Steam client re-download gigabytes of game updates almost every day but in reality it is no game update.

[drmmwlt]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1701289036
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Manjaro
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] no
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] yes
• Steam Logs: [generate by running this command in a terminal tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs]

(not working)

tar: Suppression de « / » au début des noms des membres tar (child): /home/fleuve/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz : open impossible: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now /home/fleuve/.steam/steam/logs/ /home/fleuve/.steam/steam/logs/controller_ui.txt tar: /home/fleuve/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz : write impossible: Relais brisé (pipe) tar: Child returned status 2 tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

• GPU: Nvidia

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

(same issue as #9174 but was closed)

Steam downloads gibytes of updates when there is no update. Since 3 days steam is downloading the exact same game updates, (here Dota 2, AeO 2, GTA5, Steep) , same size. This kind of of loop happens regularly on this computer even on fresh system installs. I would like to download game updates only 1 time.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Open Steam, Updates games
2. play few hours, shutdown steam and the computer
3. next day, open steam

I tried clear download cache, deleting the inside of /home/.steam/root/package , sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Here steam is still stuck in the loop.

In #9174, @kisak-valve mentions the shader_log.txt /home/fleuve/.local/share/Steam/logs so here it is.

shader_log.txt

[wojgie]

The same thing, 1.9GB CS2 updates every reboot. EDIT: i mean not the game update, but the shader cache update

[drmmwlt]

damn it's happening even after quitting the game

[shadowscion]

I set them all to update on launch so at least all my games aren't updating every boot. Seems to be at least a 2 year old problem.

[hjpaul7]

I also have this, on desktop and Steam Deck. Nearly every day there's almost 200 updates. Assuming shader cache?

[drmmwlt]

not a fix but i tried the steam flatpak version for few days. It works flawlessly imo

[drmmwlt]

ok until yesterday that was amazing but now i got this bug again even in flatpak

[Kopetan4egX]

Same problem. Up to 1GB+ updates every day. Sometimes even after every restart of the steam client.

[drmmwlt]

day 4 of redownloading every game updates everydays

[shadowscion]

I set them all to update on launch so at least all my games aren't updating every boot. Seems to be at least a 2 year old problem.

The issue was fixed for a while but has returned.

[Brejvinder]

Experiencing the same issue, 5.8/5.9GB update for Warframe and other games, Ghostrunner 1&2, Titanfall 2 , etc. every time. Pretty much on every steam restart without updating my system or anything else.

My details:

OS: EndeavourOS Linux x86_64 Kernel: 6.6.10-zen1-1-zen Steam Beta Branch: Stable Client Steam Version: 1705108172 Steam Client Build Date: Fri, Jan 12 7:52 PM UTC -08:00 Steam Web Build Date: Fri, Jan 12 12:02 PM UTC -08:00 Steam API Version: SteamClient021

Steam is one a single drive along with my OS which is ext4. I do have a second drive connected but it's usually if not always unmounted.

[RoanBrand]

Happening to me too. Maybe because 2nd added steam library is on exFat partition with its respective compatdata and shader folder? I know proton doesn't like exFat due to symlinks missing, so I have that on main / steam lib on ext4

[eode]

Shouldn't be that, because I'm on one typical (but BTRFS) setup of / and /home, with all games in /home/<username>. I'm running into this same issue.

[drmmwlt]

everyday everyday.... devs, how can we help you fixing this ?

[eode]

I have a separate issue (at least, separate as far as I know) that causes games to validate every day as well. These issues both being present compounds the difficulty.

[H3r4cles]

It seems that pausing the download when u first launch steam then clear all the downloads fixes this issue for me but only if i don't restart steam. It is also a good way to figure out if its an actual game content/patch download and not a steam pre cache update. Because if it was really a patch for a game then it will show up as scheduled for download after you cleared all your downloads. Maybe making a fix around this should solve this problem.

[eode]

That doesn't work for me. Every time I quit the game or restart steam, it re-downloads shaders (for some games in particular).

[Soulprayer79]

At the moment I have 9 games installed, three of them are linux native games (X4:Foundations, Factorio and Dwarf Fortress) I need to download it every day for about half the games, but the biggies are: Linux-native: X4F (~500MB), Proton games: Baldur's Gate 3 (~450MB) and Enshrouded (8 GigaByte) steam-logs.tar.gz

[sophie-kuehn]

Never saw this as an issue. But now i installed Enshrouded and get a 8GB shader-cache update every time i start steam or exit the game. 8GB. That also take ages processing when i want to start the game. Is there any workaround other than disabling shader pre-caching for all games?

[H3r4cles]

@sophie-kuehn pausing and clearing the downloads makes this shader cache update go away as long as i don't restart steam. This is the only way i have found until valve figure it out.

[sophie-kuehn]

@H3r4cles This is not a solution for me as i restart the computer daily. What is my temporary solution now is to set an auto update time window between 5 and 6 in the morning when the pc is never running. And therefore prevent all updates without removing the shader cache. I now have to trigger all updates manually i suppose.

[Zorrototo]

The daily download is back I can confirm. I didn't find the old thread so I reply in this newer one.

//EDIT: here https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/8076

[arcangel2p]

The same happens on Steam Deck (game and desktop modes). At lesast on Preview and Main channels.

[Rosentti]

Are these game updates, shader updates or workshop content? You can put your mouse over the "i" symbol next to the currently downloading app, and it'll show what it's downloading. I also sometimes get empty downloads, for which Steam doesn't show any info, including sizes, patchnotes or the "i" symbol.

[sophie-kuehn]

Are these game updates, shader updates or workshop content? You can put your mouse over the "i" symbol next to the currently downloading app, and it'll show what it's downloading. I also sometimes get empty downloads, for which Steam doesn't show any info, including sizes, patchnotes or the "i" symbol.

These are shader updates. Sometimes pared with content updates.

[shelterx]

I had to disable shader caching for this to stop, at first i thought it was game updates because steam isn't clear on what it's actually downloading.

[emilstark]

Happens everyday for Steam + Linux, ~1GB DOTA update after each restart.

[Zorrototo]

The worst to troubleshoot is that it is not consistent. You start Steam it downloads shader cache update for a dozen game, totaling 1GB+ download. You REBOOT the system, your start Steam, it does the same again. You reboot again, it does the same, you reboot again, it does not download anything. There is no logic at all.

I'm on Steam BETA but it does the same on Steam non beta currently.

[beach-89]

This is still happening almost every reboot like the comment above says. It will download the entire shader cache, then redownload it 5 min later after a restart. Is there any logs or anything that can be provided to help elevate or diagnose this?

[fireba11]

That's been an issue for months now ... still no fixes? Apparently download traffic so too cheap now :-P

[Zorrototo]

If only it was 50MB per games, but I have this 2.7GB Rocket League shader cache update every time almost, this is getting old, I only have 10Mb DSL internet, it takes hours to finish it all, and if I need to reboot for whatever reason, I'm up for another round of download...

[Daehdam]

Hello mates, i haven´t fixed that Problem jet but i have the same and i think i am on the edge to understand the Problem... It seems to be the "Shader Cache" witch is - as far as i get that - some individual computerinformations for your Grafikcard so the game runs smooth - Problem is the default sice is too damn small so the Game has to reload the missing parts --> The solution i found so far is to set the default sice up from 4GB to 10GB or even higher (My Shader for Enshroudet needs 17GB :O )

I am looking for an easy way to do that but atm i just know what to do but not how xD i found this post do - maybe one of you can fix their Problems with this information (tell me how to do it then pls)

It has been suggested that setting the following flags in your profile (i.e. inside the file ~/.profile or similar) may help with the bloated shader cache that most recent Nvidia drivers seem to produce.

export __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SKIP_CLEANUP=1 export __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SIZE=100000000000 #100 gb max disk size of cache

[Zorrototo]

Isn't this completely unrelated to the Steam shader cache files downloaded in Steam?

[DimitarSamarov07]

I can confirm this is an issue. Warframe downloads 7.3GB of Shader pre-cache data after every steam/PC reboot. This has to be fixed! System: Manjaro with AMD GPU and CPU

[shadowscion]

@DimitarSamarov07

That game is what made me disable the pre-caching feature entirely. And you know what? I have not noticed one bit of difference to ingame performance after doing so (on my Steam Deck).

[TDYK]

@ValveSoftware Hi, any update/responce? Tell us what logs/system reports to send you for debugging. Yesterday i downloaded some gigas of waste, today here is the screenshot: Please.

[wojgie]

Still happening, every day.

[sophie-kuehn]

Is Valve actually monitoring this channel? The lack of official feedback is unsettling.

[Zorrototo]

I guess if we were asked "provide this info, this info, describe this or that" it would speed up the process, I could give random info/log but I don't know what is needed to troubleshoot the issue on Valve's end.

[shelterx]

This must be quite easy to replicate. I use steam native with nothing fancy stuff going on. I have a second games library pointing to my ntfs drive. I have symlinks for the compatdata and shader folders, that's the only "special" thing I have.

[uunnxx]

Hi there! Any updates on this ?

I'm getting tired of this, every time, when I quite game, it has to validate. Only and only in few cases it'll get less than 1GB, in the other cases, I've to get more than 1GB, in case I quite the game.

[ettige]

I haveing this problem mainly on Valv's games like CS2, it very annoying for me i need to download 2GB of shader and still need to compile it on my own to do not feel any lag, it would be better to be able to turn off background shader cache off for specific games until this issue get fixed.also i need background shader cache for specific games like SOT and Halo infinite and turn it on and off while switching games is also wasting Traffic.

[voorhees3388]

Same 10.9GB with Enshrouded. pausing and cancelling fixes until steam or PC is rebooted. Other games have this as well but they are small MB vs this one large download each time. I am using btrfs on main drive and added a second btrfs 3TB HDD for games that don't require SSD speeds. I honestly do not remember if this was happening before adding the 2nd drive.

[arazilsongweaver]

I experience this with Warframe all the time on two separate Arch Linux installs. Every time Steam starts up, Warframe triggers a 7.6 GB cache download. I also get the same general behavior (usually with a 1-400 MB download) from every other installed game in my library.

I also think Steam needs a cache management interface (similar to the "Storage" page in settings) that would allow users to see how big each game's cache is and provide an option to disable and/or delete each individual game cache.

[gregor3000]

it says "Enabling this feature may slightly increase disk and bandwidth usage." my question: Are you insane?

CS2 had a 2GB update each time is tarted steam or the game crashed. others report of 10 GB updates. imagine 100.000 thousands of users downloading for no reason. This has not been resolved. This is actually a lot of unnecessary disk (write cycle) and bandwidth usage that is not necessary. why are shaders even downloading and pre-caching for games i am not currently playing and that have received no (0) map updates or updates otherwise at all? why?

[Zorrototo]

it says "Enabling this feature may slightly increase disk and bandwidth usage." my question: Are you insane?

This is true, when the feature works as intended, it is obviously not intended to re-download the whole shader cache every time.

[Hyrules]

I have this issue as well in arch on Endeavour OS. Same as voorhees3388. My shaders cache for Enshrouded keeps downloading over and over the 10GB of the cache when I restart steam. It happens for other games as well. I don't mind a few megabytes of caching but when it goes over the gigabyte...

[ojsl1]

I got a 13GB shader cache update for AHIT today, immediately stopped it, switched the game to Proton Experimental, cleared my steam download cache from steams download settings and restarted steam. Then I got the expected 146.5MB shader update...

[voorhees3388]

I got a 13GB shader cache update for AHIT today, immediately stopped it, switched the game to Proton Experimental, cleared my steam download cache from steams download settings and restarted steam. Then I got the expected 146.5MB shader update...

My Enshrouded that was downloading ~10GB each reboot was on GE-Proton7-42. Switching to Proton Experimental and clearing steam download cache seems to have solved this and no longer downloads anything upon reboot.

I was going to try without clearing download cache but forgot, if anyone gets a chance I wonder if this is a necessary step.

[gregor3000]

what does proton have to do with it? large "shaders update" are present on Linux native games. CS2 is native and so are L4D, Half life 2, GarrysMod... some of them have a few 100 MB update but they are daily. why? then they re-download the updates when you restart steam or PC during the day and CS2 does it even after crash.

[sophie-kuehn]

Afaik Proton don't has anything to do with this. And if it has, then only indirectly. The download of shader pre-cache files is a Steam application feature. That's why this topic is not in the Proton repository. I assume this has something to do with false positive checks for corrupted or missing files. But without the code being open sourced, we can only make assumptions.