Steam Cache Cleanup: Downloads, Shaders and Dead Libraries

Where Steam hides the gigabytes

The install folder is the main offender. steamapps\downloading holds partial and abandoned downloads — a 90 GB game that failed at 80 GB stays there until you deal with it. steamapps\workshop keeps mods and creator content, which Cities: Skylines or Garry's Mod players know can dwarf the games themselves, while appcache, htmlcache, logs and dumps hold store UI data that Steam rebuilds on demand.

On top of that sit the shader caches. Steam's own shader pre-caching (Settings > Downloads) builds GPU-specific data for every game you own, and the graphics driver keeps parallel caches of its own. A GPU upgrade or a string of driver updates leaves orphaned gigabytes that nothing will ever read again.

What is safe to delete

Do this with Steam closed and nothing mid-download. Every item below is data Steam or the driver regenerates when it actually needs it.

• steamapps\downloading — stuck and partial downloads; empty it whenever nothing is downloading
• The Clear Download Cache button in Steam settings — the built-in reset for downloads that refuse to progress; it signs you out
• steamapps\workshop\content\<appid> — unused workshop mods: unsubscribe in the Workshop first, then delete the folders
• appcache, htmlcache, logs, dumps — store interface cache and logs; Steam rebuilds them on the next launch
• Shader pre-caching: turn it off in Settings > Downloads if your games stutter anyway, and after a GPU swap purge the driver's DXCache/GLCache folders
• Dead libraries: in Settings > Storage, remove every library on a drive you no longer own — otherwise Steam carries it in libraryfolders.vdf forever

What must survive your cleanup

Never touch userdata\<yourid>: per-game saves, configurations and screenshots for titles without Steam Cloud live there, and deleting it removes proof, progress and settings in one move. The ssfn files in the Steam root are Steam Guard machine tokens — removing them means re-verifying every device, with a trade hold on the newly verified one. A one-off backup of userdata costs nothing and has rescued more save files than any cache cleanup ever will.

Deleting the appmanifest.acf of an installed game orphans its files: Steam shows nothing installed while the folder keeps occupying space until you notice. When you want a game gone, uninstall it properly first and sweep the leftover folder afterwards — in that order the library stays tidy and the saves stay safe. Steam's Storage page only lists what the manifests know about, so orphaned folders are invisible there — which is how they survive for years.

Questions and Answers

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