[Fixed] Library assets are are no longer updated after the first download

[TheOddsBodkins]

This issue is not beta specific.

ISSUE
I have noticed that Steam client no longer updates library assets (game covers, icons, logos...) for some apps (games, dlc, soundtracks...) when developers update them.

This seems to happen because the apps are missing from the assets.vdf file, but the library assets for those apps are present in the librarycache folder. Steam uses the downloaded assets, but never check updates for them. Only new games added to my library is seem to be affected by this.

What I believe is happening is that when you add a new game to your library (while Steam client is running), Steam downloads the game's library assets, but doesn't add the app asset update data in the assets.vdf file, and when Steam checks for library asset updates, the library assets for these apps are never updated because the update data is missing from the the assets.vdf file.

Edit: See the post below for more current information.

By checking the last apps added to my assets.vdf file, I determined that this problem started between October 21, 2022 and December 9, 2022. This is around the same time Steam changed the assets.vdf file to binary format.

OS
Windows

Edit: These new steps simulate a new clean Steam installation.

STEPS

• While Steam client is closed rename your librarycache folder
  
• Run Steam and let it finish downloading library assets for your games
  
• Close Steam and create copy of your assets.vdf file
  
• Run Steam again and wait until Steam updates the assets.vdf file
  (If you have big library with lot of assets downloaded it should happen almost instantly)
  
• Close Steam and compare your assets.vdf file with copy you made earlier

RESULTS
Any asset update data that was written to the assets.vdf file when Steam downloaded library assets on first launch is gone. If any data is present, it's from the second Steam launch.

EXPECTED
Steam should not discard and delete existing data in assets.vdf file. Otherwise, Steam will never check for updates to game's library assets.

[TheOddsBodkins]

After some more testing, it appears that the asset update data is actually added to the assets.vdf file when new library assets are downloaded, but is discarded and removed from the file after Steam is restarted and the assets.vdf file is updated.

As a test, I deleted a library assets of DLCs that I knew were not previously included in my assets.vdf file. I then let Steam re-download the library assets for those DLCs by looking at the DLC tab in the game properties dialog.

When the library assets were downloaded, the asset update data was added to the assets.vdf file, but after restarting Steam, the update data was discarded and removed from the file.

This seems to happen because the asset update data version value is set to 0 when new library assets are downloaded.

One of the DLCs added to assets.vdf file:

"222806"
{
	"3"		"Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:17:24 GMT"
	"3x"		"1687483927"
	"change"	"0"
	"v"		"0"
}

Notice how the version number (v) is set to zero.

To confirm that the incorrect version number is what is causing this, I manually changed the version number to 3 and Steam no longer discarded the update data from the file.

[TheOddsBodkins]

There's also another issue I noticed while testing this that has to do with library assets that I think should also be addressed:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/3/3814034023684775265/

[TheOddsBodkins]

Edit: Ignore this post. It appears that the "extra closing bracket" at the end indicates the end of the stream and is normal for a binary VDF.

Also, there appears to be one extra closing bracket at the end of the assets.vdf file, which seems to be fine now, but could cause problems at some point.

Example assets.vdf file created by Steam.

00 00 00 30 00 00 33 36 30 39 36 30 00 01 33 00 46 72 69 2C 20 31 37 20 41 70 72 20 32 30 31 35 20 32 31 3A 35 39 3A 30 31 20 47 4D 54 00 02 33 78 00 DE BF 94 64 02 63 68 61 6E 67 65 00 00 00 00 00 02 76 00 00 00 00 00 08 08 08 08

Same file in text format:

""
{
	"0"
	{
		"360960"
		{
			"3"		"Fri, 17 Apr 2015 21:59:01 GMT"
			"3x"		"1687470046"
			"change"		"0"
			"v"		"0"
		}
	}
}
}

I think the problem is the null string string key name (Is that even a valid KeyValues format?). When the assets.vdf file was in text format it was fine, but now that it's in binary format, the null string key name is just seen as another open bracket.

[TheOddsBodkins]

Edit: Not fixed in August 1st client release.

Like I said before, this problem will only get worse over time, and no doubt developers have already filed support requests about library assets not updating on the client side when they update them on the backend.

[Lory]

as a developer, this sucks

[TheOddsBodkins]

This should now be fixed with the Steam Client released on September 29th.

After a quick test, new library assets are no longer removed from the assets.vdf file after a client restart, and existing library assets that are missing from the assets.vdf file are re-downloaded and added to the assets.vdf file (so any previously outdated library assets get updated).

[jitspoe]

Seems this still isn't fixed. I'm trying to update the icons for my game (KOOK), and they still show the old ones, even if I try validating the files. :(

[crimmerz]

2025 now and issue still persists...