Steam keeps deleting and re-downloading my game files

10-20-2011, 11:10 PM

This has been happening frequently in the past month. Mainly on my Men of War: Assault Squad and Red Orchestra 2. Often times when I open my Steam account, Steam automatically re-downloads 4.2GB worth of game files for MoW and 2.4GB for RO2 (always the same file size for both games). I have no idea why this is happening and I seriously want this to stop. I've tried verifying my game cache and defragging, but neither of them resolves the issue. Please help!

takeclaire · 10-20-2011, 11:48 PM

Meet the same problem. Since the last big manniversary update for Team Fortress 2, whenever there's a new update I have to download over 3 GB.....well not every time but almost.

How should I fix this?

Thanks

10-21-2011, 01:54 AM

It would be great if someone from the mod team can answer this...

derselbe · 10-21-2011, 02:28 AM

Have you tried to delete everything except steam.exe and the steamapps folder (of course while steam is closed) and then let it download all files but the games again?

10-21-2011, 03:14 AM

I'm not sure if you mean reinstalling steam and backing up my game files, well I have done that before. But all in all steam still erases the game files and re-downloads them again.

Mekast · 10-21-2011, 03:17 AM

Maybe you have some false AV reactions?

10-21-2011, 03:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mekast

Maybe you have some false AV reactions?

What are those?

10-21-2011, 07:38 PM

I've backed up my game files and reinstalled steam again but it still deletes much of what I've backed up... please help! Thank you!

El O El' · 11-21-2011, 01:36 AM

I'm having this issue too with modern warfare 3, it happened 3 times to me and yesterday I had checked my common/codmw3 folder and it was 14gb today when I started steam I have to download another 7gb and the folder went 7gb down in size. I seriously need a solution on this issue it's bothering me a lot.

TeKraken · 11-21-2011, 02:34 AM

I had this with metro2033, but then it stopped. (sorry no help here)

zh_kane · 11-21-2011, 10:34 AM

I used to have this issue quite frequently with a number of games, you can probably trace my post history back to a few threads about it.
but now that I've noticed this thread I only just realised it hasn't happened in ages for me. and I have no idea why it stopped

a few obvious things to try to rule out some possible causes:
re-install steam
delete the game completely and re-install from scratch
make sure it's not bad sectors on your HDD causing data to be wiped

these fixes didn't work for me but there's a chance they might work for others since a few things could be causing this.
also if you're not playing the game regularly try setting it to "do not automatically update" which again didn't help for me because that feature still wasn't always working and downloaded the game "updates" anyway even when not playing the game

in the interests of hoping to find a possible cause one day for this issue which does effect others I'll provide some more info that may or may not help
I previously had this issue over 3 separate computers and 4 separate HDDs, completely ruling out the theory of bad HDDs/steam installations/game data as all of that had been wiped or changed many many times
I also experienced this across 4 different internet service providers ruling out internet as the problem
I even tried working with support once or twice which just sort of ended in nothing with them not understanding the issue and me getting sick of waiting half a week before being told the same thing over and over

one theory a friend had was that since practically everything else had been ruled out it might be bad game files being uploaded from a particular content server(s) so if none of the above works it might be worth a shot to try changing your download region then downloading the game from scratch.

and that's a huge wall of text but hopefully it might help some people
TLDR: read second paragraph

flambeau2 · 11-21-2011, 12:48 PM

Try this

Quote:

Originally Posted by Victorspain

Just a minute ago, when I exited from a game, it began to re-re-re-re-re-re-re-download Team Fortress 2. 10GB more.

This is ♥♥♥♥ING STUPID!!!!

EDIT: found a workaround, when it began to download (still nothing downloaded, 0/10895MB) I terminated the steam.exe process from the task manager (to close it fastest as possible), went to the folder "/.../Steam/config" and opened the file "config.vdf", and went to the entry for Team Fortress 2.
The entry said: "HasAllLocalContent" "0" "UpdateKBtoDL" "10895014". I changed it for this: "HasAllLocalContent" "1" "UpdateKBtoDL" "0".
Then saved the file, made it read-only and launched Steam.

And miracle, the game worked. The same game that seconds before Steam said needed 10GB of download to work. The same game that has been downloaded 3 times in the past two weeks.

El O El' · 11-21-2011, 02:24 PM

Thanks Kane and Flambeau I will totally use your advice when this issue occur for the 5th time, I really appreciate it.

Moneyman12237 · 04-12-2013, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flambeau2

Try this

Not only would my steam delete my games, It wouldnt let me make a desktop shortcut for them either. Tried this for AA3 and the shortcut came back when It began to re-download. Hope this is a good sign

10-20-2011, 11:10 PM	#1
jolorulz Guest Posts: n/a	Steam keeps deleting and re-downloading my game files This has been happening frequently in the past month. Mainly on my Men of War: Assault Squad and Red Orchestra 2. Often times when I open my Steam account, Steam automatically re-downloads 4.2GB worth of game files for MoW and 2.4GB for RO2 (always the same file size for both games). I have no idea why this is happening and I seriously want this to stop. I've tried verifying my game cache and defragging, but neither of them resolves the issue. Please help!

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10-20-2011, 11:48 PM	#2
takeclaire Join Date: Aug 2011 Reputation: 37 Posts: 13	Meet the same problem. Since the last big manniversary update for Team Fortress 2, whenever there's a new update I have to download over 3 GB.....well not every time but almost. How should I fix this? Thanks

10-21-2011, 01:54 AM	#3
jolorulz Guest Posts: n/a	It would be great if someone from the mod team can answer this...

10-21-2011, 02:28 AM	#4
derselbe Join Date: Feb 2010 Reputation: 3 Posts: 127	Have you tried to delete everything except steam.exe and the steamapps folder (of course while steam is closed) and then let it download all files but the games again?

10-21-2011, 03:14 AM	#5
jolorulz Guest Posts: n/a	I'm not sure if you mean reinstalling steam and backing up my game files, well I have done that before. But all in all steam still erases the game files and re-downloads them again.

10-21-2011, 03:17 AM	#6
Mekast Join Date: Apr 2010 Reputation: 54 Posts: 746	Maybe you have some false AV reactions?

10-21-2011, 07:38 PM	#8
jolorulz Guest Posts: n/a	I've backed up my game files and reinstalled steam again but it still deletes much of what I've backed up... please help! Thank you!

11-21-2011, 01:36 AM	#9
El O El' Join Date: Sep 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 16	I'm having this issue too with modern warfare 3, it happened 3 times to me and yesterday I had checked my common/codmw3 folder and it was 14gb today when I started steam I have to download another 7gb and the folder went 7gb down in size. I seriously need a solution on this issue it's bothering me a lot.

11-21-2011, 02:34 AM	#10
TeKraken Join Date: Nov 2011 Reputation: 4619 Posts: 6,059	I had this with metro2033, but then it stopped. (sorry no help here)

11-21-2011, 10:34 AM	#11
zh_kane Join Date: Feb 2010 Reputation: 40 Posts: 140	I used to have this issue quite frequently with a number of games, you can probably trace my post history back to a few threads about it. but now that I've noticed this thread I only just realised it hasn't happened in ages for me. and I have no idea why it stopped a few obvious things to try to rule out some possible causes: re-install steam delete the game completely and re-install from scratch make sure it's not bad sectors on your HDD causing data to be wiped these fixes didn't work for me but there's a chance they might work for others since a few things could be causing this. also if you're not playing the game regularly try setting it to "do not automatically update" which again didn't help for me because that feature still wasn't always working and downloaded the game "updates" anyway even when not playing the game in the interests of hoping to find a possible cause one day for this issue which does effect others I'll provide some more info that may or may not help I previously had this issue over 3 separate computers and 4 separate HDDs, completely ruling out the theory of bad HDDs/steam installations/game data as all of that had been wiped or changed many many times I also experienced this across 4 different internet service providers ruling out internet as the problem I even tried working with support once or twice which just sort of ended in nothing with them not understanding the issue and me getting sick of waiting half a week before being told the same thing over and over one theory a friend had was that since practically everything else had been ruled out it might be bad game files being uploaded from a particular content server(s) so if none of the above works it might be worth a shot to try changing your download region then downloading the game from scratch. and that's a huge wall of text but hopefully it might help some people TLDR: read second paragraph

11-21-2011, 02:24 PM	#13
El O El' Join Date: Sep 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 16	Thanks Kane and Flambeau I will totally use your advice when this issue occur for the 5th time, I really appreciate it.