Jul 16, 2019 When the Steam download for Mac is finished, click on steam.dmg. From the new window, drag steam into Applications. The install should now be complete. Test it by opening Steam from your Dock or Applications folder. There are a few considerations to keep in mind if you’re thinking about installing Steam on Mac. News Steam Labs. MacOS on Steam Browse the newest, top selling and discounted macOS supported games New and Trending Top Selling. Tabletop, Board Game, Simulation, Multiplayer-70%. Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI. Strategy, Turn-Based. Removing and Reinstalling Steam on a Mac. Delete all files and folders in /Steam EXCEPT FOR the /SteamApps folder (this contains your game downloads and any local save files.) If you're removing all Steam data from your computer: delete the entire Steam folder. Empty the Trash by selecting Finder - Empty Trash; With these files deleted. Mar 20, 2020 Can your Mac run it? Fortnite used to be very demanding. Even our 2016 MacBook Pro couldn’t pass the 30 FPS mark (which is the absolute minimum for a fast-paced online shooter). However, the Mac performance of the game has improved a lot and the game is now playable on more machines. Any bugs you should be aware of?
Summary
Stay calm when Steam deleted your favorite games or you carelessly deleted Steam game files. Practical and professional solutions provided by the Steam support team, YouTubers and EaseUS software are ready here help you bring lost Steam game and game files back with ease.
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
---|---|
Fix 1. Restore from Steam library | Open the Steam game player and go to Library. Find the lost game name and select 'Properties'...Full steps |
Fix 2. Add installation libraries | Launch Steam. Go to 'Steam' > 'Settings' > 'Downloads'> Click 'Steam Library Folder'...Full steps |
Fix 3. Rename ClientRegistry.blob | Open your Steam installation folder and selecting 'Open file location'. Locate the ClientRegistry.blob file...Full steps |
Fix 4. Restore lost game files | Find Steam game files on PC, and then recover lost steam game files (including game videos, screenshots)...Full steps |
Fix 5. Remove content and reinstall | Remove local content on Steam by going to Steam Library > right-click it and select 'Delete Local Content'...Full steps |
Steam Games have gained a high reputation for that this powerful platform has brought so many wonderful games to worldwide game players. Windows users may carelessly delete or removed Steam game files or installing patches from their computers under Windows 10/8/7 etc.
Fortunately, you can follow multiple Steam Game file recovery solutions provided by the Steam support team, experienced YouTubers, and EaseUS software here to bring all your lost Steam games back immediately.
Steam Game Files Lost Problems
Q 1. Steam doesn't recognize my games, help.
'It seems that the Steam stops working after I upgrade the computer system into Windows 10. It's located in D: drive, but it just cannot recognize my game files, what can I do?'
Q 2. Steam games appeared uninstalled, how do I get Steam to locate my games?
'Steam seems to lose the track of my installed games on my computer. I opened Steam but the game itself appears grayed out and I've checked that it's right there. How to make Steam to find my game files again? Do I need to download and reinstall the game again?'
Q 3. How do I restore deleted Steam game files?
'It seems that I lost my game files on Steam after a reboot of my computer. I tried to play the Dota 2 on Steam, it warned me that no game files were found. I don't know where to find the game files? Any solutions?'
You need to calm down when the Steam stops working or cannot read your Game files on your computer. And here below are detailed solutions for you to apply to recover lost Steam game files again.
Solutions for Lost Steam Games Recovery
The solutions towards different Steam games lost issues are varied. You need to be careful to choose the right solution to bring lost games back on your Steam.
Method 1. Restore Lost Games from Steam Library
Applies to: Resolve Steam games shows greyed out or not recognizable issue.
Provider by: YouTubers, Steam game players
If Steam stops you from playing games, warning you that no files were found, or Steam games greyed out in Steam LIBRARY, you may follow steps below to verify game files and make your games playable again:
Steam Mac Download
Step 1. Open up Steam game player on your device and go to Library.
Step 2. Find the lost game name on the left panel, such as Dota 2, right-click on it and select 'Properties'.
Step 3. On the Properties window, click 'LOCAL FILES' and select 'VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES...'.
Wait for the verifying process to finish, then you can open your beloved game and play it on Steam again.
Method 2. Add Installation Libraries/Folders to Steam and Make Game Playable
Applies to: Steam games appear uninstalled when Steam no longer recognizes the installation files.
Provided by: Steam support team, Steam game players.
As long as the game folders are still in the right location, when you try to launch a game, Steam will redownload the game for you. You can follow the below path to check if the game folders are in the proper location on your PC:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamappsCommon
If the game folder is in the Steam file location, you can relaunch the game to redownload it on your Steam. Or you can follow the steps below to add alternative installation libraries or folders to Steam:
Step 1. Launch Steam and go to Steam > Settings > Downloads > Click 'Steam Library Folder'.
This will open all your current Steam Library folders.
Step 2. Click 'Add Library Folder' to select the folder with your installed games.
Wait for the adding process to finish, your installed games that appeared uninstalled will show up in your Steam Library. And you can play games again.
If this doesn't work, try the following tips provided by a Steam player to make Steam game show up in Steam again:
Step 1. Move everything from the original steam folder to a new folder, rename the original (empty) parent folder into a library folder.
Step 2. Move everything from the new folder back to the library folder and restart the client.
Step 3. Start Steam, go to Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders.
Step 4. Click 'Add Library Folder' and select the newly renamed library folder.
Wait for the process to finish, your disappeared games would show up again.
Method 3. Rename the ClientRegistry.blob File to Restore Missing Steam Games
Applies to: Restore missing Steam game files that cause Steam games lost.
Provided by: Geeks, Steam game players.
The ClientRegistry.blob file contains information related to your steam installation and game installations. Once you reset the file, Steam will reset various settings to default, making missing games show up in Steam and work again.
Step 1. Open your Steam installation folder by right-clicking on the Steam shortcut on your Desktop and selecting 'Open file location'.
Step 2. Locate the ClientRegistry.blob file in the Steam folder, right-click on it and select 'Rename'.
Step 3. Change the ClientRegistry.blob to ClientRegistry.old.blob and confirm the changes.
Step 4. Restart your Steam client and check if your games are back.
Method 4. Restore Lost Steam Game Files - Recordings & Screenshots
Applies to: Restore lost or missing Steam game files, such as game installation files, or recordings, screenshots.
Provided by: Geeks, EaseUS software.
Usually, when Steam fails to read or recognize your game files, there might be something wrong with the files in the Steam file location. You may manually check the location of the Steam game files to find out whether those game files are there or apply EaseUS file recovery to fully scan and restore all lost game files.
# 1. Find Steam Game Files on PC
Where to find the Steam game files in PC? Here is the location that you can follow to check if the game files are there:
C is the DriveLetter of the volume where Steam is installed onto.
Steam is the directory where Steam is installed into.
55230 is just the number Steam has assigned to your account.
Steam is the directory where Steam is installed into.
55230 is just the number Steam has assigned to your account.
If the files were not there, you may need to re-download the game files or follow the next tip to recover the lost Steam game files.
# 2. Recover Lost Steam Game Files (Including Game Videos, Screenshots)
Reliable file recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can find the lost Steam game files, including game videos, screenshot on your PC by fully scanning your computer hard drive.
You can try EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to scan and restore lost Steam game files in 3 steps. All Windows systems including Windows 10 are supported.
Step 1. Choose the file location to scan.
Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your computer. Choose the drive where you lost files and click 'Scan'. If you lost files were on an external storage device, connect it to your computer firstly.
Step 2. Scan the lost files.
The software will start immediately a quick scan for deleted files, and later a deep scan will launch to scan more lost files all over the selected drive. After the scan, you can use the Filter to quickly filter a specific file type.
Step 3. Preview and restore files.
Double-click on a file allows for a full preview. Finally, select the desired files, click 'Recover' and browse a location to save all the files at once.
You can choose a safe location to save found Steam game files and then move the found game files back to the original Steam Game file location. After this, you can restart the Steam client to make your games playable again.
# 5. Remove Local Content and Reinstall Lost Steam Games
If you've tried or found lost Steam Game files, but it turned out that it still fails to work. You can try to remove the local content and reinstall the game on Steam:
Step 1. Remove local content on Steam
On Steam Library > Right-click it and select'Delete Local Content'.
Step 2. Reinstall beloved Steam games
Locate greyed out games in Steam LIBRARY, right-click on a specific game and select 'Install'.
Repeat the process until you have all the desired games installed. You can restart the Steam client to play games on your PC again.
Bonus Tips: Back Up and Restore Steam Games
Besides knowing remarkably efficient ways for lost Steam games recovery, you should also acquire reliable ways for backing up Steam games.
You can always survive whenever you lost Steam games or local saved game files including recordings, screenshots, etc. on your computer. Two reliable tips will help you fully back up Steam games and related game files on your own. Let's see the details:
# 1. Manually Back Up Steam Games
Step 1. Launch Steam on your PC, and go to the LIBRARY > Right-click on downloaded games that you want to back up and select 'Backup Game Files...'.
Step 2. Check the box in front of the games that you wish to backup, and click 'Next' to continue.
Step 3. Select the location to save your Steam games backup and click 'Next' to continue.
Usually, the default backup location is C:/programs files (x86)/steam/Backups/. If you want to specify another location for saving the games, click 'Browse' to choose a new location.
Step 4. You can rename the backup files or keep the default generated name, and click 'Next' to continue.
Wait until the backup operation finishes. The backup speed is based on the size of your selected games.
When you need to restore the Steam backups of your favored games, you can simply go to Steam > Backup and Restore Games and follow the onscreen guidelines to finish the backup recovery process.
# 2. Back Up Local Saved Steam Game Files
Don't forget to back up your saved files of Steam games on your local drive. To do so, you should first learn what files need to be backed up on your PC?
First. Find Game Files Location for Backup
- Game folders: C:Program FilesSteamSteamAppscommon<game name> (including the below listed folders)
- /cfg/ - Custom configurations and configuration scripts
- /downloads/ - Custom content for multiplayer games
- /maps/ - Custom maps which have been installed or downloaded during multiplayer games
- /materials/ - Custom textures and skins
- /SAVE/ - Single-player saved games
- Game recordings and screenshots in My Documents, Videos, Pictures, etc. (You should make sure the exact location where you saved all your games' recordings and screenshots.)
Next. Back Up Game Files
You need now specify another secure drive or an external hard drive to continue the backup process.
After this, you can manually copy each folder one by one the target device or use reliable file backup software such as EaseUS Todo Backup to fully backup all files at one time.
This backup software enables you to selectively back up all desired files in only 3 steps:
- Tip
- You'd better create the backup file on an external disk or on the cloud in case the local backup gets corrupted or destroyed.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Todo Backup software and then choose 'File Backup', 'Disk/partition Backup' or 'System Backup' for different backup purpose.
Step 2: Choose the system, disk partition, files or apps that you want to back up. Then select a destination where you want to store the backup file.
Step 3: Click 'Proceed' to start the data backup process.
Tips
By Malcolm Owen
Thursday, March 15, 2018, 11:25 am PT (02:25 pm ET)
If you want to play games on a Mac that has lower specifications than ideally needed to play properly, it is possible to take advantage of the hardware of a more powerful Mac or PC elsewhere on the home network to have a more enjoyable gaming experience. AppleInsider explains how to set up Steam's In-Home Streaming function to remotely play your game collection. Thursday, March 15, 2018, 11:25 am PT (02:25 pm ET)
As newer games are released, the specifications needed to play them smoothly continue to rise, and can end up being unplayable on some desktops. In the event that there happens to be a second computer that's more powerful and more suitable for gaming, the obvious answer is to use that one, but there are situations where it is unfeasible.
For example, the more powerful computer could be in a completely different place in the house to where you would prefer to play the game. Maybe there's a Mac mini connected to a large living room TV that isn't great at displaying games, but a Mac Pro in the home office which can easily do the job, but you don't want to move.
Valve Software's answer to this is built into the app for the Steam online game marketplace: Steam In-Home Streaming.
Using two computers over the same network, the powerful host computer can play the game and send a video stream to a client desktop, which displays the image. Inputs taken from peripherals, like keyboards and game controllers, are fed back from the client computer to the host, which then performs the commands in-game.
The feature also offers the benefit of not having to install the game on the client desktop at all, only the host, minimizing the amount of storage used up by game files. It also expands the Mac's game collection, as the stream works across Windows and Mac desktops, meaning Windows games are playable on a Mac in this way.
Requirements
Two computers are needed for In-Home Streaming: the host and the client. Originally the host was limited to Windows PCs, but it has since been updated to work with Mac desktops, and Linux.
In terms of hardware, Valve recommends a minimum of a quad-core processor for the host. Client desktops can be lower-powered but must be capable of H.264 decoding, preferably using hardware acceleration.
For Mac specifically, the host needs to run OS X 10.8 at a bare minimum.
Both systems need to be on the same network for In-Home Streaming to function. It is recommended to use a wired network due to the high amount of bandwidth required, but there are also claims it will work on wireless N and AC networks and some powerline networking equipment.
As it is a feature of Steam, the software itself has to be installed on both the host and client, which can be downloaded from the store's website. It is also expected that the user has an account set up with Steam, has games they want to play on the account, and has already installed them on the host.
Setting up on Mac
Launch Steam on both the client and the host systems, and log in to the same account on each desktop. For Mac users, the Steam client can be accessed within the Applications folder in the Finder.
On both computers, select Steam in the Menu then Preferences. In the Preferences Window, select In-Home Streaming in the left-hand column, then click the tickbox next to Enable streaming if one is not present.
This window will show other Mac and PC desktops on the network that are logged into the same account, as well as whether they are enabled for In-Home Streaming or not.
Host Mac Settings
To fine tune the host's settings, click the Advanced Host Options button midway down the window.
This new window will offer up a number of ways to change how the stream is generated on the host desktop, with the default options usually fine for most users. If you are familiar with the specifications of the client Mac, you could select or disable the hardware-encoding and capture options to suit your hardware, but it isn't essential.
The top option, 'Change desktop resolution to match streaming client,' will aim to match the resolution of the client system for a better experience, but this could potentially cause performance issues if the host is not capable of rendering the game at that level. Keeping this switched off will instead send the same resolution as the game is already set to run at on the host.
The 'Dynamically adjust capture resolution to improve performance' setting is self explanatory, and is generally a good idea to keep enabled. The stream will try to reduce in resolution if issues occur, like network lag, instead of stopping completely or stuttering at a higher resolution.
If software encoding is employed but it is choking the gameplay, you can limit the number of threads used in the Number of software encoding threads dropdown box instead of allowing Steam to automatically manage it for you.
Lastly, it is highly advised to enable 'Prioritize network traffic,' as for newer routers with network traffic prioritization features, this will limit the impact of other network users on the stream's connection.
Close this window by clicking OK.
Client Mac Settings
The main Preferences window includes three basic options for how users want the stream to appear from the host on the client. Balanced is the default, while Fast will prioritize speed rather than picture quality when decoding the stream, and Beautiful opts for higher quality images but potentially lower frame rates.
More settings are available by clicking Advanced Client Options.
In cases where the network is being used for other tasks or bandwidth needs to be preserved for various reasons, the Limit bandwidth dropdown box can restrict the stream's bandwidth usage. Generally, the more bandwidth is used, the better the stream will appear on the client.
The 'Limit Resolution' dropdown gives the client the ability to limit the stream's resolution, which can reduce the overall bandwidth used or sacrifice the resolution in favor of higher frame rates. The stream can go as low as 480p, with the upper limit being the display resolution of the client system.
There is support for multiple speaker configurations in the menu, allowing clients to request stereo, quadrophonic, and 5.1 surround sound from the host, if available from the game and usable on the client. It is usually advised to stick to Stereo to preserve bandwidth usage for the visual element of the stream.
A tickbox is also available to enable hardware decoding on the client, if it has supporting hardware. If it does not, this is instead performed in software, and may be more taxing to the client Mac overall.
Lastly, the 'Display performance information' tickbox will show data relating to the stream on the client's screen, making it useful for diagnosing a poor quality video feed from the host.
Click OK to close the window.
Starting the stream
Ensure Steam is running on both the client and the host desktops.
On the client, select Library in the main Steam window, and select the game you wish to play from the left-hand column. Available to play games will be brighter on this menu, regardless of whether it is installed locally or streamable.
In the selected game's screen, click the arrow next to Play to bring up a dropdown box, and select the host system from the list. Click the now-renamed Stream button to launch the game.
On the first occasion the Host will be used, the client will show a notification that actions need to be carried out on the Host. This refers to drivers that need to be installed by Steam in order to stream.
On the Host, click Install on the Gamepad Driver Update window, and pass through the installation process for Steam Input. Typically this requires clicking Continue, Install, entering your macOS account's password, authorizing it in the Security & Privacy settings menu following the 'Allow' notification, Ok on the notification, then Close once the installation completes.
Attempt to run the game stream again on the client. A second host actions notice will be displayed, this time for audio drivers.
On the Host, click Install on the Audio Driver Update window, and go through its installation process. This time the path for the default installation of Ambrosia AudioSupport will be Continue on the package installation determination notice, Continue on the welcome screen, Install, enter the Mac account's password, Continue Installation at the restart notice, and authorizing the Security and Privacy settings to allow it to continue.
At the successful installation screen, click Restart to reboot the Mac.
Once it has booted and been logged in, load Steam again on the Host, and reattempt to load the stream from the client. On this third attempt, the host should start up the game and commence the stream, which will then be displayed and playable on the client, if everything is installed correctly.
Note that this process is shorter for future play sessions, as the drivers only need to be installed once.
A Word on Windows
As games can be streamed from a Windows host to a Mac client and vice versa, it is worth covering how to perform this in Windows. Handily, the basic instructions are the same for both platforms.
Once installed on Windows, launch Steam, click the Steam menu item in the top-left corner, then Settings. In the new window, select In-Home Streaming in the left-hand column, then follow the rest of the Mac guide above.
The main difference is in the driver installation for the host, as while the initial notice window will be the same for both GamePad and Audio drivers, the process of installing the drivers themselves will differ. Unless there is something specific to the host's particular Windows installation that needs attention, the default options will work fine.
Starting the game stream using Windows as a client is identical to Mac, once signed into Steam.