IV Song Restore: The Legal Way

Do you hate the removal of GTA IV songs? Me too!

Restore them without downloading strange files from the internet, directly from Steam by using the Console.

0-EFLC no Longer Works

After the update to The Complete Edition, this method no longer works with EFLC as all Episodes from Liberty City licenses have been revoked by Rockstar Games, being replaced by TCE.

This still works with GTA IV.

1- Intro

This guide want's to provide a legal guide of how to restore the songs of Grand Theft Auto IV and EFLC by using the hidden Steam Console.

There's already a guide of how to restore them by downloading the old files from 3rd party sites, but redistributing game files is against GTA IV Terms of Service.

2- Opening the Steam Console

You can select one of the two options to open the Steam Console:

2.1- Console via URL

To open the Steam console via the Run window, press Windows + R at the same time. You should see this window:



Write "steam://open/console" and press enter or click Accept (Aceptar).

2.2- Console via Shortcuts

If you have a Steam shortcut on the desktop, you can edit it to launch the console from it.

First, right click the Shortcut and select Properties (Propiedades):



Select the Target property (Destino):



And add "-console" at the end.



Then, double click the edited shortcut to open Steam.

3- Using the Console

If everything went OK, you should see an option called Console on the top side of the Steam window.



Copy the command for the game version that you want:

(If you don't know what version you should grab, select 1.0.7.0 for IV or 1.1.2.0 for EFLC)

Game	Edition	Command
IV	1.0.7.0	download_depot 12210 12211 164691614299318355
IV	1.0.8.0	download_depot 12210 12211 6345365364346988350
EFLC	1.1.2.0	download_depot 12220 12221 6930290008076489318
EFLC	1.1.3.0	download_depot 12220 12221 5134121140564067576

Then, paste the command on the console and press Enter/Return:




NOTE: This will take time, because is downloading the complete version at that time.

Once the download starts, wait for it to finish:

4- Replacing the Existing Version

After the depot/game version has been downloaded you will see a message telling you where it was saved:



Reach that location on Windows Explorer and you will see a folder called either GTAIV or EFLC.





The next step will require you to reach the main game folder, you can do that by right clicking GTA IV or EFLC and selecting Properties (Propiedades):



Then select the Local Files tab (Archivos Locales) and click Browse Local Files (Ver Archivos Locales).



You will now see the game directory:



Delete or Rename the existing game folder (is safe to remove the existing one because we have another complete install).

Then, move the new game files from the depot into the game library:



DONE! You now have the old game version legally from Steam.

5- Future Updates

If Rockstar updates the game again and the automatic updates are on, you will need to do this whole process again. To avoid this problem you will need to disable automatic updates and backup the folder.

Search for GTA IV or Episodes from Liberty City and open it's properties (Propiedades).



Select the Updates tab (Actualizaciones) and select "Only update this game when I launch it" (Actualizar solo este juego al iniciarlo).



When the game receives an update, you will see the game in blue with the text "Update Available" (Actualizacion Disponible)

When there's an update available, go to the game folder and rename GTAIV or EFLC to something else (for example GTAIV_BACKUP or EFLC_BACKUP).



Updating the game is now safe. Go to Library > Downloads (Biblioteca > Descargas) and update the game from there.



After the update is completed, go back to the game folder. A new folder called GTAIV or EFLC will be created, delete it (because is the new update). Rename the GTAIV_BACKUP or EFLC_BACKUP to GTAIV or EFLC and you are good to go.

[skau]

Apparently I'm not the first to notice, but the manifest ID referring to GTA IV 1.0.8.0 in your guide still has the new Vladivostok and is missing songs in other stations.
Here's the command to download the version prior to April 26 2018:
download_depot 12210 12211 4406763129603688303

[Plaster Cramp]

I will give that a try. A new problem has arisen though: I've download the game 3 times onto my deck and can't find the files :/

[Lemon-chan]

Hmm, that's weird.

I see that you are using a Steam Deck. Can you try a desktop PC and then transfer the files?

[Plaster Cramp]

So I waited longer this time but got an error message come up:epot download failed : error writing chunk for "/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32\steamapps\content\app_12210\GTAIV\pc\data\maps\manhat\manhat10.img"
any ideas?

[lightwo]

There is no indication of how much is left or how long it will take, only a "Depot download complete" message. Considering the game download is about 10 GB (rough estimation), wait for the directory where the depot will be downloaded to reach that size.

[Plaster Cramp]

any idea how long the download takes? it says that it's started the download but after that nothing \.

[QWEEDDY2]

steam console dowanlod depots to seaprate folders, yes. To not messup with installed stadard version. Some time ago Steam use default steamapps folder, not it use own sub-folder not matter whcin one steamlibrary set as default. Install steam - larger storage-drive

[CyDragonV2]

could GTA IV patch 7 or 8 when downloaded from steam would it still work still without using files to trick the versions or will they pull up errors?

[CyDragonV2]

could patch 7 and 8 still be launched though after being downloaded from steam

[F-ZeroRacer_07]

Weirdly enough, I was able to download EFLC 1.1.2.0 using the Win+R method I think about two or three months ago. Probably because I did own it before it got removed.