The actual way to fix missing textures in Garry's Mod

What's this guide for?

In this guide, I’ll explain how you can fix most missing texture issues on Garry’s Mod through a real, legitimate, and safe method that doesn’t involve buying the Counter-Strike: Source game. Most other methods I’ve seen involve downloading masses of content from the workshop or downloading one or more shady ZIP files from random & risky websites, which as you can imagine isn’t ideal.

How am I going to do it?

The way you'll accomplish this is by using a tool created by Valve (the same company that created Steam, Counter-Strike: Source, etc) called SteamCMD. It’s the official way to interact with Steam through the command line, but it’s most prominent use is to download servers without having to own the game. Whenever you download a server, all of the content for the game that server is for also comes with it (maps, textures, models, resources, sounds, etc).

What's the catch?

Sadly, it’s a bit troublesome to use as you need to know what commands to enter and how to edit configuration files, but I’ll be providing you with all those details in the various sections of the guide. While this method may not be as easy as clicking a button, it’s remarkably safer. Please also note that this guide only applies to Windows, this won't work for macOS or Linux. (Follow this wiki article for installing SteamCMD on macOS/Linux.)

What about other source games?

• Content for Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast can be obtained through the Source SDK/2013 Singleplayer/2013 Multiplayer tools available through Steam.
  
• Content for CS:GO can be obtained through the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Dedicated Server available through SteamCMD (AppID 740).
  
• Content for Left 4 Dead 2 can be obtained through the Left 4 Dead 2 Dedicated Server available through Steam.
  
• Content for Team Fortress 2 can be obtained through the Team Fortress 2 Dedicated Server available through SteamCMD (AppID 232250).
  
• Content for Day of Defeat: Source can be obtained throughthe Day of Defeat: Source Dedicated Server available through SteamCMD (AppID 232290).

Section 1) Installing the SteamCMD application

Step 1) To begin, click here to download a ZIP file containing SteamCMD from the Valve Developer Community website.






Step 2) After downloading the ZIP file, navigate to somewhere on your computer's drive and create a folder for SteamCMD. It doesn't matter where you create this folder or what you name it, as you won't be accessing this it often once you're done. For simplicity sake, I will create a folder called SteamCMD in My Documents.






Step 3) Extract the ZIP file that you downloaded earlier into the new folder you just created.









Step 4) Now navigate into the folder you created, inside you should see an executable file named steamcmd with an icon similar to Steam. Run this executable by double-clicking on it.






Step 5) A console window should open after executing the file, then patiently wait while SteamCMD downloads any updates that are needed.









Step 6) When SteamCMD finishes updating, you should see a few messages similar to what's in the screenshot below.







You have now successfully downloaded and installed SteamCMD. Please now proceed to the next section of the guide.

Section 2) Downloading a Counter-Strike: Source server

Now that you've successfully installed SteamCMD, you can start the process of downloading a Counter-Strike: Source server so you can get the content that you came here for.

Step 1) With the SteamCMD window open, type login anonymous then press enter and wait until it finishes. This will log you into the Steam network anonymously so you can request for SteamCMD to install our Counter-Strike: Source server.









Step 2) Once you're logged in anonymously, type app_update 232330 and once again press enter. This will start downloading a Counter-Strike: Source server for you. This may take some time depending on the speed of your Internet connection, so please be patient and wait until it finishes.






Step 3) After the Counter-Strike: Source server has finished downloading, you no longer need SteamCMD open, so you can exit it by typing quit then pressing enter.






You have now successfully downloaded and installed a Counter-Strike: Source server. Please now proceed to the next section of the guide.

Section 3) Configuring Garry's Mod

Now that you've downloaded and installed a Counter-Strike: Source server, you can configure Garry's Mod to mount the content.

Step 1) Navigate back to the folder where you extracted SteamCMD to. You should now see a new folder inside it named steamapps, enter that folder. Then enter common, then Counter-Strike Source Dedicated Server. You will now see a listing of various folders and files, you are looking for the cstrike folder which contains the Counter-Strike: Source content.











Step 2) Enter the cstrike folder then click on the folder path at the top of File Explorer, this will give you the text representation of the folder's full path. Press CTRL+C to copy this, as you will need it later.



Step 3) Open Steam and find Garry's Mod in your library. Right click on it and press Manage > Browse local files. This will open another File Explorer window where Garry's Mod is installed.










Step 4) With your Garry's Mod folder open, enter the garrysmod folder, then the cfg folder. In here, there should be a file called mount.cfg. This is the configuration file you'll edit to tell Garry's Mod where your Counter-Strike: Source server is.













Step 5) Right click on the mount.cfg file and press Open with, then select Notepad from the list that appears. Press OK to open the file using Notepad.





















Step 6) With the file open, replace the highlighted text shown below on the same line as "cstrike" with the folder path of your Counter-Strike: Source server that you copied earlier in step 2.




















Step 7) Remove the two forward slashes that are before the "cstrike" text.






Step 8) Save the file and close it.








You have now successfully configured Garry's Mod to mount the content for Counter-Strike: Source. Congratulations! You're finished :D

If you have any questions or issues, please leave a comment below and I'll reply as soon as I can.

[Patato James]

nuh uh

[π = 3,14159...]

2024 and still works, the only extra step that I tried is by just replicating the exact cfg file piece by piece beacuse idk why but for some reason I have the mount.cfg file in a diferent way so I edited the file to look the same and It worked (and also don't check the games tab ingame)

[Jolski]

I have css and it's refusing to mount, plus it says I don't own it, I just need a little help.

[TheOneThatsTired2]

Mines didn't work and i did it right

[Spider]

i tried but nothing worked
im using windows 7

[McHaggis]

+rep Great guide, just used for CS:S and TF2 and both working great!

[viral32111]

Yes, remove the ones for TF2 but keep the ones for CSS. The double slashes disable an entry.

[wat]

if im installing TF2 do I remove the two slashes in front of "tf" and keep the slashes in front of "cstrike"

[viral32111]

Nothing bad will happen from moving the SteamCMD folder, so long as you also update the path in the Garry's Mod mount.cfg file to where the SteamCMD now resides.

[Havi]

hello, so i used this technique to fix my missing textures in gmod 2 years ago, all works fine and dandy, however today i want to move the steamcmd folder to another disk, as i am cleaning up the one it is installed on right now, how do i do it without messing up the entire thing? thanks