Why Does Steam Waste your ISPs Datacap?

[Caustika, Corrosia's Claw]

So, my question is simple:
Why does this company think it a good idea to force games to download files it already has (every single one), when I try to rectify my mistake of hitting play before moving files back to their "last known location"? Why does "Verify Files" claim all is accounted for, then Steam proceeds to re-download the ENTIRE GAME ANYWAYS?! What about maybe a check-and-compare system, which I assume would cause less weight upon the data needed for Steam to let you play your game? (Which I thought was the job of Verify Files, but as I just described, it doesn't seem to do that in this situation...)

My ISP allows a Terabyte of information monthly, and wasting a tenth, to a quarter, or whatever, on games that decide "nope, no matter what you do, the files aren't there the second you tried hitting that play button, gotta waste all your data to put files in that are already in there/tried putting in there after you forgot to" is starting to get REAL old.

Analogy time:
It is like if you moved a statue 5 feet away from it's original location, and suddenly, it might as well not even exist (which makes sense from a code perspective).
It DOESN'T make sense, when you try to realize the statue, the code says, "it ain't there", you quickly move the statue BACK, and then the code IGNORES the statue RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT, and literally just replaces the statue in front of both of you with its exact copy.
With a bill totaling however much the material that statue is made of.
THAT. ADDS. UP.

Thank you for any insight you can shed upon this puzzle, and have a nice day.

[Nx Machina]

Verify files is a check and compare function. It only downloads any files which are corrupted. It does not re-download the whole game.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

This is the process ATM.

Downloading / Updating.
1. Download files / packs then unzips.
2. Verify game files, no downloading happening it only reading. If detects corrupted, or out of date files then goes back to 1. only downloading CERTAIN files, unless devs package game in away that not possible hence large downloads again. Then moves onto step 3.
3. You're ready to play.

That why it depends how devs package their games, and how they compress their games for lowering file size for downloads.

[Satoru]

Steam will only redownload an entire file if you keep stopping steam from patching games

After a certain point, steam can't patch your existing file and has to download the entire file from scratch.

[Iceira]

Yuor bandwide limitation is not a steam issue.

i think other ppl from the past use app with this to have 2 month dl size to cover DL size issue., was it glasswire app or something like that.

[Iceira]

And what prevent you from use a external disk and go visit a friend and dl and install it there, so disk can be use at your system afterwards.

[Ettanin]

Originally posted by Serenity Sentinel:

My ISP allows a Terabyte of information monthly, and wasting a tenth, to a quarter, or whatever, on games that decide "nope, no matter what you do, the files aren't there the second you tried hitting that play button, gotta waste all your data to put files in that are already in there/tried putting in there after you forgot to" is starting to get REAL old.

It takes a lot of effort and juggling of data to expend a terabyte monthly. Are you watching TV in 4K 24/7?

[xarvn]

Usually in these situations, Steam will appear to be downloading from scratch but in reality, it is verifying existing files. You can check if this is case the next time by comparing the indicated download rate (in the "Manage Downloads page) compared to what it normally should be, or by observing the time the install takes. You will most likely see that speeds are unusually fast and that the install takes much less time than expected. This is because Steam is not downloading the whole game but only the minimum data necessary to verify or restore corrupted files.

Why are you moving game files? You can use Steam's built-in "Move" and "Backup" functions to avoid this particular problem. If you must manually move game files, also move the associated appmanifest file so that the game appears uninstalled and then no "play" button will be available to accidentally press.