I have around 30 games installed on my Steam Deck, and I’ve noticed that the number of updates I see when I turn it on has dropped significantly. Initially, I would see about 15 games downloading updates, but now it’s only 1 or 2. I’ve been primarily playing 1 or 2 games, and when I load up a new game, it seems like a brief update happens before I can actually play. To check if my other games needed updates, I launched each one at least once, and afterward, the updates returned to around 15 during startup.
It feels like the games I haven’t played in a while go into some sort of sleep mode, which causes the Steam Deck not to automatically download their updates. Is there a way to change this behavior so that all my games download updates automatically, even if I haven’t played them in a while? I usually use my Deck at home or in the office where I’m always connected to Wi-Fi, so this shouldn’t be an issue.
4 Answers
Are you sure you’re seeing real updates and not just the shader cache refreshing? I’ve noticed that for the last couple of games I played, every time I turn on my Deck, it updates the shader cache but doesn’t actually have a game patch. That could be what’s happening!
I haven’t run into this problem myself. I booted up Baldur’s Gate 3 yesterday after months, and everything was completely up to date. So maybe it might just be a rare glitch for certain users? Check your settings!
The small updates you’re seeing might just be the latest Proton updates and shouldn’t affect your playtime when you’re out of Wi-Fi. To keep your updates consistent, try this: go into the properties of your games, head to compatibility, and select a non-experimental Proton version to lock in that download. Also, make sure you enable the option for ‘downloading in the background while playing’ in the settings; just be aware it might impact performance a bit. But, hey, it’s worth a shot! Let’s see if anyone else has other suggestions too!
Yeah, probably just shader cache downloads. Those aren’t super crucial. The Steam Deck generates its own cache as you play the game, so don’t stress about those downloads too much.
