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iCeDrAgOn Dec 27, 2019 @ 11:32pm

Steam Uninstalling but Not Uninstalling games.

There is presently a big issue in Steam, and I don't think most people even realize that it's there. And this is an issue that I think needs to be seriously addressed. What is that you may ask... well it's Steam uninstalling games.

As it sits now. If you tell Steam to uninstall a game it will go through it's list of files and uninstall the game, deleting each file. if there are any files left over, Steam just ignores them doesn't tell you and just tells you the game has been uninstalled. And the sad thing is, most people don't even know that files are being left behind.

So what I suggest is the following. Steam preform it's uninstall of a game as usual, once done it sees if there are any files left over, and if so it should prompt the user telling them that there are files left over after the uninstall and ask the user what they want to do. View these files, delete the files, or just close the message. The window should also warn the user that the extra files that are found could be saved games and or game settings and if they want to keep these they should just close the window.

I know myself this could have saved myself 60+GB of space that I didn't even know was being taken up until I started looking around in the steam library folder. And who knows how much space I might actually reclaim considering I have about 150 folders to investigate from games that were installed once upon a time.

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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments

Cat on Linux Jan 6, 2020 @ 5:02am

what you call a problem is a desired feature for others. steam removes only files it installed. it keeps intact custom files you added to game folder manually. it keeps your saves you won't moan next time where's your saves. not every game has cloud saves to store your game progress so it's not wise to delete every folder.
How steam client would know what are your files? saves or mods you added by yourself, or just howto files, art you saved etc? There's no way to know and if they would read your personal files to understand its role that would be a breach of privacy don't you think?

there must be someone who still wipes your ass because you can't be bothered to do it yourself :)

Last edited by Cat on Linux; Jan 6, 2020 @ 5:03am

iCeDrAgOn Jan 7, 2020 @ 8:24am

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:
what you call a problem is a desired feature for others. steam removes only files it installed. it keeps intact custom files you added to game folder manually. it keeps your saves you won't moan next time where's your saves. not every game has cloud saves to store your game progress so it's not wise to delete every folder.
How steam client would know what are your files? saves or mods you added by yourself, or just howto files, art you saved etc? There's no way to know and if they would read your personal files to understand its role that would be a breach of privacy don't you think?

there must be someone who still wipes your ass because you can't be bothered to do it yourself :)

You're so quick to fire off an insult to a topic that identifies a problem but also provides a solution... Maybe you should spend more time back in school working to increase your level of reading comprehension and less time in the comedy clubs

But in the 3rd paragraph of my post I provided a solution as to what should be done, how about you go back and read it and try to understand it. it would Clearly tell users that there were files left over from what was uninstalled and gives them a choice as to what to do with them. And as I had pointed out at this point, Steam doesn't even tell you if there are files left behind that can in some cases take up several GB worth of hard drive space. Where as most people would assume that if something is uninstalled they would either be told that files are left over, or the thing was completely removed.

freedombuckO5 Feb 7, 2021 @ 4:28pm

In my case, it was over 100GB of stuff steam never uninstalled

AclassiGuy Mar 25, 2023 @ 11:07pm

Originally posted by freedombuckO5:
In my case, it was over 100GB of stuff steam never uninstalled

For me, it was over 80GB of stuff I didn't want. This explains why some of my OTHER GAMES were taking SO LONG to play.

toobigtobeaspacestation Mar 27, 2024 @ 8:53am

Steam reclaimed 0 bytes of space, for me, "uninstalling" several hundred gb of games. I'm running out of space, fast, bc I can't reclaim ANY space. I will have to wipe my whole pc, if a solution doesnt turn up!!