Where Does Steam Install Games and How to Change the Location?

Finding the file location for GTA 5/V on your PC is essential for multiple things.

You can backup, mod, or add necessary files to GTA 5 if the game has issues.

By backing up the game, you can restore it to a previous state if anything goes wrong.

GTA V has a ton of mods that you can install.

But before you install a mod to the game, it’s good practice to back up your game files.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to find the game folder, root directory, or file location for GTA 5/GTA V on Steam.

Sometimes, however, the Steam interface doesn’t fit the bill. Whether it’s a need to change a config file, delete a game’s files, move a game’s files, or something else, there will come a time for every gamer that the source files of a game need to be accessed.

Thankfully, Steam have a pretty useful feature that can be used to locate the installation folder of a game’s local files. This utility is available on all Steam desktop laptops: that means you can do this on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

To access your game files, head to your Library, right click the game you wish to find the directory for, and select Properties:

That’s it. Seriously.

If you can’t access the Steam interface for whatever reason, the default path for installed games on Steam is:

Windows

On Windows, the default install path for Steam games is:

C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommon

Mac

On Mac, the default install path for Steam games is:

Linux

On Linux, the default install directory for Steam game files is:

Where does Steam install games? How can I find Steam game folders? Can I move Steam games to another drive? If you have these questions, please read this post, in which MiniTool Partition Wizard shows you how to find Steam game folders and then move them to another drive.

On This Page :

Where Does Steam Install Games?

This might seem like a stupid question but I don’t get where games are stored from Steam. When you download a game where do the games get stored? Onto your hard drive in a folder called Steam? On Steam?

Where does steam install games? For those who are not familiar with Steam, this may be a question. They don’t know where Steam installs games and how to move the Steam installation and games to another location.

1. The Default Location

2. Custom Location

During the installation of Steam, you have the option to install Steam to a location other than the default. If you installed Steam to a custom location but you forget this location, you can find this folder by opening File Explorer, highlighting This PC, typing “steam” in Search box, and pressing Enter. In this way, you can find Steam folder quickly.

How to Move Steam Installation and Games?

If the drive storing Steam is full, you can consider moving Steam to another drive. Here is the tutorial about moving Steam installation and games to another drive:

Bottom Line

Can this post help you? Do you have any doubt about Steam game installation location? If you have other ideas, please leave a comment below for sharing.

Linda has been working as an editor at MiniTool for 5 years. She is always curious about computer knowledge and learns it crazily. Her articles are simple and easy to understand. Even people who do not understand computer can gain something. By the way, her special focuses are disk management, data recovery and PDF editing.

Have you come across the Steam game uninstalled itself issue? What annoys you a lot is that you are required to repeatedly download the game files that have already installed. In today’s article, the post of MiniTool will provide you with several troubleshooting methods.

As a fantastic gaming platform, Steam provides you with the easiest way to download, install and play video games. However, there are some common problems with it like the failed to load Steamui.dll error, Application load error 5:0000065434 and the one discussed in today’s article.

When your Steam is unable to recognize the installed files, you may encounter the Steam uninstalled my game error. Especially if the game folders are still located in the incorrect place, you may be bothered by the error when attempting to launch the game.

Fix 1. Add a New Steam Library Folder

If you have installed the games to an alternate installation library/folder outside the main Steam library, you can try this method.

Step 2. Click on the Steam Library Folders button to open the window with all your current Steam Library folders.

Step 3. Click on the Add Library Folder button and select the folder that you save the installed games.

After you add the new Steam library folder, you can check if the Steam games uninstalled randomly is fixed.

Fix 2. Run the Game’s Executable File from Steam Folder

Step 1. Right-click the Steam shortcut on the desktop and select the Open file location from the context menu.

Step 3. Navigate to the executable file that should be named similar to the game.

Step 4. Double click the file to open it. If you are prompted that the game can only be launched through Steam, you can run it from the library without the error.

Fix 3. Rename the ClientRegistry. blob File

The ClientRigistry.blob file saves the information related to your Steam installation. You can try renaming the file to reset some settings, which may fix the Steam games uninstall themselves issue.

Step 2. In the Steam folder, right-click the ClientRigistry.blob file and select the Rename option from the context menu.

Step 3. Rename the file to ClientRigistry.old.blob, and then restart your Steam client and check if the Steam uninstalled my game issue is resolved or not.

If the antivirus program altered or deleted the appmanifest files in the Steam folder, you may also be troubled by the Steam game uninstalled itself problem. This is because the file contains information about your games’ location path.

You can fix the issue by editing the file properly. Here’s how to do that.

Step 1. Open the root folder of Steam in Method 2 of this post.

Step 2. Navigate to the steamapps folder and find the appmanifest_(gameID).acf file in it.

Step 5. Navigate to the installer line in the file, and then change its text to the correct name of the folder that you see in the common folder.

Step 6. Restart your Steam and check if the Steam game uninstalled itself is resolved or not.

Have you come across the Application load error 5:0000065434? The error pops up while starting up a Steam game. It is so annoying especially when you are eager to play games. Don’t be alarmed. In today’s article, MiniTool will show you 4 effective troubleshooting methods.

Steam is an online game platform where you can play, discuss, and create games. However, you may be troubled by some common problems like failed to load Steamui.dll error, the Application load error 5:0000065434 and etc.

The 5:000006543 error may happen to you when you mod the Steam games manually via the Nexus Mod Manager. You may encounter the Application load error on the Steam games including the Elder Scrolls Morrowind, Fallout series and the Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

The major cause behind the Steam error 5:0000065434 is that your games’ installation is not the same folder as the Steam’s installation. In addition, faulty or incomplete game files can also lead to error. Now, let’s see how to fix the error 5:0000065434.

Solution 1. Delete the Game’s Folder in File Explorer

Deleting the game’s folder will reset some settings and start the game, which can help you fix the error. Before deleting the folder, you need to check where the game files are saved and back them up to a different folder in case of any accidents.

Step 1. Double click This PC (Windows 10) to open the File Explorer.

Step 3. Find the appcache folder in the Steam folder and click the Delete key.

Now, you can restart the Steam and see if the Application load error 5:0000065434 is fixed or not.

Solution 2. Copy the Steam Executable File to the Game Folder

Tip: Here is another simple way to open the Steam root folder. You can right-click the shortcut on the desktop and click on the Open file location from the context menu.

Step 2. Right-click the Steam.exe executable file and select the Copy option.

Step 4. Right-click the blank space in the folder and select the Paste. After that, the Steam.exe executable file should be placed in the game folder and then you can check if the Application load error is gone.

Solution 3. Run a Helpful Set of Commands

If the above method fails to work, you can try running these commands in the elevated command prompt. Before running the command, you need to check if the root folder of Steam installation is the same folder that you opened in the path by default: C:Program Files (x86)Steam.

In addition, you also need to check the location of the library where the problematic game installation is located. You should find this folder by the default path:

C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommon.

After running these commands, you can restart the game and see if the Application load error 5:0000065434 is fixed.

Solution 4. Verify the Integrity of Game Files

The missing or faulty files also lead to the error. You can use the Verify the Integrity of Game Files feature, which will re-download the game’s installation folder. Here’s how to do that.

Step 1. Open the Steam app, and then go to the Library tab and select the problematic game.

Step 2. Right-click the game’s entry and select the Properties option.

Step 3. In the properties window, go to the Local Files tab and click the Verify Integrity of Game Files button

Then you need to wait for some time to complete the process. After that, you can restart the game and check if error 5:0000065434 still persists.

Among the plethora of online gaming platforms, Steam stands out because it has the largest community and also a massive list of exclusive games. If you love online gaming, there’s no doubt you have already installed Steam on your PC.

After realizing most of my fellow Steam community members are in the dark, I prepared this step-by-step guide to reveal what Valve couldn’t.

Yes, Steam saves your files by default. However, you can choose to disable auto-save by going to settings and turning off Steam Cloud synchronization. The saved files are typically saved locally, but you can also back them up to Steam Cloud associated with your Steam account.

While the locally saved files are helpful, nothing beats Steam Cloud as that allows you to simply resume your game from any device in the world instantly without any complications.

In addition to that, locally saved files get removed whenever you uninstall a game, but this doesn’t affect Steam Cloud saves. This would be my go-to saving method, but it’s not because there are numerous games that don’t support it.

As a result, it’s best to stick to the local saves instead.

Don’t worry, you can keep your local saves intact before uninstalling any game by copying them to a separate location from their original location. So, move on to the next section to locate those files and keep them safe.

Related contents you should read VPN Not Working on Windows 11.

Before locating your Steam saves, it’s essential to know which operating system you are using. Since macOS and Windows are structured differently, they don’t store files in the same path but don’t worry, I will show you what to do for both separately.

On Windows

The reason why Steam doesn’t provide a detailed guide on where to find save files is because it’s up to the game developers to choose where to save their files. As a result, you may find that several Steam files are located in different locations.

As I mentioned earlier, this is one of the possible locations for your Steam save files, so don’t freak out if you hit a dead end. You can try going to the My Games folder inside Documents instead, as that is another typical save file location.

Apart from this, you can also find individual game locations directly from Steam.

Check out our latest on how to disable superfetch in Windows 11.

Those are all the methods to locate any of your Steam game save files on Windows as long as they are saved locally.

On macOS

Steam is available across both Windows and Mac, and while the majority of the Steam community are a fan of Microsoft, the macOS community is increasing rapidly.

Question: Does Steam keep save files after uninstall?

Answer: No, Steam does not keep any save files after uninstall. However, if your game’s progress is saved to the Steam cloud, the application will automatically download and restore all the saved files when you reinstall the game.

Question: How do I transfer Steam saves to another computer?

Answer: You can transfer Steam saves to another computer by copying the locally saved files to a pen drive and pasting them into the same location on the other PC. However, the better option is to select the Backup and restore games option to create a backup and restore it on the other PC.

Question: Do all Steam games have cloud saves?

Answer: No, all Steam games do not have cloud saves. The developer has to make the decision whether to implement cloud saves or not. Most of the familiar games do take advantage of this feature, but large-scale games like Arma 3 store save files locally instead.

Question: Are Steam games linked to a computer or account?

Answer: Steam games are linked to an account and not to a computer. You can still continue to access and play all your Steam games on a new computer as long as you are logged into the same Steam account on that PC.

Unlike other competing online platforms like Roblox, Steam has reduced a lot of complications over the years and provides a lot of freedom on where to save your files and how to access them.

You can reread the first section if you want to know precisely how Steam manages your files, but you can locate all your Steam games save files from the second part of this guide.

How to find the file location for GTA 5

How to find the file location for GTA 5

After you’ve selected “Grand Theft Auto V”, you’ll land on the directory of the game.

The directory will contain multiple files and folders like “Installers”, “update”, and more.

You can add mods or replace corrupted files.

How to find the GTA 5 game folder

After you’ve selected “Browse”, the root directory of GTA 5 will open.

Now, you’ll be able to drag and drop mods like Script Hook inside of it.

You can also replace certain files if they are corrupted.

Further reading

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