Recently, updating Steam has caused significant delays in allocating disk space.
Recently, updating Steam has caused significant delays in allocating disk space.
Hey, I see the issue you're facing. It sounds like the pre-allocation process is running slowly. Have you tried updating your storage settings or checking if there are any background tasks consuming space? Also, it might help to run a disk cleanup or adjust your SSD's allocation strategy. Let me know if you want more tips!
So you think it's game based? This one does the same too Also, for the CP update of 1.5GB I estimate that it must have written at least 200GB to my SSD LE #1: The update above took 6 minutes of grinding for 22MB...
Updated four Steam titles that hadn’t changed before. CP2077 was the exception, as were Warzone and BO4, which now do it too. It seems the current trend pushes for larger updates, often needing over 50GB of free space.
I've experienced it too... it feels uncomfortable after some time, doesn't it? The main concern we should address is how Golf It operates on your device. Avoid saying things like "it's my (my younger relative) who plays it," because that won't be convincing.
I observed a comparable issue sometimes requiring a 100mb update to take ages... checking, copying, then randomly stopping... last time it took over an hour. It feels strange and buggy, not my usual experience. This seems unrelated to my modern console play, which stopped after similar problems. I also noticed something else (possibly different), but it doesn’t clarify why some 50mb patches lag so much. I’m unsure if I should blame Steam entirely, though it’s clear this hasn’t happened before—Steam used to provide fast speeds, except for rare server hiccups, which this time didn’t try downloading and just froze.
Discuss my previous comment about a 100GB game. Even with a 50MB patch, it will move the whole 100GB elsewhere while applying the update, then wipe the original files. You'll need space that's temporarily unavailable, especially on slower storage like an HDD. This isn't just a Steam issue—Steam’s distribution is solid, but the problem likely stems from having countless game stores and launchers, each with multiple titles, and developers creating their own patch versions instead of building native solutions for each platform.
Oh, yeah, that explains most of this i suppose, but i have the suspicion something else is going on as well... last times this happened (on the same day) it was 2 really small patches, but the games were on SSD, and there was only about 10GB left on it, so it couldn't possibly have copied stuff elsewhere (unless it did? ) i dont really recall it exactly anymore, but i took some screenshots, because it was baffling lol (gotta check later if i find them) @Kilrah check this out... your explanation would work out wonderfully, except the game is like 80GB, and there was never enough additional space on the SSD for that. Also see the last pic... "downloading content 9%" *except* the bar is at like 90%... thats also where it got stuck iirc. And regardless over one hour for 900mb is just not ok (imo) Also , there was another patch for this game around that time (few days) that took literally 5 minutes... quite curious! PS: same thing happened with another game with a ~100mb patch, dont have pics of that though
The patcher likely works in sections, handling patches of 5GB each, deleting files, then continuing with the next batch. This approach avoids loading the entire 80GB at once, which would be slow even on an SSD nearing capacity. Writing large amounts to a nearly full drive can slow things down significantly. In practice, observing the process—like I did with CP2077—shows the free space dropping after the download and then recovering as the write continues.