Steam for Linux NEEDS to include external hard drives in Library Folders :: Steam for Linux Feature Requests/Recommendations

Steam for Linux

All Discussions Artwork Videos News Guides

Steam for Linux > Feature Requests/Recommendations > Topic Details

APT-GET

7 Jun, 2020 @ 9:13am

Steam for Linux NEEDS to include external hard drives in Library Folders

I've scoured the internet for anything that can help, and tried everything I found to the letter, but Steam still refuses to read my mounted external drive in the library folder selection menu. I have my entire steam library from Windows on my external - terabytes of steam games that simply cannot fit on my main hard drive - and Steam refuses to read anything outside of the / directory.

Please, lord Gaben, we beseech thee: Make external hard drives compatible with Steam!

BIG EDIT CAUSE ME BIG DUM DUM

./media/YOURNAME/YOUR_EXTERNAL_HARD_DRIVE

I just didn't know where to find it me big dum dum sorry Lord Gaben twas no fault of yours!

Last edited by APT-GET; 6 Jul, 2020 @ 3:40pm

< >

Showing 1-6 of 6 comments

Marlock

7 Jun, 2020 @ 11:58am

there is a good chance you're using the flatpak version of Steam, which is sandboxed so it can't see them unless you symlink stuff outside the sandbox to a folder inside it or tweak some sandbox settings for this flatpak

and, even if not, it's a matter of having tge external drive automount on boot via fstab to a folder you specify, so it can always be seen when steam starts (or mount manually but you'll have to remember to do it always before running steam or the library won't be found)

WarnerCK

7 Jun, 2020 @ 12:00pm

Steam can read from external drives just fine.

If you're using NTFS then you need to mount with particular options to overcome NTFS' inadequacies.

If you're using Steam as a snap then you need to enable the interface that allows it to access things outside its sandbox.

Marlock

30 Jun, 2020 @ 2:33pm

to be fair, it's not immediately obvious to a lot of windows users that an external disk even *can* be multi-partitioned and formatted to some other format than NTFS, because all of them come from the factory with a single NTFS partition (and some even with unnecessary .exe inside too, as if special drivers or 3rd-party tools were necessary at all, LOL)

Human

24 Oct, 2020 @ 7:10am

I have used a slave drive in steam. what you need to do is mount the drive, THEN start steam, then install the game on that drive from steam. every time you want to play that game from that drive afterwords, you will ALWAYS have to mount the drive BEFORE starting steam.... its a real pain. if you start steam before mounting the drive, the game will show on your steam list as not installed... if that happens, close steam, mount the drive, then restart steam. i think what your trying to say, is for steam to auto mount the drive for you since the games installed there? i think that would be good for them to do. ..

Marlock

24 Oct, 2020 @ 7:51am

exactly! and that auto-mount behaviour (on boot if already plugged or otherwise as soon as it is plugged) can be achieved by configuring a new entry in the fstab file