Content File Locked Error Resolved

How to Cure "Content File Locked" error when Updating Helldivers 2

How to Address the Issue

Content File Locked - Issue Explained

What you are experiencing is a very common Windows issue where the game has not closed fully despite you quit it. You still can find the game's active process in the task manager. It is related to the fact that the game runs multiple visible processes at the same time.

Basically: if you try to delete e.g. a Word-document which you are using, you cannot delete that Word-document as it is protected by Windows as long as it is in use. Same applies to the game files, hence "Content File Locked".

How to Fix the Helldivers 2 Update

1. Restart Your PC

The easiest and also cleanest way to do it starts with you restarting your PC. You have to use "Restart" as just shutting down the PC over night will not count unless you are using advanced Windows user settings.

2. Repair the Steam Library

Open Steam Settings from the main menu of Steam



Go to the Storage tab, select the drive on which your game is installed, then pick the Repair Folder option from the menu (the three dots "...")

3. Verify the Helldivers 2 files

Right-click on the game in your Steam Library -> select Properties



Go to the Local Files tab and select Verify integrity of game files

That was it!

Should the issue continue to occur, delete Steam Download Cache and pre-shaders as well then repeat step 3.



With that the issue is fixed. For now. My recommendation to avoid the same issue in the future:

Restart your PC before updating.

Thanks for Reading and Happy Gaming!