Why is Steam Uninstall so Slow? An Analysis for Impatient Gamers

As an avid PC gamer with over 200 titles in my Steam library, I‘ve wondered why deleting games always feels so sluggish. This prompted me to investigate what‘s happening behind the scenes when that uninstall progress bar creeps along.

Unfortunately, Steam‘s process for completely removing a game is fundamentally designed to be gradual, especially for massive modern titles. But by understanding the limitations in place, we can make informed choices about managing our libraries.

Taking Out the Trash, One File at a Time

So what‘s actually going on when you purge a game from your precious SSD? Steam is traversing through thousands of individual asset files, configurations, saved games, and directories related to that title…and deleting them one by one.

Modern games particularly have grown hugely complex with development teams often exceeding 100+ people working full time for years. For example, the recently released Marvel‘s Spider-Man Remastered clocks over 20GB installed. That‘s tens of thousands of unique files waiting to be removed.

Now delete that process by 50x for my entire library. Ouch.

By comparison, other game download services like Xbox Game Pass leverage advanced compression to deliver games in less segmented, more optimized packages. Steam‘s original 2008 infrastructure simply unpacks ‘as-is‘ assets from developer builds to your PC.

This means we‘re stuck watching a lot of micro-deletions occur. Like seeing Windows file transfer estimate times of 100+ years for copying a 10GB file!

Steam Libraries Are Ballooning – How Much Space Do We Really Need?

Gamers‘ storage demands have grown exponentially thanks to ballooning game sizes and our irresistible hoarding tendencies. But just how bad is it?

According to Valve‘s published Steam statistics from 2022:

• Average Steam library size is 36 games owned
• Typical installed game count steady at 10 games
• Mean storage space used is 256GB

That adds up quickly when Call of Duty: Warzone gobbles 142GB itself! And we can‘t forget those deal-hunting binge sessions that pad backlogs…

Modern gaming SSDs often start at 500GB, with 1-2TB drives common amongst enthusiasts now. If we follow the ‘half for OS and apps, half for games‘ rule, it‘s tough to keep our whole library installed!

My tips? Be merciless in pruning lesser played single player titles once you‘ve finished the campaign. Check out my post on balancing convenience vs storage wisely when managing Steam libraries with limited SSD room.

To The Cloud! But Should I Uninstall Locally?

Steam‘s pioneering adoption of cloud saving does alleviate some installation churn. As long as you‘ve got the bandwidth, feel free to uninstall and redownload games knowing your progress is (mostly) safe.

But we need to be aware of the limitations too:

• Non-cloud-synced game preferences and settings will be lost
• Cumulative update patch sizes can slow down reinstallation
• Internet data caps can be consumed rapidly redownloading 40GB+ games

My rule of thumb is to uninstall single player games immediately after completing my playthrough. Continuing multiplayer titles stay put.

Oh, and if you‘ve never checked it out, dig into Steam‘s cloud saving configuration options. You can select which game data like configs, keybinds, screenshots and more get synced or stored locally only. Don‘t get burned like my friend who raged after losing 100hrs of Civ 6 progress!

Optimizing Limited SSD Space for Steam Operations

If you‘re still squeezed for space like me and need to surgically free up precious GBs from Steam‘s clutches, try these advanced techniques:

Move as Many Games as Possible to Faster External Drives

Invest in a USB 3.2 external SSD to supplement your primary system disk. They‘ve nearly matched internal SSD speeds now for a shockingly affordable price per TB. This strategy lets you maintain access to more games while avoiding constant re-downloading.

| External SSD Rating | Read Speed | Cost per TB |
| ————-| ———– |
| Editor‘s Choice | Up to 1050 MB/s | $80-100 |
| Runner Up | Around 400 MB/s | $60-80 |

I setup my Steam library across both my 1TB NVMe system drive and 2TB Samsung T7 external SSD. By relocating 80% of installed games to the T7, I‘ve optimized my NVMe to have preferred games for faster level loads.

Configure Multiple Steam Library Folders

Not enough drives to hold all our games? Steam‘s allowing us to segment our libraries across different disks since 2019.

Navigate to Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders to add new locations. Then right click on any installed title and choose Move Install Folder accordingly. This helps manage what stays on precious internal SSD space vs a roomier HDD.

My delicately crafted Steam storage empire

Set Custom Game Backup Locations

Similar to the library folders, you can alsoredirect the SteamApps/common location per game via Properties > Local Files > Move Install Folder. Especially helpful when copying support mods/files between versions.

So don‘t despair the next time you dare uninstall Ark: Survival Evolved‘s 188GB mass! We may be stuck in Steam‘s selectively antiquated ways, but with some reconfiguring, our gaming SSD environments can survive and thrive.

Let me know if this helped explain what‘s happening behind the scenes when removing games on Steam, as well as better managing our precious storage. What other installation annoyances grind your gears? I‘m considering covering common Steam errors like disk write failures next.