Games may appear uninstalled when the steam not recognizing installing game or files. As the game folder is in the proper location and attempting to launch the game will prompt to download, then the steam recognizes the installation files during the download process. And sometimes you may face why Steam not Recognizing Installed Game.
Steam is a cloud-based gaming library. one of its most popular features of steam is that you can play games on any computer that you buy using your steam account.
You may get panic, why steam is not recognizing the installed game? or steam says the game is not installed? or what to do when steam did not identify the installed games?
In this article, we will learn how to solve or fix the issues steam not recognizing installed game. You can fix the issue through any one of the methods.
But nowadays gamers facing the issue related to steaming not recognizing the game. Steam not recognizing the games will interrupt the gamer, So, here we check why the steam not recognizing the game.
Contents
Why Steam does not Recognize the Installed Game
Check out the possible reason why Steam not Recognizing Installed Game.
- The problem encounters you when you clean install the windows and backup the steam app folder that comprises the games files and other data.
- Something wrong with the game installation.
You can move back to the steam installation and Re-download the game data back.
Still, you are facing the issue of steam not recognizing the install game on your computer, then follow the below techniques
Re-install the Game from the Steam client
If you found that steam is not recognizing the games, you can uninstall the games and install them from the steam client. Know the methods for Steam not Recognizing Installed Game.
Here is the method of how it works
step 1: Search the Control panel in the search box, select the control panel from the context menu.
step 2 : Select Programs (uninstall program) > Program and features.
step 3: Right-click on the Problematic game and select uninstall. Then follow the on-screen prompt to complete the uninstallation.
step 4: open the steam client and navigate to the library tab.
step 5: select the game at the left pane and install the affected game.
Now steam will automatically download the game.
Add Steam Library folder manually
After the same installation the steam library stores the game data by default, If you have a custom location to store the game data then fix is the location in the steam app to fix the steam doesn’t recognize the game installation.
step 1: Open Steam client, and click settings.
step 2: select the downloads from the left pane, and click on the “Steam Library Folders”.
Step 3: Click on the add library folder, then select the location where you would like to save the steam gaming data.
Step 4: Click on the select button that pop-ups and select the location where you would like to select the gaming and click on enter.
Restart your steam client and see if the Steam did not recognize install game issue is fixed.
Check the game Integrity through the Steam
Verify the Game integrity of your operating system. This may help you to fix the steam not recognizing the installed games by the computer.
step 1 : from library section,> load steam, right-click on the game > from menu > Properties.
Step 2: Choose Local files tab > verify the integrity of game cache button,
Steam starts verifying the game files and this may take time to complete the verification.
After verification restart your steam, and this may fix the Steam not recognizing the installed games by the computer.
Use Steam’s own backup and restore function
Here you can use steam’s own backup and restore function to copy the game on the computer to resolve the issue.
In this method you need 65GB of free space on your PC and 65 GB on your USB drive or portable hard drive or USB key, or else you can create a folder on the Main System, and share it over a network.
Step 1: In the Library > right Click on the Game > Choose the backup game files.
Step 2: To restore Choose backup and restore games, from the steam menu at the top left.
After, restoring back to the steam, you can delete the Game files copied to the main computer.
Force Steam to recognize the game using .acf Cache
After Completion of the Steam backup can with the entire game data, you can install steam cache files to recognize the installed game.
Before performing this action make sure that you have installed or reinstalled steam. Here is how it works
Step 1 : Move the steam game data to C: >> Program Files (x86) >> Steam >> Steamapps folder.
Step 2: Launch the steam client, Check if any games that show as not installed. select the uninstalled game and click on the install button. The steam starts to detect the existing files.
Step 3 : Pause the updating games and exit. Then navigate to C: >> Program Files (x86) >> Steam >>Steamapps path and locate entire .acf files
Step 4: Now Copy all the .acf files and locate them in a new folder outside the steam apps folder.
Step 5: Relaunch the steam and go to the games library, where all the unrecognized games will be shown as uninstalled. Exit the steam again.
Step 6 : Now move all the .acf files back to C: >> Program Files (x86) >> Steam >>Steamapps.
Step 7: Restart Steam and goes to the games library, then click on the resume updating Games that you paused before.
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Conclusion
Hope this article on Steam not Recognizing Installed Game will be helpful for you resolve why steam not recognizing installed game on your computer. Try the above methods one after the another how to make steam to recognize the installed games, It will fix your problems, for more information visit our Techy2Tech website. Sometimes the issues might be internal and unable to fix the problem. So, you can Scan your Computer with the “PC repair tool”, scanning with this tool once will repair issues related to your computer and helps you to fix the Steam recognizing the installed game.