I’ve been using my Steam Deck for a year now, always with storage issues even though I have a 512GB SD card. I recently booted it up after months and got a message saying I need at least 250MB free for updates, but nothing is installed on it. I’ve tried moving shaders and other files manually and with programs that are supposed to help, but the storage always fills back up and causes issues. Is there any way to actually free up space or manage my SD card better so I can use it today, or am I stuck waiting until I can afford a bigger internal SSD?
2 Answers
One useful trick is to keep copying the compatdata and shader cache folders over to your SD card as new games create more files. Instead of just moving the folders, drag and drop them back while choosing the option to “copy link” (making symlinks). This way, the system thinks the data is still in place but it actually uses the SD card storage. It’s a bit of a hassle but it helps manage limited space, especially on 64GB cards.
A big culprit for using up space is the compatdata folder. It can grow pretty large since it holds Proton/Wine data for game compatibility. You might want to check how big that folder is; in your case, it could be a few gigabytes already. Cleaning or managing that can free up some room on your SD.
Yeah, just checked mine and it’s sitting around 4GB right now.
Oh wow, didn’t realize that’s what the link copying does. That actually might help a lot, thanks!