Free Weekend (open beta?) Games left on drive - NOT Uninstalled - At what cost?

[Knightingale]

EDIT: Some of these might actually be open beta games that get removed from steam and reintroduced as the full game later. So take 'Free Weekend' as free open beta as well.

So I've noticed my hard-drive filling up over the past year and that I was missing about 100Gb. After a long process of exploration I found out that every single Free Weekend game I installed still remains on my disk. And there is NO option to correctly uninstall them from Steam.
These games are simply removed from the Steam library and not our computer. Which means you can't right click it and uninstall. Or even remember the name of the game for that matter.


To put it simple, this is unacceptable. That is a disservice to yourselves, developers, and costumers alike.
Why?
Who knows how many lost gigs we all have sitting around that could be hosting new games we are not buying as a result of space restrictions.

Or we could be playing other Free Weekend games if we had the room of which I will NEVER install again as long as this is an issue. That means less sales for you and developers alike.

As a company why would you want that process to be even more cluttered? You want impulse buys? Well this will stop it dead unless it's fixed.

So this is a problem for everyone.

[Spawn of Totoro]

When in the library, right click the game and Delete Local Content. Even if the game is not in your library, the name should still be in your list.

Free weekend games are not removed automaticaly. The game is left there in case the user decides to purchase the game. That way he/she doesn't have to download it a second time.

[Knightingale]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

When in the library, right click the game and Delete Local Content.

Free weekend games are not removed automaticaly. The game is left there in case the user decides to purchase the game. That way he/she doesn't have to download it a second time.

As I said. They are removed from the library.
There is not right clicking and uninstalling. Or even a mention anywhere that they existed at all.
Stack that with a computer used by multiple people and the problem is multiplied.
But more than that I'm pointing to it being a problem for Steam.
It's a memory leak to their bottom line.

[FFL2and3rocks]

Must be a problem on your end, then. Free weekend games have never disappeared from my library until after I uninstalled them. Are you sure you didn't set them to Hidden?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Mason:

As I said. They are removed from the library.

And? I have a few games on my computer that I don't own on this account. They were installed using my son's account. They still show, but they say "Buy" Instead of play when I click on them. It is the same for free weekend games.

I have removed several games after their free weekend this way, so I know they are stil visible.

You can also try to use the windows uninstall program option as the game should be registered there as well.

[Knightingale]

Originally posted by FFL2and3rocks:

Must be a problem on your end, then. Free weekend games have never disappeared from my library until after I uninstalled them. Are you sure you didn't set them to Hidden?

What got my attention on it was the Battleborn beta. Simply dissapeared.
Found it in my steamapps labeled under Battleborn Open Beta. 10 gigs.
The actual battleborn game is in another folder labeled Battleborn. Another 10gigs.
I removed the beta folder which was no longer in my library.
Then I started finding a bunch of other free weekend games we had.
Ridiculous.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Mason:

What got my attention on it was the Battleborn beta. Simply dissapeared.
Found it in my steamapps labeled under Battleborn Open Beta. 10 gigs.
The actual battleborn game is in another folder labeled Battleborn. Another 10gigs.
I removed the beta folder which was no longer in my library.
Then I started finding a bunch of other free weekend games we had.
Ridiculous.

Like I said, free weekends have always been like that. You need to uninstall the game manually.

If they are disappearing from your library, then that is something on your system as mine doesn't do that. They still remain, but with a "Buy" button instead of a Play button.

Did you happen to move your Steamapp folder and reinstall Steam by any chance? That could account for the games no showing.

[Knightingale]

Fist of all some of the Free Weekends might actually be open beta's that get removed from steam and the full product introduced as a seporate program.
Once the beta is removed, it comes off our library. Never to be thought of again. Just like some Free Weekend games.

And second, asking people to uninstall a game they don't see in their library of 400+ titles, and try to remember what the name was? If the game was even that memorable to begin with? Really kind of unacceptable on another level in and of itself. Especially where there is an expectation that Steam handles this for you. People are not going to do this and just remember when they have lives.
And as I said, in the end this stacks up to be Valves problem as much as the consumers.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Mason:

Fist of all some of the Free Weekends might actually be open beta's that get removed from steam and the full product introduced as a seporate program.
Once the beta is removed, it comes off our library. Just like some Free Weekend games.

The few betas I have been in still showed in my library, such as the lst Call of Duty beta.

Originally posted by Mason:

And second, asking people to uninstall a game they don't see in their library of 400+ titles, and try to remember what the name was. Really kind of unacceptable on another level in and of itself. Especially where there is an expectation that Steam handles this for you.

When I download a free weekend game and like it, I don't want to have to redownload it latter, when I get around to buying it.

If it was never removed before, how would people expect it to be now? I know I never expected it to be removed. I am responsible for my own files and local system and have never expected it to be any other way.

Originally posted by Mason:

And as I said, in the end this stacks up to be Valves problem as much as the consumers.

No, it doesn't. It is more of an issue for Valve if people have to redownload the game all over again, when they had the files already. It takes bandwidth up from both side, Valve's and the user's.

[Knightingale]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

Originally posted by Mason:

Fist of all some of the Free Weekends might actually be open beta's that get removed from steam and the full product introduced as a seporate program.
Once the beta is removed, it comes off our library. Just like some Free Weekend games.

The few betas I have been in still showed in my library, such as the lst Call of Duty beta.

Originally posted by Mason:

And second, asking people to uninstall a game they don't see in their library of 400+ titles, and try to remember what the name was. Really kind of unacceptable on another level in and of itself. Especially where there is an expectation that Steam handles this for you.

When I download a free weekend game and like it, I don't want to have to redownload it latter, when I get around to buying it.

If it was never removed before, how would people expect it to be now? I know I never expected it to be removed. I am responsible for my own files and local system and have never expected it to be any other way.

That makes sense. I don't want it to uninstall either. But I want to at least see it in my library so I could if I wanted to. And just stick a license expired tag on it. So it doesn't rot away in the corners of my hard drive.
So I don't get why this is happening so much if it's not for you.

And I'm not the only one. There are a lot of other posts about it that I dug up while investigating the issue.

I think Steam should be responsable for their own application. If we agree to installing it and it says it's their program in the TOS, then they should deal with it.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Mason:

That makes sense. I don't want it to uninstall either. But I want to at least see it in my library so I could if I wanted to. And just stick a license expired tag on it. So it doesn't rot away in the corners of my hard drive.
So I don't get why this is happening so much.
And I'm not the only one. There are a lot of other posts about it that I dug up while investigating the issue.

If you want a specific tag for expired games, that I can understand. I just haven't seen the games disapear from my library like you are.

Only thing I can think of is some of the files Steam uses to keep track of the games are getting removed/corrupted in some way.

Originally posted by Mason:

I think Steam should be responsable for their own application. If we agree to installing it and it says it's their program in the TOS, then they should deal with it.

No, it is not their responsibility to keep track of what we have installed or our storage space. We are responsible for our own systems, no one else. If we get a virus, we can't blame the AV program for us downloading a a bad file or the site for getting hacked and injected.

Take a look at the SSA we all agreed. It even states that they are not responsible.

[Knightingale]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

Originally posted by Mason:

That makes sense. I don't want it to uninstall either. But I want to at least see it in my library so I could if I wanted to. And just stick a license expired tag on it. So it doesn't rot away in the corners of my hard drive.
So I don't get why this is happening so much.
And I'm not the only one. There are a lot of other posts about it that I dug up while investigating the issue.

If you want a specific tag for expired games, that I can understand. I just haven't seen the games disapear from my library like you are.

Only thing I can think of is some of the files Steam uses to keep track of the games are getting removed/corrupted in some way.

Then it might just be a bug in the system that gets triggered by how developers handle their software. I would suggest you take a look at your steamapps folders and compare it to your steam library.
Rocket League for example didn't do this on their free weekend. (It did however screw up the family share license.)
But Battleborn beta did remove from my library when the time ended. Along with a number of previous beta's and free weekend games I found in my steamapps folder.

I'm testing it again with Empyrion Galactic Survival now that it's on free weekend. This time I wrote it down. Which is kind of stupid that I have to do this in the first place. I will never remember that title if it disappears from my library.

[Spawn of Totoro]

I checked after reading the first post. I didn't see anything except a few with less then 1Mb in them. It consisted only of settings, saves and misc. information.

I downloaded the same game earlier too.

[Knightingale]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

I checked after reading the first post. I didn't see anything except a few with less then 1Mb in them. It consisted only of settings, saves and misc. information.

Right well that's acceptable. But leaving the entire game or beta isn't.
Maybe it's yet another flaw with the family share tools because that is what we use for multiple users on our main pc.
We wouldn't be using Steam at all if we each had to install the same game twice on one pc. Let alone buy it twice. So if the solution is removing that then it won't help anything.

[Dyro_B]

I had the same with BETA of the game Evolve. BETA-test went down, game dissapeared in my library. Couldn't remove it proparly. Removing via Windows uninstall didn't worked either; it opened (just like every other Steam-install game) Steam.

Evolve got another BETA-test, which I could play after an update. This time I removed the BETA game in time. Altho removing the map + reg entry isn't a big problem, I did found it weird that it hadn't a proper uninstall option.

@Mason

Maybe you can check accountdetails. In this tab, you'll see every purchase and free games/dlc/demos which are activated on your Steam account. Maybe you have the option there to remove the connection with your account, and auto-delete itself? But I don't know if that works, just a thought.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Free weekend ended yesterday. I just took this screenshot of what it looks like in my library.

http://i.imgur.com/yp8LPlC.jpg

It still exists and I can still right click an delete local content.