Games are not updating

[Egg]

In settings I have set my games to always update, even in the background when playing games at all times without any limit to the bandwidth. These settings are applied to all games, and there are no exceptions.

50% of the time it works, however 50% of the time Steam will not download updates and I have to manually click after some time of having the client open. It's not the client updating itself in the background, it's doing nothing.

Does anyone else experience this issue? Is there a possible sixth or seventh box I forgot to tick to just make the client update games when they are available?

[Iceira]

Cue and steam schdule maybe ?

you are not in controll over it , this was learned through covid19, and i dont think steam will change last past mistake or go back to old ways.

dont forget we other use a diffrent ways to explan this frequent access files do get update, other games you do not play goes at then steam server make timeslot and then they see as best spot to update. ( you need to see it from steam server point of view, then they dont have much else todo ) most steam user do not know other side of this.

you might dont like this, but we are many that dont need games update then we dont play them atm. ( this is not about me this is the problem we instal a game and maybe never go back to it ) yes it seem pointless to explan , but we all learn this down the line or many games we have, and so do steam.

dont forget it take time to learn and accept this ,even old dude from the past with want to be in controll over what happend, but take a online game, you have no choise in not updateing it, and then you dont play it, then why the hell do steam keep update it, so you see it goes both ways, steam should have done this years ago.


i think last time a steam user had 5000k games , he see update all the time, and he was tired of them all. ( so now you understand the mass update is actual a issue most never see that side of this )

also why i and other explan it like this ( dont expect we will keep doing this )

force update all , worst possible idea ever.
take 6 weeks holiday, and i bet all steam users here can tell you, you will get flooded in updates, for all game you might dont want to play. ( and pc will be locked in update because it trigger them all. )

Learn to accept cue and scedule best advice we can give you. ( use time to set when its best for you in steam update timeslot window )

[Satoru]

Note that steam still queues patches based on how often or how frequently or how recently you played them. If you play a game often it will queue it higher and faster. If you haven't played a game in weeks it will put that lower in the priority

Also note that patching games while playing is a terrible idea and you should not do this. It can dramatically impact your game's performance because steam patches are very CPU and Disk IO intensive

[Iceira]

+ to satura not because he need it more a total agree with it, also notice steam has added anyone now, not sure that mean next door neigbour but it look like that a huge improvment in global update / downloading for all steam users. ( example all owns own ISP with steam you might get files even faster if it work as i think it do ) this is know as some ISP use own ISP network as almost a local transfer and that mean pretty fast network transfer.

"This is in steam download setting and windows update under delivery settings."
Dont forget transfer add anyone ( same as Microsoft windows update to fecth data as fast as possible ) could actual improve steam network and its DL / updates.

Yes this is know as multisources ( global network ) it could help alot of steam users.
maybe might know this already , but that dont mean all steam user do or want it.

this mean lesser traffic into steam server if other near steam user has the data and it can fetch it, and actual improved global network ) yes its complicate and yet very neat then it other has files near you.

[Egg]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Note that steam still queues patches based on how often or how frequently or how recently you played them. If you play a game often it will queue it higher and faster. If you haven't played a game in weeks it will put that lower in the priority

Also note that patching games while playing is a terrible idea and you should not do this. It can dramatically impact your game's performance because steam patches are very CPU and Disk IO intensive

Although that could explain similar issues, in my case that's not quite the problem. I can have steam open for a day without doing anything and it won't download the update until I press it manually.

In terms of performance, that's obvious, and not the issue at hand here.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Egg:

Originally posted by Satoru:

Note that steam still queues patches based on how often or how frequently or how recently you played them. If you play a game often it will queue it higher and faster. If you haven't played a game in weeks it will put that lower in the priority

Also note that patching games while playing is a terrible idea and you should not do this. It can dramatically impact your game's performance because steam patches are very CPU and Disk IO intensive

This isn't a performance issue post, it's about games not updating. What are you on about?

Are you saying that the updates are being scheduled? You see them in the updates screen but they're scheduled to start at a future date and time?

If this is the case, that is the default behavior. If you want the updates to take place immediately, you'll need to set each game's Update setting to High Priority. This will bypass the scheduling.

[A no-brainer]

I experience the same ~50% chance of updating on its own and me having to manually do it. For newer games with many people playing it seems to work mostly automated and for older titles or more niche ones it seems to need a manual push, but that's my small bubble of games.

Maybe a messurement to save bandwith with games that migh be installed but not actively played and therefore need not to be updated immediately? Just guessing, I do not have so many games installed that it bothers me and half of the installed ones do not get any updates anymore.

[Iceira]

You cant get update if you dont play them, its know as frequent access files ( games you actual has activate recently ) they go to cue and have diffrent updates time rate depend possibilities you actual still play them, ( this is why its frequent access files ) dont think games will be update 3 months later as first priority.

maybe steam user should resd steam guide section.

not my problem steam has removed pin covid-19 info , and forgot update what they change in the guide sections.if im right.

[Satoru]

When you look at your download queue you will see when a game is scheduled to be updated. It will schedule updates further into the future the less frequently you play a particular game

This is separate from the "automatic" updates section

And is separate from "background downloads" section as well

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by A no-brainer:

I experience the same ~50% chance of updating on its own and me having to manually do it. For newer games with many people playing it seems to work mostly automated and for older titles or more niche ones it seems to need a manual push, but that's my small bubble of games.

Maybe a messurement to save bandwith with games that migh be installed but not actively played and therefore need not to be updated immediately? Just guessing, I do not have so many games installed that it bothers me and half of the installed ones do not get any updates anymore.

Updates are scheduled based on your frequency of playing the game. The longer that's it been since you've last played a game, the further out the update will schedule.

And, yes, it has to do with bandwidth but more about balancing the bandwidth needs, not so much about saving bandwidth. This change came about during the COVID lockdowns to ease network congestion. No reason to download the update for a game that you haven't played in months. Better to prioritize that game you are currently playing and schedule the others at a later time.