How to fix disk space errors on Steam [Simplest methods]
- Steam is the most popular game distribution software, but sometimes errors can occur.
- Today we're taking a look at why Steam thinks you don't have any free space.
- A first solution is to clear the Steam download cache by following our steps below.
- You can also try to repair your Steam library files and check out our article for other solutions.
Steam is one of the most popular digital distribution platforms in the world. From 2003 when it was first released until today, millions of users worldwide enjoy downloading and playing games through it.
Once Steam only offered first-party games, but now it has developed and allows access to third-party games and developers. With more and more features on every update comes also the risk of errors.
One of the most common issues users have reported in Windows 10 is the Not enough disk space error when trying to download a game, even though there was plenty of space on the computer.
Fortunately, there are a lot of solutions to this problem, and today we will go through them.
First and foremost, let’s try some quick and simple solutions like freeing up some disk space, rebooting your Windows 10 PC, disabling the antivirus or running Steam as an administrator.
If none of them worked, we can try some more advanced solutions. For more on how to do that, check out our guide below.
How do I fix the disk space errors on Steam?
1. Clear Steam Download cache
- Launch Steam and go to Settings.
- In the left panel choose Downloads.
- In the bottom of the window, there should be a Clear Download Cache button. Click on it.
- This will clear your local download cache, and you will need to log in to Steam again. When this message will appear, click OK.
- Restart Steam, log in with your credentials and start the game download.
It’s possible that some of the files that Steam cached are incomplete or corrupted, so the best solution is to clear the cache. To do that, follow the above steps.
Also, if you have slow download speeds on Steam, you can fix the problem with ease by following our dedicated guide.
2. Repair Steam Library files
- Launch Steam and go to Settings.
- In the left panel choose Downloads.
- In the Content Libraries section click on Steam Library Folders.
- A new Steam Library Folders window should appear. Right-click on the Steam Registry C:Program Files (x86)Steam and select Repair Library Folder.
- Once the process is finished, restart Steam, log in with your credentials and start the game download again.
The Steam Library is where all your games are, and sometimes it’s not configured correctly. Additionally, you can verify the integrity of the game files:
- Launch Steam and go to Library.
- Find the game that’s of interest to you, right-click it, and choose Proprieties.
- Select the Local files tab and then click on Verify Integrity of Game Files.
- Restart Steam, log in with your credentials and continue the game download.
3. Delete the partially downloaded file
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and select Task Manager.
- Find all the Steam services that are running and click on End task for each of them.
- Go to your Steam directory. Usually, the path is C:Program Files (x86)Steam.
- Go to the Steamapps folder, and then downloading folder.
- Locate the folder that’s causing the problems. You can identify it by the application ID.
- Restart your PC, log in to Steam with your credentials and continue the game download.
If the download was interrupted by an error, then the files are incomplete thus creating a Steam conflict. To fix this, follow the above steps.
If you can’t delete the folder, then you might have managed to make it read-only. To fix it, do the following:
- In the Windows search bar type cmd.
- Right-click the result, and click Run as an administrator.
- In the cmd window type cd c:/program files (x86)/Steam and then attrib -r /S *.*.
- This should make your folder R/W again, and you should be able to delete it.
As you can see, there are a lot of solutions and workarounds to the Not enough disk space message error, and all of them are confirmed as working by users.
What can I do if Steam says there is not enough disk space? The fastest way to solve the issue is to clear the Steam download cache.
In most of the cases, incomplete or corrupted files are triggering the error. If that doesn’t work, repair your Steam library files and delete the partially downloaded game.
We hope that one of these solutions solved your problem. If you have any more questions, or you know other ways to solve the disk space issue on Steam, reach for the comments section below, and we’ll be sure to check it out.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Run Steam as an administrator. Additionally, we have a comprehensive list of Steam errors and their fixes where you can see how to get rid of disk write errors.
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Because it is reading the drive’s available disk space, and it thinks it is empty. This guide dedicated to fix disk space errors on Steam will show you how to fix this issue.
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In order to check out your disk space on Steam, you should to be logged in and go to Steam Library Folders.
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You can uninstall Steam games or use this specialized tool which deletes temp and duplicate files.
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If you want to make more space on your system drive, you can use the Disk Clean-up utility baked into Windows 10. For creating space on other drives, we recommend moving files to the cloud.
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In step 2, make sure you have a default folder. I had a perfectly good open and working folder, but it wasn’t set as default so steam thought I had no space.
Grace is right. Even if it says ‘yes’ on the default folder, just right click on it and set it as default folder again. I run multiple partitions of Windows 10 and somehow that messes with Steam’s default folder.
im getting this error when i have 142gigs of free space. i tried all this things and still doesnt help.