Steam Library - Uninstalled only

[darksend]

So, I recently purchased a new computer which facilitated reinstalling my entire steam library. While going through my games today (having it sorted only by installed games) I could not find one game in particular I was looking for. The reason for that is I missed it while going through the reinstall process.

Is there a way to only show games which are UNinstalled, I personally would find great use in this feature.

[jamie]

yes while on library tab theres a thing above ur games search and to the right of that is installed it will say that cause thats what you have it set as you can set it to all which is the top on when you click that thing to the right of the search a bove your games in the library clicking that will open a box find the top one and click it it should say games or all and it will give you all games you own

[darksend]

I already know all that, that is not what I was asking. But thanks.

[darksend]

To clarify, say you have 300 games, and you buy another 5 at once. Trying to find those 5 on your list can be difficult. Adding an option to show ONLY uninstalled games would make it easier to install when buying new games as well.

[Drtic]

Yeah, the management of large gaming libraries is pretty bad here in the Steam client. We really need advanced filters and the ability to combine them as you like. For example, the recent change where they put new game listings in Recent view (even if the games are not installed) just broke up the last way how to meaningfully categorize the games for me, and the worst part is I can't even change it back, because you're stuck with just the prebuilt ones and you can't modify them at all. With advanced fitlers I could do my own just the way I need.

Anyway while I don't think there's filter you want (just for not installed games), there are few workarounds I was able to think out:

First way is like this, you go to Library > use the standard Games filter (shows both installed and not installed), select the List view and sort the games by Status. This will group the games that are not installed together.

For new games only: use either the Recent library filter, or use the fact that all new purchases are placed into Games category by default, so if you have categorized all of your games into other categories than the default Games, then this one will contain all the new purchases you haven't categorized yet.

Hope it helps. I'm really starting to hate the Steam client with passion now, I have way too many games and the clunkiness of the software just can't keep up with the number. Grr.

Does any one know of a way how to handle big Steam libraries better? Are there any clients other than the official Steam one? Or are there at least some mods for it? Would help greatly.

[HLCinSC]

Originally posted by darksend:

To clarify, say you have 300 games, and you buy another 5 at once. Trying to find those 5 on your list can be difficult. Adding an option to show ONLY uninstalled games would make it easier to install when buying new games as well.

I know its not exactly what you are asking fir, but if you select recent from the dropdown menu I think it displays all games recently bought, installed, or played. Also if you categorize your library, recently purchased games will be in the uncategorized section. I don't know if doing a full format of Windows and restoring your library will affect the list but it may so this may be f no use for your case.

[TankCommanderDan]

I know this is an old thread but I had the same problem - migrated to a 8TB drive and just bought a bunch of new games with the Black Friday sale weekend. With the current version of steam you can quickly find items not installed - here's how:

1. On the LIBRARY tab - right next to SEARCH BY TYPE is an OPTIONS button (two horizontal lines with a dot on each). CLICK IT.

1a. You should see a list of categories you can place check marks - under PLAY STATE check "INSTALLED LOCALLY"

1b. SAVE This as a "DYNAMIC COLLECTION"

2. Ensure in the drop-down you have GAMES, (TOOLS, SOFTWARE if you want as well) selected. Ensure "GROUP BY COLLECTION" is selected.

3. Immediately below that, you should see your "DYNAMIC COLLECTION".(mine was titled with the default "INSTALLED LOCALLY". Hit the MINUS sign "-" in front of it to reduce the list.

4. What's left is the "UNCATEGORIZED" items - which is this case are the items NOT INSTALLED LOCALLY.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by daniel.schiff:

I know this is an old thread but I had the same problem - migrated to a 8TB drive and just bought a bunch of new games with the Black Friday sale weekend. With the current version of steam you can quickly find items not installed - here's how:

1. On the LIBRARY tab - right next to SEARCH BY TYPE is an OPTIONS button (two horizontal lines with a dot on each). CLICK IT.

1a. You should see a list of categories you can place check marks - under PLAY STATE check "INSTALLED LOCALLY"

1b. SAVE This as a "DYNAMIC COLLECTION"

2. Ensure in the drop-down you have GAMES, (TOOLS) selected (whatever you are looking for)).

3. Immediately below that, you should see your "DYNAMIC COLLECTION".(mine was titled with the default "INSTALLED LOCALLY". Hit the MINUS sign "-" in front of it to reduce the list.

4. What's left is the "UNCATEGORIZED" items - which is this case are the items NOT INSTALLED LOCALLY.

Was not an option back in 2015.

[アキ君]

Would be nice if they would just add an option to display only uninstalled games, just like we can see only installed games.

[Error 404]

Originally posted by TankCommanderDan:

I know this is an old thread but I had the same problem - migrated to a 8TB drive and just bought a bunch of new games with the Black Friday sale weekend. With the current version of steam you can quickly find items not installed - here's how:

1. On the LIBRARY tab - right next to SEARCH BY TYPE is an OPTIONS button (two horizontal lines with a dot on each). CLICK IT.

1a. You should see a list of categories you can place check marks - under PLAY STATE check "INSTALLED LOCALLY"

1b. SAVE This as a "DYNAMIC COLLECTION"

2. Ensure in the drop-down you have GAMES, (TOOLS, SOFTWARE if you want as well) selected. Ensure "GROUP BY COLLECTION" is selected.

3. Immediately below that, you should see your "DYNAMIC COLLECTION".(mine was titled with the default "INSTALLED LOCALLY". Hit the MINUS sign "-" in front of it to reduce the list.

4. What's left is the "UNCATEGORIZED" items - which is this case are the items NOT INSTALLED LOCALLY.

Thank you from (almost) 2022 good sir

[GideonK]

This unfortunately does not work if you have categorized your other games into categories that you created yourself. I can view the installed games dynamic collection, but the only item under uncategorized is a new game that I haven't yet put into any category. I hope that Valve fixes this.

[Y'shtola]

I have a solution, since it's something I want as well.

Use the two lines to set a filter. Put a check next to Unplayed.
Save that as a Dynamic Collection.

This will work on recent purchases because you haven't played them, so they should all populate the list.

It should work well enough. If you're the type who uninstalls and reinstalls at a later time, you would know the game you're looking for, and can just type the name into the search box.

Hope this helps some.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Ironically, this was more easily possible when this thread was first posted.

List View was a thing then, and one of the columns was called "STATUS", which showed you if your game "Ready to play", or "Not installed", or had a "Sync conflict", or had an "Update available", etc..

So you just needed to click the column header to sort by that and you could see all of your not-installed games all placed next to each other in this spreadsheet-like list.

Unfortunately, List View has since been thrown out, when Valve updated the Steam client's Library UI in 2019.