How To STOP Steam Game Updates (2024)

[@gamerpoets]

GamerPoets 10 Year Anniversary is tomorrow, 2/20/2024. I've been creating videos for a decade. Strange stuff. I hope you're all doing well out there = ) 💓 Patreon | Help Me Continue | bit.ly/HelpGamerPoets 💓 Ko-Fi | Patreon Alternative | ko-fi.com/gamerpoets 💓 PayPal | Tip Jar | goo.gl/oTXR6P

[@VividNation]

glad to been part of it once ;)

[@Confused_Slime]

Happy 10 year!

[@Perrajajaja]

Skyrim-hero🎉

[@MBroam]

Congrats on the 10 years of being awesome!

[@Doubled1111]

i really want to mod this one vr game called monkey see monkey doo doo

[@Elwood288]

Absolute legend fighting the good fight against auto updates.

[@gamerpoets]

😉

[@dewalashape1224]

Straight to the point in not even 5 minutes, no wasting time trying to sell us shadow raid legends or wasting 10 minutes with talking about nonsense. Much aprecciated

[@gamerpoets]

Glad you liked it:)

[@logantatom738]

@@gamerpoets Being straight to the point and easy to understand is earned you my sub, keep at it ma dood!

[@xangodango]

shudders at the mention of that 'game'

[@johnmathis952]

A true legend

[@Daemonor-q2w]

Hell I wouldn't even have minded a raid sponsorship this video was very helpful!

[@allergicpeanut6744]

congrats on 10 years. Been watching your Skyrim videos since the Beginning! Your doing an amazing job. Easy to learn content is much appreciated!

[@gamerpoets]

Appreciate you hanging out for so long ;)

[@skywise001]

I started when he went into FO4 stuff. Never had a bad tip from him in all these years.

[@alguem5996]

One of the best things I did was buying the GOG version of Skyrim. It's so nice to be able to just not worry about an update breaking my mods.

[@gamerpoets]

I get everything I can from there. They even fix some things for you in certain games (fo3 for example)

[@alguem5996]

@@gamerpoets Me too! GOG is an amazing storefront. As much as I like Steam, it's great to actually own the games you buy.

[@skywise001]

@@gamerpoetsIm just uncertain about the profits flowing back to support the CCP in China. Also the data mining they do.

[@muhammadnursyahmi9440]

​@@skywise001 you're thinking about Epic Games. GOG is owned by CD Projekt Red

[@gamerpoets]

The Witcher game creators own gog

[@beanlord4347]

Congratulations on 10 years, your videos have been a godsend in helping me figure out modding. Looking forward to another 10!

[@gamerpoets]

More on the way ;)

[@SagaraUrz]

They take away ownership of our games more each day. Steam used to allow to run outdated games versions. Now you are forced to update it if you want to run it from steam

[@strider1237]

My guy, your voice sounds like the trustworthy companion of every main character in gaming. Keep on keeping on.

[@AbsoluteDakka]

Never thought to request a video on this, but it seems like this topic should have been a no brainer. Excellent work as always!!!

[@gamerpoets]

thank you = )

[@OhHiMark001]

Who else is here to stop steam from updating fallout 4

[@iDan_Lopez]

Yup, Thanks Bethesda for f-ing up the Fallout London´s launch

[@BusinessMan1619]

I got that next gen update. I'm here to stop the update to fix the next gen update.

[@SomeJerkOnTheInternet]

Right over here

[@WilsonBradleyTheOfficial]

Here to stop Cyberpunk from the next big one , breaking all mods..

[@bazzy5644]

@@WilsonBradleyTheOfficial I thought Cyberpunk was completed a while ago, honestly? Are they still updating the game even after the DLC is out and all that?

[@MightyDantheman]

Thank you for this video. Yesterday I accidentally started Skyrim through Vortex (SKSE) without having Steam open first. I had never done that before, but because of that, it made Steam start updating Skyrim despite me having it set to not do that. Luckily I was able to pause and cancel the update, but it kept trying to update each time I opened Steam after that point. It got very close to finishing the update, and sadly I can't see a way to uninstall an update in progress, but setting the app manifest to read-only has prevented it from updating any further. Even when I try to force it to update, it now says "DISK WRITE ERROR". I love Steam, but sometimes they try to be overly helpful in a bad way. Please leave my game files alone if I set them to be left alone. So, once again, thank you for this video. I nearly lost my Skyrim game of over 500+ non-modlist mods.

[@nojuice457]

perfect use of a special voice. love it. ty for the content and help

[@gamerpoets]

Thank you for the kind comment = )

[@nojuice457]

@@gamerpoets just keeping the algo flow right

[@haven1048]

Hey just wanna say this is the most comfortable tutorial I've ever watched. You know what youre talking about, you communicate it in a very calm and direct manner that is easy to understand, and you just have this really lovely aura about you. So thank you, I actually enjoyed watching a tutorial?!

[@gamerpoets]

I'm glad that you enjoyed it :) thanks for your kind words

[@pprimal]

Thanks man, Im barely entering the modding scene of Skyrim myself, and these videos help out alot.

[@gamerpoets]

Happy that the videos have been able to help

[@Tenlaven]

Congratulations on 10 years man! I'm glad you're still making videos, they've been incredibly helpful. Even though I'm on Linux now, I still look to you for guidance when I'm modding Bethesda games. A tip though, you can find the App ID for your games in the Updates tab of the Properties menu, just below the Background Downloads section (see 0:50), no extra steps needed :)

[@gamerpoets]

😊 🙏

[@futureferrarimusic]

Glad to see you had a good recovery and making videos again!

[@gamerpoets]

;)

[@joemanta504]

Excellent tutorial ,i spent about an hour or more trying to get skyrim to work because of the recent update they just did,i finally got it working again but i had to dowgrade it manually, the down grade patcher currently is not working ,from what i read they plan another update real soon ,thanks to your tutorial i set all my modded games to read only and stopped steam from auto starting .

[@guidodingemans]

I've just applied every single method you're suggesting in this video, just to be on the safe side :) Let's see if that's gonna stop Bethesda's Next Gen Update from breaking my extensively modded game tomorrow... Great video, much appreciated, just like all your other tutorials. It's obvious how much care and love you're putting into them. Keep it up!

[@gamerpoets]

I appreciate your words = ) The method that seems to be the most affective is the manifest option but I tend to use them asll, as well, if I don't want to mess around. I'm sure one day Steam will find a way to get around the manifest lol

[@guidodingemans]

@@gamerpoets Great, one of your methods, or all of them, definitely worked, since it stopped the dreaded update from happening! I guess it's gonna stay 'scheduled' for a very long time, until I'm sure al F4SE mods in my 'very stable' load order will still work after updating. Thanks again, and have a great day!

[@magus8015]

A decade of dulcet tones….congrats, GP!❤🎉😎

[@gamerpoets]

Thanks buddy 😉

[@CottonUwU1399]

Thanks for showing the read only method, haven't seen anyone else show that before. Helped me out with beat saber, thanks man

[@woodersonandmelbatoast6043]

All I wanted to do was stop Witcher 3 from updating so it doesn’t break my mods. What I actually found was the most soothing voice in the world trying to pull me into a relaxing slumber…I subscribed out of principle. That voice demands an audience.

[@HangrySaturn]

This channel is what taught me how to mod Skyrim and for that I owe them a debt of gratitude.

[@christopherkrueger5948]

Dude, you should be on radio, seriously. Could you do a quick video on your MO2 Separator lineup?

[@Lost_in_the_Blink]

Been a while since I watched your videos or heard this rich voice. This was fantastic so thank you very much!

[@JonnyAugust1]

Here's another brute force method. Copy the entire game folder -> Let game update -> Replace entire folder with the copied game folder. It also tricks Steam into thinking it updated the game and will stop prompting and allow you to use the play button like normal.

[@KevKrieger32]

First I only did the first steps by myself and I thought it only prevents the auto-update, but not the update itself. But the tip with the read-only option really helps! I didn't know a single file operates the updates. Thank you! :D

[@darklegion1783]

Hey gamer poets! thank you for your skyrim guides over the years they have come in clutch a dozen times now for me!

[@Munggoon]

Manifest thing was brilliant. Thanks a lot!

[@gamerpoets]

Happy that it helped = )

[@thedigitaljedi0079]

Man your cool and calm demeanor could initiate world peace! Subscribed

[@kolia355]

Thank you so much, I had to change a game a bit to allow me to play in my preferred region, and Steam constantly tried updating it, despite me running the game directly through its launcher

[@iyreshot]

Always happy to see you upload...thanks for the tutorial! 🙂

[@gamerpoets]

I appreciate ya = )

[@GrandAdmThrawn]

4 days till Fallout 4 update on Steam. I hope these will help cause I don't want to start the game over, too many mods.

[@SolidJungle]

Thank you for this video! Came here after the Fallout 4 update. Didn't want the mods to break!

[@gamerpoets]

Hope it was able to help :)

[@GeeGe.]

About opening Steam before your mod manager: If you're using a script injector like SKSE and you try to launch the game through a mod manager before Steam is opened, apparently it can cause the game to launch through the "vanilla" .exe. That said, I'm not the most advanced mod user so there might be more to it that I'm just unaware of. Thanks for not only this video but your entire channel. I really love everything about it.

[@gamerpoets]

I think that might be what it is? Someone else mentioned somewhere deep down in the comments the reason. Of course I can't remember lol but it's at least in here.

[@haskamoosic9371]

Doing this now in preperation for the Fallout 4 "next gen" update lol, my modlist is quite small but a few of them are reliant on F4SE, dont wanna wait till it all gets updated on the nexus to play lol

[@gamerpoets]

I hear ya. "Making the game more mod compatible"... when I read that my heart sank lol

[@EvigDystymi]

I just needed a simple start up command, liked your name amongst the others, love your voice. Great editing, and good video all around, you have gained a new subscriber !

[@bluebenjys]

Regarding why opening steam first can help! On bethesda games, notably Fallout 4 and Skyrim, when launching from the mod manager BEFORE opening steam, the game may open a window that allows you to change settings, etc... This window (for fallout 4 it is small, with power armor on your left and menu on your right) is counted as the vanilla game, meaning you did not launch the Script Extender. Therefore, it will prompt the "only update when I launch" setting and begin the game's update. By starting steam first, you prevent this window from being opened, and properly start the Script Extender.

[@LordNifty]

I already had Fallout 4 on Steam, and I purchased Fallout 4 on GOG during a deep sale to avoid all this. I'm not sure why Steam doesn't allow direct version control.

[@Vextipher]

Could have sworn I was subscribed to you, wondered why I felt it's been a while. Timing helps and video editing is crisp!

[@gamerpoets]

Welcome back = )

[@paulblack3608]

For Skyrim, I have Mod organizer using a completely separate copy of the game in a location steam isn't attached to. I also keep the pristine original unmodded game files (about 14gb) in another separate spot to use as a source for new game installs. The copy of the game Steam is attached to is unused and untouched. So it doesn't matter what they do to it. It can't effect the game I actually use. Many wabbajack lists will do this for you as part of the initial setup. Works great. You just have to stay on top of where mo2 is putting everything and stay in control of the pathing to things like ini files etc... mo2 has options for all of it. cheers.

[@CosyGrave]

Preping for that fallout 4 update

[@holymosey2556]

Hey, man, thanks for helping everyone out for all these years! ✌

[@gamerpoets]

😊 🙏

[@Rocky-or4rz]

Right click game > Properties > DLC > uncheck box for each DLC listed. What this does is prevent the game from updating or installing DLC you do not want it to. The reason I do this is because I might not always want to play with all the Skyrim AE DLC. I remove them from the game folder and install them into my mod manager like any other mod so I can choose when they are used. I also use an older USSEP from preAE so that does not have problems as well if they are not installed. I do not need clutter in my load order I am not using. Thanks for this video. At least half of your suggestions I knew nothing about. Interesting.

[@Rafalucija]

Thanks bro, you're a goddamn life saver. Invested 20 days of playtime in my Fallout 4, not going to let a new update ruin everything.

[@gamerpoets]

Make sure to do each part to be safe :)

[@NeinDao]

thanks, ill try to stop steam from updating fallout 4 with this!

[@ProtoPropski]

Thank-you, as someone who uses mods I appreciate the appmanifest tip, I play Persona 5 Royal, and it's more then stable enough for my liking on 1.03b, and to boot it's like 98% offline with only thing online is an optional online daily stats panel which really doesn't add much, personally I value my mods more, and having a forced update break EVERYTHING forcing the mod developers to catch up is just not an option for me period end of discussion.. I know valve is probably forced to include forced updates to sate the larger game studios, but I'll keep fighting to keep my games on the version I decide they should be on when I decide they should be on it.

[@BrokenSmokinSpokes]

The Giga Chad of tutorials

[@TJNeese]

This was so perfectly simple & well said. Thank you so much.

[@LSMadness]

Might be a bit random to ask, but have you considered making a custom follower with your voice? I could hear you talking for hours, good sir! Would be awesome to have you as a follower in Skyrim

[@gamerpoets]

Not something I'd have the time for. I've voiced a few things for friends over the years. Who knows what the future holds 😉

[@LSMadness]

@@gamerpoets I'll be there when and if that happens, thank you for your amazing tutorials over the years, cheers!

[@Adam-FR]

Omg... your voice is... mystical.

[@Gamerlein]

Such an amazing tutorial video! Thanks for putting so much effort into visualizing it that great ♥ I'm impressed!

[@gamerpoets]

Glad you liked it :)

[@AlexK-vh9wn]

I love your videos and your positive attitude! 10 years of Gamer Poets and the positivity makes me smile every time I see a video of you. You are a gem to the modding community. Please continue with these awesome videos. :) Have a great day.

[@gamerpoets]

😊 🙏

[@K.J.Schmutz]

You're looking really good brother, glad to see you back!

[@gamerpoets]

Thank you sir = )

[@sirdaemon5338]

Great video, another tip is to back up the master files, .dlls and executables - if you use vortex you can place them in your manager and install them as a mod (Engine injector) to the root directory if needed.

[@gamerpoets]

👍 that's a cool method

[@warman48]

I’m doing everything I can to prevent fallout 4 from updating but it’s already at 1% before I stopped it. Is it too late to be saved?

[@gamerpoets]

IF you can cancel the update I would guess you'd be fine but I'm not 100%. I believe there is away to revert with Steam Depot files. Thinking my next video will be that.

[@spooders8943]

thank you so much now I can enjoy resident evil 2 remake ultrawide with no paranoia of steam updates breaking it

[@gamerpoets]

Enjoy your game = ) Make sure the manifest option is done (as its likely the best) but doing them all helps.

[@AndreasVictorsson]

Just what I needed GP, you magical bearded modding god...! I was paranoid launching Fo4 even via F4SE cause I thought steam would auto update.

[@gamerpoets]

You can downgrade fo4 if needed, too. Thinking about making a video for it

[@JohnCastleSmokeless]

Just as a thought: I habitually run my Steam games with Steam offline, Just Because.

[@gamerpoets]

I do sometimes as well.

[@JinxyZombieHyperdrive]

Just subscribed! This is brilliant ! You have an amazing voice as well!

[@xShane1122x]

You rock man🤘🏻 Always appreciate you and love your videos

[@amind8324]

We clearly not deserve you man, thank you for all your tutorials !

[@fourofcats5803]

Haha I was just looking for this 30 minutes before upload. Thank you!

[@gamerpoets]

😉

[@OnlyTheFinestPizza]

Wow what a great video man. Your voice is very calming and the video was informative. The new next gen update will break my mods so im not updating untill fallout london offically gets released on the "next gen" update. I was able to launch it on steam perfactly fine with the app manifest method. Just to be safe though i also changed it to update on launch, and launch with the script extender.

[@gamerpoets]

😊 🙏

[@Junoncross]

I like your style dude. Good attitude, good voice, good delivery. +1 Sub to you sir.

[@demonicsplinter]

Betting this video is going to be getting a boost of views in the coming days, since Bethesda just released a virus (sorry, 'next-gen update') for Fallout 4.

[@gamerpoets]

I think it's over now that the update happen? Maybe people who haven't played in a while will use it later? .... hopefully it helps anyone who doesn't want the update

[@Razshagaul]

I wish I knew all of this when Skyrim: Special Edition updated. I lost access to my game because my computer couldn't handle Anniversary Edition, so I downloaded a mod that backdated the game to before the update (best of both worlds so I could keep free Creation Club stuff). But when Steam updated and got rid of backdating games, it updated without my permission, and I could no longer use it again. I miss that game; I made it beautiful with mods. Can't do the same with Oldrim because it can't handle graphic mods as well as SE could and keeps crashing. Such a shame.

[@WilsonBradleyTheOfficial]

Ha, subscribing just because I like your mellow dramatic way in your great tutorial. lol . Don't know if it's intentional, but it's funny

[@xpalmerox]

This video is about to get really popular. with fallout 4 fans.

[@AstralKat]

This was really helpful but steam autoupdated one of my apps despite me having it set to "only when I launch it" and I only launched it through the Reloaded II mod manager, thank god I have a way to manually downgrade the application but im hoping I dont have to do this every time I want to play the game with mods

[@ElimRawne]

Noice! Michael, you are, and forever will be, thé poet of Gamers. Thank you for these nuggets of value!

[@gamerpoets]

😊 🙏

[@Rectu]

Got here because of F4 and FOLON, stayed because of the soothing voice. I hope you narrate audiobooks.

[@gamerpoets]

Glad to have ya :)

[@AlycyaJane]

Happy 10th anniversary, here's to 10 more years of fantastically-useful content 🍻

[@gamerpoets]

Thank you! :)

[@TheDisasterMaster2]

GamerPoets is my hero, thank you for your service friend

[@ZephrusPrime]

The hero we all needed!

[@archcabbage]

10 years of magnificence and wholesomeness

[@RichardGomore]

It almost helped me. THO Steam is bad at telling you that you don't have enught disk space for an update. Check you disk space and make room for updates.

[@mesquiteaviation]

quite possibly the greatest tutorial video I have ever seen. :)

[@gamerpoets]

Happy you liked it :)

[@timh.7169]

Thank you, Todd seems to plan on destroying my hard work of modding New Vegas

[@gschau2818]

Thanks! Got a heads up that Skyrim might get updated and I do not wish to do redo my modlist haha

[@gamerpoets]

You can also back up your game folder, if you want to be really safe

[@NinoKatzmann]

Why start Steam before starting Skyrim Special Edition with MO2? Simple: When you start the SKSE Loader or the normal Launcher, it will do an Update after starting Skyrim SE via Steam and it will start the Launcher, potentially destroying your Skyrim ini Settings. Also: MO2 will be blocked by Steam itself until you quit Steam (my experience with MO 2.5.1rc2)

[@DarthMerlin]

Just out of curiosity, have you ever heard of the Steam setting "Update this game only when I launch it" getting changed back to the default setting by Steam without the user choosing it? Because I've had that happen recently.

[@skywise001]

I have it set to only update between 12-1 am and so it only updates when I launch the game and set so it stops all downloads while playing. So there is only a really narrow window and if it starts trying to download Ill hopefully notice it and can go offline. I love your videos - the new ones are kind fo slick but dont feel like 'you'. I cant be the only one missing your puppies.

[@locknstock9423]

Cheers dude! Very informative and straightforward. Now I can play Fallout 4 with my mods again. Funnily enough, I don't even need to go into Offline Mode for it to run properly.

[@gamerpoets]

Glad it's working = ) Thanks for sharing your experience on the other comment as well

[@ChrisMedley]

The best just keeps on giving!

[@gamerpoets]

Always good to see ya, man ;)

[@MrsRoadRunner2000]

Great advice as always! Thank you!

[@BurpAtTheMoon]

Thank you! Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader just announced an updated that destroys most classes' ability to deal damage...I can't refund it now, so this will be the only solution.

[@gamerpoets]

I hope this helps = )

[@Balsiefen]

This is a great video. Does it still work with DRM infested games such as those with Denuvo?

[@gamerpoets]

I don't know about games I haven't played but the app manifest option is the most reliable

[@Balsiefen]

@@gamerpoets Thanks, it certainly sounds worth a shot!

[@bstoker9468]

Thanks! This helped me to stop the new fallout 4 update!

[@gamerpoets]

Thank you very much! :)

[@Night-Rider101]

Very good informational video! amazing work as always!

[@gamerpoets]

Happy you liked it = ) Thank you, kindly

[@zDialecticChaos]

your videos are awesome congrats on 10 years

[@gamerpoets]

I appreciate that = )

[@NoahTaboada]

Nice video man. Wish you a long and peaceful life😁.

[@gamerpoets]

😊 🙏

[@madisons2117]

i wish I could do this with my phone next. this process is so extensive and clearly designed to dissuade us from stopping updates. Its like they only care about stopping cheaters from accessing multiplayer stuff so we modders are considered an "acceptable casualty" of sorts. Maybe mods are nothing more than a hinderance to these folk. wouldn't be surprised if they tried to take after John Deere here soon.

[@ДраконищеХрум]

My favorite wizard shows his magic again! =)

[@gamerpoets]

🪄 ✨️ 😉

[@DJ-me9kw]

A great and simple tutorial that works well.

[@tomallan5000]

Great info. Thank you so much for your efforts.

[@jhoyciv]

As always very useful!! Love your videos

[@gamerpoets]

thank you very much = )

[@sirdaemon5338]

If you try and run Skyrim via the mod manager/skse without first opening steam, it will default to vanilla executable and will initiate update procedure

[@gamerpoets]

That is cool to know. Appreciate the info :)

[@mikewalkner9627]

Thank you for this info! Liked and subbed.

[@gamerpoets]

Glad to have you = )

[@bigmillgaming2362]

Thanks man. I install alot of mods for xenoverse 2 and every update I would have to reinstall everything

[@gamerpoets]

Hopefully the video can help :)

[@MonolithTMA]

I'll be sending this to all of my friends who wonder why all their mods break after every update.