in 2023:
I happen to use an external NVME drive over USB3.1 (for most games performance is on par, for newer games where GPUs read textures right from the NVME SSDs that wouldn't work)

Anyway, here's how I did it:
- Renamed my SteamLibrary folder on my external SSD to SteamLibrary2
- Create an empty SteamLibrary folder on the external SSD (right beside the one I renamed above)
- Settings > Storage > "+" > Added the newly created folder.
- Quit Steam.
- Delete the new folder.
- Rename the SteamLibrary2 folder back to SteamLibrary
- Opened steam again and it worked! (Steam started downloading only the updates).

Funny how steam allows you to "make library backups" but doesn't let you restore the already downloaded games between your laptop and desktop from an external drive.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by WASDValdisnei:

And for those coming in 2023:
I happen to use an external NVME drive over USB3.1 (for most games performance is on par, for newer games where GPUs read textures right from the NVME SSDs that wouldn't work)

Anyway, here's how I did it:
- Renamed my SteamLibrary folder on my external SSD to SteamLibrary2
- Create an empty SteamLibrary folder on the external SSD (right beside the one I renamed above)
- Settings > Storage > "+" > Added the newly created folder.
- Quit Steam.
- Delete the new folder.
- Rename the SteamLibrary2 folder back to SteamLibrary
- Opened steam again and it worked! (Steam started downloading only the updates).

Funny how steam allows you to "make library backups" but doesn't let you restore the already downloaded games between your laptop and desktop from an external drive.

It's usually because of the associated steam files that tell steam where the game data is located. If they get messed up or are left unchanged, then steam simply won't see them.

Your way is a good way of getting round this problem.

I've done similar by copying games back and forth until it sees the data again.