Why have all my games been deleted?

[Paige]

I signed on today and all of my games require a download to play, and it's not just an update. I looked in the file where the games are and they are all still there but I am being required to re download all of them...............WTF

[AmsterdamHeavy]

You almost certainly turn off your computer by the power switch, OR you tell Windows to force Steam to close when you shut down properly.

You need to let Steam do its "inventory" when shutting down your computer. if you do not, you corrupt app manifest files and this is the end result. Steam no longer knows the games are installed.

The only thing you can try is to validate the game files for each installed game, sometimes that will recover them, but not usually...because the app manifest tells Steam that the game is installed, among other things.

[Paige]

so I found out the games were not deleted but for some reason steam decided to create a new folder on my machine called "SteamLibrary" without my knowledge and was looking for my games in that folder, so obviously no games were found. I have been gaming on this computer for years and this has never happened. what are you doing steam? don't alter the folders on my computer unless I say it's okay

[AustrAlien2010]

You get a SteamLibrary folder when you create another library in addition to your default Steam software installation folder. For example, if you install a title on another drive partition, you get a folder called SteamLibrary, in which your titles will be installed when installing them on the other drive.

If you haven't made an additional library, then normally, your titles would be stored at:
\Steam\steamapps\common\.
But if you have made an additional library, your titles could be installed at:
\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\.

You can see your current libraries, if you go to:
Steam: View: Settings: Downloads: STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS.

This support article covers SteamLibrary folders as well:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4BD4-4528-6B2E-8327

[DrummerJacob]

Originally posted by AmsterdamHeavy:

You almost certainly turn off your computer by the power switch, OR you tell Windows to force Steam to close when you shut down properly.

You need to let Steam do its "inventory" when shutting down your computer. if you do not, you corrupt app manifest files and this is the end result. Steam no longer knows the games are installed.

The only thing you can try is to validate the game files for each installed game, sometimes that will recover them, but not usually...because the app manifest tells Steam that the game is installed, among other things.

That doesnt make sense. Ive had tons of blackouts, flipping power switch, forcing Steam to close over the years, probably done it 100+ times and have never had anything be uninstalled or removed or hidden in any way.

[DrummerJacob]

Originally posted by AustrAlien2010:

You get a SteamLibrary folder when you create another library in addition to your default Steam software installation folder. For example, if you install a title on another drive partition, you get a folder called SteamLibrary, in which your titles will be installed when installing them on the other drive.

If you haven't made an additional library, then normally, your titles would be stored at:
\Steam\steamapps\common\.
But if you have made an additional library, your titles could be installed at:
\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\.

You can see your current libraries, if you go to:
Steam: View: Settings: Downloads: STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS.

This support article covers SteamLibrary folders as well:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4BD4-4528-6B2E-8327

That does nothing to explain why everything was just randomly moved to a different folder when an event unrelated to moving any files occurred. Of course, we can understand that Steam keeps game files in other locations if we ask it to, but this OP did not ask Steam to do any such thing so your explanation is a strange one, indeed.

[AustrAlien2010]

You need an explanation, DrummerJacob? We have no explanation, because we do not have this problem, because it's his or her own computer issue. And we cannot run tests on his or her computer, to figure out what's going on. The computer user must do this him or herself.

It's up to the chief to figure this out him-, or herself. We can only give him or her information about what a SteamLibrary is, and under which circumstances he or she would normally get such a folder.

[DrummerJacob]

Originally posted by AustrAlien2010:

You need an explanation, DrummerJacob? We have no explanation, because we do not have this problem, because it's his or her own computer issue. And we cannot run tests on his or her computer, to figure out what's going on. The computer user must do this him or herself.

It's up to the chief to figure this out him-, or herself. We can only give him or her information about what a SteamLibrary is, and under which circumstances he or she would normally get such a folder.

The OP was simply asking the question "Why have all my games been deleted?"

If you have an answer, feel free to answer, otherwise, why comment here with a bunch of unrelated stuff that does nothing to answer the question asked?

Theres nothing different about their computer than our computer when it comes to Steam and keeping installed games where they are. Its literally something with Steam that did it. Windows doesnt randomly re-assign locations of programs, neither does any other, but Steam has its own internal installation/organizational system for all its games and is definitely what is at fault here, and considering this person is posting for an explanation as to why their issue occurred on the Steam forum, Id say theyre in the right place asking the right questions, you just gave the wrong answer completely.

If its up to "chief" to figure everything out on their own, why do we even have a forum here? Why does anyone ask anyone else for help if its up to everyone to help themselves and we cant ask for actual answers to questions?

[AustrAlien2010]

Should I delete my comment?

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by DrummerJacob:

Originally posted by AmsterdamHeavy:

You almost certainly turn off your computer by the power switch, OR you tell Windows to force Steam to close when you shut down properly.

You need to let Steam do its "inventory" when shutting down your computer. if you do not, you corrupt app manifest files and this is the end result. Steam no longer knows the games are installed.

The only thing you can try is to validate the game files for each installed game, sometimes that will recover them, but not usually...because the app manifest tells Steam that the game is installed, among other things.

That doesnt make sense. Ive had tons of blackouts, flipping power switch, forcing Steam to close over the years, probably done it 100+ times and have never had anything be uninstalled or removed or hidden in any way.

Yes and there has been thousands of users over the years that have experienced this because their Steam connection has been quashed during a crucial cloud sync for instance. I've lost count of the amount of users who blindly turn off their PC without exiting Steam correctly and then run into corruption or deletion issues because it was performing a back-end operation when they pulled the plug.

The reasons provided in this thread are perfectly valid in relation to user behaviour so if it's none of these reasons then it's probably a hardware or drive issue which the person can then scrutinise.

[DrummerJacob]

Originally posted by AustrAlien2010:

Should I delete my comment?

Well how about this, do you have any information about why Steam would ever move all of your game files at once somewhere even though it would still recognize the games are still there in the folders?

What button could have been clicked to make this happen, or what bug or error might have occurred so the OP and other people with similar issues can try to address the issues at hand?

Any thoughts?

[AustrAlien2010]

No. I don't know why all his or her software was deleted from his or her Steam client. I can't answer that.

I can speculate, if I must:
Maybe he or she got an additional or different drive, and that messed up his or her installation?


The only thing that we can safely say, is that Steam would normally not do this out of itself, unless it somehow "forgot'" where his or her software was installed.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by DrummerJacob:

Originally posted by AustrAlien2010:

Should I delete my comment?

Well how about this, do you have any information about why Steam would ever move all of your game files at once somewhere even though it would still recognize the games are still there in the folders?

What button could have been clicked to make this happen, or what bug or error might have occurred so the OP and other people with similar issues can try to address the issues at hand?

Any thoughts?

Everything explained here https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

Based on the circumstances outlined by the OP, they failed to end the Steam process safely previous which corrupted the Steam Cloud Sync resulting in a discovery/target location break between the DRM and the locally stored files.

In panic and confusion after realising they games were seemingly deleted, they then accidentally created a separate SteamLibrary folder (it's a technical impossibility for this to create itself) and now they must rediscover the existing files for each game linking the Steam Sync to the app manifest file whilst eradicating the newly created library file.

[DrummerJacob]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Originally posted by DrummerJacob:

Well how about this, do you have any information about why Steam would ever move all of your game files at once somewhere even though it would still recognize the games are still there in the folders?

What button could have been clicked to make this happen, or what bug or error might have occurred so the OP and other people with similar issues can try to address the issues at hand?

Any thoughts?

Everything explained here https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

Based on the circumstances outlined by the OP, they failed to end the Steam process safely previous which corrupted the Steam Cloud Sync resulting in a discovery/target location break between the DRM and the locally stored files.

In panic and confusion after realising they games were seemingly deleted, they then accidentally created a separate SteamLibrary folder (it's a technical impossibility for this to create itself) and now they must rediscover the existing files for each game linking the Steam Sync to the app manifest file whilst eradicating the newly created library file.

The only circumstance the OP outlined is that he signed on and his games werent playable. Im not sure how you determined all that based on basically no information whatsoever.

Also, if you have any suggestions, direct them to the OP, not to me, I am not having this issue, I just noticed that the person I replied to spent a considerable amount of time not answering the OPs question or surrounding concerns so I let him know about it.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by DrummerJacob:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Everything explained here https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

Based on the circumstances outlined by the OP, they failed to end the Steam process safely previous which corrupted the Steam Cloud Sync resulting in a discovery/target location break between the DRM and the locally stored files.

In panic and confusion after realising they games were seemingly deleted, they then accidentally created a separate SteamLibrary folder (it's a technical impossibility for this to create itself) and now they must rediscover the existing files for each game linking the Steam Sync to the app manifest file whilst eradicating the newly created library file.

The only circumstance the OP outlined is that he signed on and his games werent playable. Im not sure how you determined all that based on basically no information whatsoever.

Also, if you have any suggestions, direct them to the OP, not to me, I am not having this issue, I just noticed that the person I replied to spent a considerable amount of time not answering the OPs question or surrounding concerns so I let him know about it.

I suggest you read more than the first two lines of the opening post - this helps form the circumstances quite clearly for users who know what they are talking about.

You’ve already made yourself well and truly part of it with your needlessly argumentative and extremely obnoxious responses despite now claiming a ‘lack of information’ in which you went on to tell everyone they are wrong regardless

[craigal]

There are circumstances that can make steam forget about a steam library folder or think that there are no games installed.

One example that happened to me is that I have a steam library on an external USB drive. The drive was disconnected when steam started so steam showed all of the games as not installed. Once I added the existing folder to the library list the games came back.