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New Steam feature lets you copy games to the Steam Deck (or between PCs) without redownloading

https://www.pcgamer.com/new-steam-f...am-deck-or-between-pcs-without-redownloading/
This will make bandwidth caps a lot less stressful.
PC gamers with slow internet connections or bandwidth caps rejoice: Valve has just launched a feature in the latest Steam beta allowing users to transfer game installations from a PC to the Steam Deck or another PC on the same local network. Instead of downloading all 50 gigabytes of Elden Ring on your desktop and laptop, for example, you can now download the game once and copy it to your second device.


The feature is live now in the latest Steam Deck beta and the latest beta client on desktop.

This feature was first spotted in the Steam OS code back in October, so it's nice to see it come to fruition. "A common use case would be a home setup with multiple PCs or Steam Decks on the same local network," Valve writes in a new FAQ. Once a game is installed on one PC, all other PCs or the Steam Deck can install or update that game by transferring files directly from that one PC. A modern PC can easily transfer game content with 100MB/sec, and during the transfer the Steam client sending content will generate disk and CPU load (ie, you probably wouldn't want to be doing any intensive tasks on this PC during the transfer)."

You can now download a game and transfer it between your PC and Steamdeck instead of downloading, or across numerous devices on a Local network, instead of having to hit your data-cap, or paying extra for going over your mininimum, or hitting a speed throttle, by downloading the game you want each time for each device individually.

Unless your from outside the US, you may not have the same caps, but it's still a convenient feature.
 

Pejo

Member
That's fucking cool and people with a deck, gaming PC, and a metered internet connection are probably high on life right now.

Looks like it also works if you have 2 gaming PCs or a gaming PC and a laptop. Good shit.
 

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
I remember way back in Steam early days being able to backup the games. Did they remove that feature then bring it back? It's been so long since I used that backup feature that my fast internet is faster than moving shit around on spinning harddrives.
 
This feature rocks hard! I've mostly been playing my library on my Steam Deck, but good to know that I can do a quick PC transfer instead of the whole new installation rigamarole.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Can I use this to get other files that aren’t steam games from PC to my steam deck? 🤔

Been using syncthing and it’s kind of a pain in the ass
 

DavidGzz

Member
Perfect! New rig incoming and this will be very nice for my data cap. It will be great for my Deck too.
 
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Should the files be on SteamOS or Windows too? Can I just copy the entire steamapps/common folder onto the Deck and see what all games are running via Proton?
 
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