It's possible to do that per game, yes; one of the main things that annoy me about the Steam UX is that it isn't possible to disable auto updates for the entire library (like, have them off by default). :/
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Is that the only update when starting a game option? (it's all in dutch for me) and then it would stop wanting to update?
Edit: Doesn't seem so, then i don't know how.
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You can not entirely disable updates (one of the many reasons why some people prefer DRM-free games).
You can just prevent the game from automatically updating, which means using your bandwidth without warning you as long as Steam is open. You will still need to update the game before playing it, though. It lets you choose exactly when you want to update, but you will still need to update. :/
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But i am saying it's okay to update the games, constantly, over 10 times i tried, even so i deleted the games (you think that will surely fix it) and then reinstalling the games, but still the same games still ask to be updated, again.
Old games that don't get any updates anymore.
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No idea about that, then, probably the caching thing others mentioned. :/
I had a similar problem once, but simply purging cache and restarting was enough. Hope you find a solution soon enough.
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Actually if you have another pc that you keep offline you can install steam and certain games there and never update them, just play offline. Not a great solution but whatever it takes right?
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Yeah, that works... A bit annoying, but true, a meh workaround is better than nothing at all.
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I have no clue, and it's a hdd where it's all downloading on.
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But it does not make anything stutter, that is not the issue, will deleting those files remove the update issue?
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Deleting would only lead to even more shaders being downloaded. You could try if disabling shader pre-caching in Steam option under Downloads prevents your issue from happening. But as described in those links, that might lead to other games having to compiled their shaders ingame during playing, which can for example cause longer load times or stuttering.
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It's off and it's still showing there are updates, so that's not the solution.
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no, my point was explaining what these "shader" things are, and why you'd want these pre-compiled shaders downloaded and cached
if you keep deleting the cache, they're just gonna get redownloaded/recreated again and again..
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Fair enough thanks, since turning it off didn't work either, i will turn them back on.
My librarycache suddenly filled up quickly with 16gb somehow though over a few days.
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woah really, that's unusually quite large!
can you use a program like TreeSize and point it to the top cache directory and find out which game is the offender here?
they are stored in <rootfolder>\steamapps\shadercache, it's usually a couple megabytes in size
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Well the librarycache folder i deleted.
The shadercache is 1,9 mb in total, the two biggest one are 1mb together, the others are 4kb to 170kb, and many 0kb.
Further i have 902gb worth of games installed, the two biggest ones being strangers of paradise (final fantasy) and elden ring at 130gb, the rest is 20gb or lower (many indie games).
I do have steam installed on my c:\ SSD drive and the games always been on my g:\ drive.
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Well the librarycache folder i deleted
wait what... that folder stores the asset images you see in the steam client (like game banner images, logo, hero image, etc.), you don't want to delete that!
can you provide full path to the folders you are talking about here to make sure we are on the same page
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But it was16 gb wouldn't it just download it again what is needed and it wasn't right, right?
I even read in some cases you should delete every folder except steam.exe (and the game folder if you have it on the same drive) in case certain issues arise with steam, sometimes i had to do that to make steam work again, anything it's missing, it will download again if you would click on steam.exe.
It seems steam is working as it should be (aside from the update thing).
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I'm afraid you are mixing multiples issues into one...
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\appcache\librarycache": this folder stores asset images used in the steam client when you view a game info (hero image, banner grid image, logo, icon). By that I mean like these images. If you delete them, the next time you view a game in steam client it will just redownload it
If you have a large library, these images size add up to multiple gigs in total yes.
The folder "<rootfolder>\steamapps\shadercache" is a different thing, it stores these compiled shaders the links above talk about.
I even read in some cases you should delete every folder except steam.exe (and the game folder if you have it on the same drive) in case certain issues arise with steam, sometimes i had to do that to make steam work again, anything it's missing, it will download again if you would click on steam.exe.
if you keep deleting files/folders from the steam install folder, next time you start steam it will detect itself as corrupted and will reinstall steam. So stop deleting steam files if you dont want this to happen constantly :)
So back to your original issue:
of all of them i manually said okay update this game about 10 times, but still every time i restart steam, it asks it again.
can you restart steam and take a screenshot of the updates asked to show the problem?
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No, i am not confusing it, but how can it became 16gb larger in 3-4 days when i only installed maybe 10 games tops in those days? That still somehow doesn't sounds right.
I showed one example in the OP (a game that has been abandoned and never got the finishing chapter) If there is a way to show only the games that want an update, i would have no idea how.
The games are:
B.i.o.t.a
Cthulhu saves christmas
Live a live
Mission in Snowdriftland
Stranger of paradise
The secret monster society
What lies in the multiverse
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But how can it became 16gb larger in 3-4 days when i only installed maybe 10 games tops in those days?
these asset images are not for installed games only, they are for ALL games in your steam library
if you have 10K+ games those images can add up to 16GB yes :)
To illustrate, look at the pics attached, I highlighted 4 images steam needs to display the game page, all those images (and more) will be downloaded for every game you own, installed or not.
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It still doesnt not explain to me why i always had 130gb free on my sdd for months, and now suddenly the libarycache has to take up 16gb, then you expect atleast a gradual growth.
Regardless it still doesn't fix the update notification issue, and i see many people with the same issue on google, even dating 2017, but there are seemingly no real fixes.
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Like I showed, you can always inspect the libarycache folder and see the images in question. Each image is prefixed by the appid of the game it belongs to, and you will find the usual images like hero, library, logo, and icon images, nothing weird going on there...
Deleting the folder will not solve anything, those images will be redownloaded again, you are just wearing out your SSD ;)
If you are running out of space on the main OS drive, you could have used hardlinks or junction points and move that libarycache folder to a second bigger HDD drive. Namely the mklink command will help you: https://ss64.com/nt/mklink.html (it needs to be run from cmd as admin)
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As for games auto-updating, you can simply turn that off game-by-game. You can either do that manually in the steam client, or you can batch edit manifest files inside the folder where games are installed, as described here:
https://appuals.com/how-to-disable-steam-auto-updates/
You can use an editor like Notepad++ to find all occurrences and replace them all at once, something like:
Search > Find in files
- find:
"AutoUpdateBehavior"\t\t"0" - replace with:
"AutoUpdateBehavior"\t\t"1" - filters:
*.acf - path:
D:\path\to\Steam\steamapps
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I had this before, and somehow it disappeared but lately i got this issue again, that certain games, some even years old that been abandoned like the secret monster society, of all of them i manually said okay update this game about 10 times, but still every time i restart steam, it asks it again.
I cleared the download cache.
i deleted the entire folder, removed the game, reinstalled the game.
i turned off the shader pre cache thing in downloads.
Some of the possible fixes i could google, but still those does not help, anything else to try?
1 game that has been abandoned, and still constantly ask for updates.
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