Steam discover already downloaded files

If Steam stops you from playing games, warning you that no files were found, or Steam games greyed out in Steam LIBRARY, you may follow steps below to verify game files and make your games playable again:. Step 2. Find the lost game name on the left panel, such as Dota 2, right-click on it and select "Properties".

Step 3. Wait for the verifying process to finish, then you can open your beloved game and play it on Steam again. Applies to: Steam games appear uninstalled when Steam no longer recognizes the installation files. As long as the game folders are still in the right location, when you try to launch a game, Steam will redownload the game for you.

You can follow the below path to check if the game folders are in the proper location on your PC:. If the game folder is in the Steam file location, you can relaunch the game to redownload it on your Steam.

Or you can follow the steps below to add alternative installation libraries or folders to Steam:. Step 1. Click "Add Library Folder" to select the folder with your installed games. Wait for the adding process to finish, your installed games that appeared uninstalled will show up in your Steam Library.

And you can play games again. If this doesn't work, try the following tips provided by a Steam player to make Steam game show up in Steam again:. Move everything from the original steam folder to a new folder, rename the original empty parent folder into a library folder.

Move everything from the new folder back to the library folder and restart the client. The ClientRegistry. Once you reset the file, Steam will reset various settings to default, making missing games show up in Steam and work again.

Open your Steam installation folder by right-clicking on the Steam shortcut on your Desktop and selecting "Open file location". Locate the ClientRegistry. Change the ClientRegistry. Applies to: Restore lost or missing Steam game files, such as game installation files, or recordings, screenshots. Usually, when Steam fails to read or recognize your game files, there might be something wrong with the files in the Steam file location.

Table of contents 1. Go to the Games section of Steam and launch it. You can install a game that Steam has not recognized by clicking on the Install button. As soon as Steam discovers existing files for the game, it will start searching for them. Click on the Games menu, then select Add a non-Steam game to my library from the bottom menu. Then click the game you wish to install. Steam should now be open. Go to the Steam menu in the top left corner of the screen.

The settings can be found at Windows Central. On the left-hand side of the page, click downloads. Go to the Steam library folder and select it. It spends a good few minutes discovering existing files then just tries to re-download the entire game installation. What am I missing here? Showing 1 - 15 of 53 comments. Ogami View Profile View Posts. The "just copy over the folder" method works, BUT not with all games. Some games will redownload all files even if they are already there.

Thats why i prefer using the backup function for stuff like that. Those tell steam which games are installed. The copied over games should work this way without redownloading. Last edited by Ogami ; 27 Aug, am. Atreides View Profile View Posts.