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Some time ago it was very easy to copy steam game files. start the download, close steam and copy the files to steam/steamapps/common/.

But now this folder wont appear until the download has finished. It is in steam/steamapps/downloading/. Coping the files there wont solve the problem, because steam saves the progress in steam/steamapps/downloading/state__.patch files, which are not editable with a usual editor like gedit, MS editor or MS wordpad. Is there a workaround?

I want to copy the program files, not the progress in a game.

Motte001
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  • Are you asking how to share a save file to another computer? If so many steam games allow a cloud storage for accessing save files on different computers. – sherby_ Jul 21 '16 at 16:03
  • This might be helpful: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/59731/how-can-i-copy-transfer-games-via-external-hard-drive – Jay Lapham Jul 21 '16 at 16:09
  • @sherby_ see edit – Motte001 Jul 21 '16 at 16:29
  • @JayLapham This is helpful, but it seems like the third party backup isn't working anymore and i cannot locate the mentioned clientregistry.blob – Motte001 Jul 21 '16 at 16:30
  • @Motte001 I see, I'll try and get back to you on that, as right now I do not have the answer. Did you check the steam discussions? – sherby_ Jul 21 '16 at 16:31
  • @Motte001 clientregistry.blob should be in the root steam folder, the same place as steam.exe. If you have multiple libraries, only the one with steam.exe will have that file. – Jay Lapham Jul 21 '16 at 16:40
  • @JayLapham Steam.exe is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam, but there is no clientregistry.blob. Is it in your latest version of steam? – Motte001 Jul 21 '16 at 16:46
  • Ah, mine is present but it's not used by steam anymore. You want to visit steam://flushconfig/ in your browser and if the steam:// protocol is registered it should flush the same data that was once contained in clientregistry.blob. – Jay Lapham Jul 21 '16 at 17:04

2 Answers2

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The following has worked for me on Windows without 3rd party tools.

First I install Steam in the new location (if it's not already installed), log in at least once, then exit. Then from the original Steam location, I copy over 2 things to the same relative directories in the new Steam location:

  1. The game's directory in \Steam\SteamApps\common\
     (should be the name of the game, roughly)
  2. The game's ACF file in \Steam\SteamApps\
     (appmanifest_APPID.acf where APPID is found like so)

Once those 2 things are copied over, log back into Steam and you should be set.

Community
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Skull Kid
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    +1. This is what I do when I need to move games over. However, I usually only copy the folder in \common\ to the new \common\ folder. Then I open Steam again and try to install the game, which will have Steam discover the files that are already there. – Chris Powell Jul 22 '16 at 15:50
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If you try to download a game and stop the progress, it creates the file/folder structure required. Close steam as an appication, then once you copy over the game from *\Steam\SteamApps\common* then you need to find the config file (normally, just look based on the time/date stamp on the files under *\Steam\SteamApps* - it will probably be the latest file created) then you need to open the config file via notepad and change the "StateFlags" to > "4"; Then re-open steam - and it will re-validate the game files, easy.

h3xus
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    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community Dec 29 '21 at 18:41