Fix Steam Game Accidental Deletion on Windows 10

Steam is a popular platform among gamers. It was created by Valve and contains several games available for users to download. Users can also sell games on Steam and do other things like trade items and chat with other players in groups. The platform is superbly supported by Valve, however it has some issues from time to time. Recently, some users reported that their Steam game was deleted randomly and in some cases their installed games are showing as deleted. It can be frustrating to find out that your Steam game has deleted itself. If you are also facing the same issue, you are in the right place. We bring you the perfect guide to help you solve the problem of accidentally deleting Steam games.

How to Fix Steam Game Accidental Deletion on Windows 10

There can be many reasons for accidentally deleting Steam games. Here are some of them.

• Steam doesn't see library folder
• Problems reading the ClientRegistry file
• Corrupt application manifest file

After looking into the possible reasons why your Steam game uninstalled itself, let's look at some ways to resolve this issue when your installed games appear as deleted.

Method 1: Create a New Library Folder

If you download your Steam games to a separate folder, sometimes Steam can be hard to find and won't detect your game. This may result in the game being accidentally deleted by Steam. To fix this problem, you can create a new library folder to store your games. Follow the steps below to do the same.

1. Press the Windows key, type Steam and click Open.

2. In the upper right corner, click on the Steam option and select "Settings".

3. Then click "Downloads" on the left panel.

4. Now in the Content Libraries section, click the STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS button. The Storage Manager window will open showing your current drives.

5. Then click the + symbol next to your drives. You will see the prompt "Add a new Steam library folder".

6. Then click the dropdown menu and select "Let me choose a different location option".

7. Click the Add button.

8. After that Create or select a new Steam Library folder: a window will appear. Choose one of them:

• an already existing folder or
• create a new one by clicking the "New Folder..." button.

9. After selecting the desired folder, click the "Select" button.

Method 2: launch games directly

If you're still facing the problem of accidentally deleting a Steam game, you can try launching the games directly from the shared folder by selecting their executables. Some users have reported that this method fixed the issue. To do this, follow these steps.

1. Right-click on the Steam shortcut icon and select "Open File Location".

Note. If you don't have a Steam shortcut, you can access the Steam folder by going to the default folder, which is C:Program Files (x86)Steam. Or read our guide Where Steam Games Are Installed here.

2. In the Steam folder, find and double-click the steamapps folder.

3. In the Steamapps folder, find the shared folder and double click on it.

4. Locate the game folder (eg Chess) that is causing the problem and double-click it.

5. Locate the .exe file of this game and double click it to open it. Confirm any Steam prompt.

Method 3: Edit the Application Manifest File

The Appmanifest file is located in the steamapps folder and stores information about the location of the Steam game. But it can be corrupted by your antivirus program, which can detect it as a malicious file. This may result in the game being accidentally deleted by Steam. You can fix this issue by modifying the appmanifest file by doing the following.

1. Navigate to the Steamapps folder as shown in method 2.

2. Locate the appmanifest_X.acf file here. Here X stands for the game id, which will vary from game to game.

Note. If you're not sure which ID the game represents, you can find that ID on the SteamDB info page. You will receive the necessary information.

3. Right-click the appmanifest_X.acf file and choose Open With > Notepad.

4. In Notepad, press the Ctrl + F keys at the same time to open the search box.

5. Type installdir in the text box next to Find what and click the Find Next button.

6. Once installdir is found, replace the text there with the name of the game folder.

Note: You can check the name of the game folder in this location C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommon. All games are here.

7. Launch the Steam app from the Windows search bar.

Sometimes the antivirus program may delete the application manifest file, if you can't find the application manifest file in the steamapps folder, please follow the steps below.

8. Find the ID of the game causing the error on the steamdb info page. Write it down.

9. Navigate to the specified path in the explorer.

C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappsdownloading

10. Inside the download folder, find the folder with the ID number you provided in step 8.

11. Double click it to open and then collapse.

12. Launch Steam and go to the top right corner and select the "Library" tab.

13. In the right pane, under Games, locate the problematic game, right-click it, and select Install.

14. Once you click Install, check the folder you are collapsing in step 11. Delete all the files that are in it by pressing the Ctrl + A keys together to select all the files, and then right-click and select the option " Delete".

After that, Steam will stop downloading the game and check for the missing file, which will download later. This should fix the issue.

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We hope this guide was helpful and that you were able to resolve the problem of accidentally deleting a game on Steam. Let us know which method worked best for you. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments section.