How to move Steam games to another drive

Steam boasts an extensive library of games, enticing you to explore and try out as many as possible. However, storing all your games in a single location can lead to your drive storage reaching its limit. Besides uninstalling games, managing storage becomes crucial to free up space for new games and maintain organization. Here’s a guide on how to move Steam games to another drive.

How to move all Steam games to another drive

If you want to move your entire library, you’ll have to dive into some files and folders. Before you do any of this, however, it’s best to back up your “steamapps” folder. On Windows, go to This PC > Windows (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam. For macOS, go to Finder > Library > Application Support > Steam > steamapps. On Linux, it’s “~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps.”

After you back up your “steamapps” folder, here is what to do:

• Quit Steam and ensure the app is closed.
• Open your Steam installation folder. By default on Windows, this is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam”; on macOS, it’s “~/Library/Application Support/Steam”; on Linux, it’s “~/.local/share/Steam/” — note that this is a hidden folder and won’t appear in most file browsers by default.

• Delete everything except the “steamapps” and “userdata” folders and the Steam executable file itself.
• Cut and paste the entire “Steam” folder to the new location.
• Launch Steam and log in. Steam will update itself, and everything you download in the future will be installed in this new location.

How to move individual Steam games to another drive

If you want to move one or a few games to a new location, you can do so through Steam itself. Here’s what to do:

• Open Steam on your device.
• Click Steam at the top left corner of the screen.
• Choose Settings. The STEAM SETTINGS pop-up window will appear.
• At the left pane, select Storage.

• On the right, click the dropdown icon next to the default folder name.
• Select Add Drive.
• Choose the folder you want to add and click the Add button to confirm your decision.

• Click the LIBRARY tab at the top of the screen to open your Steam Library.
• Find the game you want to move. Right-click on it and then select Properties. A pop-up window will appear.

• Click on Installed Files at the left pane.
• On the right side, select Move install folder.
• In the pop-up window, choose the new drive as the location you want to move the game to and click Move.

Note that every game you install in the future after adding a library folder will ask you where you want to install it.

How to change the default Steam installation folder

After adding a new drive, you can change the default installation folder if you wish. Here’s how:

• Open Steam on your device.
• Click Steam at the top left corner of the screen.
• Choose Settings. The STEAM SETTINGS pop-up window will appear.
• At the left pane, select Storage.
• On the right, click the dropdown icon next to the current default folder name.

• Choose the drive that you want to set as the default.
• Click on the three horizontal dots (…) button.
• Select Make Default.

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