Issue transferred from ValveSoftware/Proton#130.
@MartinPL posted on 2018-08-22T17:33:25:

So problem is that Steam after start keep downloading empy updates, i thinks it some save stuff.
https://i.imgur.com/im16Jsn.png

I got 21 of these a couple of hours ago when I turned on Steam.

For me some updates were not 0-bytes (but still looks like a savegame sync, and not a game update)

The issue is that it continues to retry those 0-bytes updates every time Steam launches

You will get this in all Steam starts

Surprisingly, not all windows-only games are affected by this issue.
By checking cache of each affected game steam client marks them as normal ones, but if I restart Steam client all those games return to previous state and require checking game cache again.

Steam library folder is on ext4 filesystem. This behaviour happens only with windows-only games.

I'm having the same issue:

The 'update' completes almost instantly for every game. Every time the Steam client is restarted, the Windows games must download this 'update' again. The Steam library folder is on a secondary ext4 hard drive on which I have full read/write permissions. I'm on Ubuntu 18.04.

All native games and most Windows games I've tried so far run successfully, but the Windows games require this instant, 0 byte 'update' to be installed before launching. Also, the Windows games run their first time setup every time they are launched, but I'm not sure if it's related. Native games don't have this problem.

Same issue.

Subscribing.

Same here. But I copied the games and the appmanifest files over from my Windows install to my Linux library (ext4). Maybe that's the problem? Maybe there's something in the manifest file that causes this?

Sometimes a few MB are downloaded, sometimes nothing, it seems. I'm also on Ubuntu 18.04. Steam initially installed from package manager.

I see the same issue with all natively (through steamplay) downloaded games.

This is a bigger issue than just 0 byte updates. I'm on Ubuntu 18.04 as well, when I launch it re-downloads ~13GB of Darksiders II, ~33GB of Dishonoured 2 and I uninstalled everything else for now to stop it downloading them.

Is it related to case-sensitivity of ext4 somehow?

Luckily all mine are 0 bytes, although DOOM occasionally tries to download about 280mb, @axredneck my games are on my NTFS drive and I have the same issue

My windows games are all in a steam library shared with my windows steam client and thus it's on a NTFS partition on another hard drive, so it's most likely not ext4 related. Also sometimes it actually downloads something for me, too. Like The Witcher 3 gets a 130MB download pretty often. And some don't need such an update ever, like Beat Saber or Superhot VR

@Zamundaaa I think that's just games which have updated, I have it occasionally for my newer games

This is also happening to me. However, for some games the update size is 354.3 MB (Bejeweled 3, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, Slab) while for others it's 0 bytes (Spelunky, Sorcery! Parts 1 & 2). This is not happening with native games.

The machine is running Linux Mint Cinnamon 18. With the exception of Slab, I moved these over from my other Linux machine (Linux Mint Mate 18) by using the backup and restore backup functionality of Steam. Both machines are in the Steam Beta. With the exception of Slab, all these games are on a 4TB hard drive (full-disk encrypted EXT4) that's separate from my OS installation which resides on an SSD.

354.3 MB

It's Proton itself

Happened that connecting my windows steam library (NTFS file system). Some games got deleted, or with 300MB circa of data remaining. I had to re-download all missing games.

On my system I'm seeing this for several titles. All games are installed to a library in a separate mount (/data/steam) which is a BTRFS file system. Verifying the local files and starting each game caused a couple to drop out of the list (as they should have been), but several persist on each restart of Steam no matter what.

Same problem here. Affected only steam play (proton) games.

@MrCapone please avoid the spam of 'me too' messages. If you are also affected, give this issue a 'thumbs up'. Thank you for understanding.

Occurs with Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity. I don't use Steam Cloud.

Ubuntu 18.04.1.

@dhollinger
My system is Linux Mint 19 (Based on Ubuntu 18.04). I use default steam path (~/.local/share/Steam/). And my /home directory on ext4 partition.

Per 'Fixed 0-byte downloads getting queued on startup for all Steam Play titles' in the 2019-01-16 Steam client beta update, please opt into the beta and retest this issue.

Fixed for me.

Fixed! (Arch + Btrfs)

after another 'download' of all installed games it is gone here too.
thanks a lot!

I had to let them all update once but on restart none rescheduled anymore. Thanks. It was very annoying

Yup, needed one more update to each Steam Play title and now it's solved. 👍

Seems to be fixed. Thank you!

Thanks for retesting, closing.

I'm already into beta (3.16-6). Should I do something to force redownload? Nothing changed for me, both regarding a client update or the zero sized updates.

Wondrous!

Hello @oblitum, downloads are managed by the Steam client, not Proton. You'll want to give https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7021-EIAH-8669 a read if you need help switching to the beta client.

@kisak-valve I'm using the beta client (necessary for proton 3.16-6 Beta), but I didn't get a recent client update (if I recall correctly), and the system is behaving basically like before, often full of zero sized updates. I asked because whether there's any means to force the beta client to update. I could have got the update already and don't know (and it's not fixing), or it still needs to be applied but for some reason I didn't receive it.

Update just arrived, thank god this is finally fixed o/ Move this fix out of beta soon! No one deserve this, it was painful.

By the way, just for anyone info, my games are on a NTFS partition, it has never been an issue (just needs to mount it with my user as owner).

Per 'Fixed 0-byte downloads getting queued on startup for all Steam Play titles' in the [2019-01-16]

Thank you Baby Jesus. Clicking through all that crap became a psychological test/game in itself.

With the re-release of the patch, I have noticed there's always 1 game which still presents a 0 byte download.

I have now a few games that are always in planned update state and cannot be brought to actually update.

I have now a few games that are always in planned update state and cannot be brought to actually update.

If the games are small enough have you tried reinstalling them?

The issue seems to have reappeared with today's update...? (that's the version built on Jan 19th 2019 at 2:01:59)

@evilynux it happened just once after the update for me, for all games.

Ah, trying to play one of the affected games forces a redownload. This may actually fix the issue. To be continued... the download will take some time (7.4 GB). I'll update the status here once it's over.

be careful! with todays update default settings changed and many games are forced to re-download.
'To reduce the amount of lost data, when you start the client after the update, go straight to the Steam settings > Steam Play and enable Proton for all titles and restart the client. The faster you can do that, the less data steam is able to delete.' via https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/ahi5i8/steam_client_beta_update_january_18th/eeet4t4
thx NoXPhasma!

& #6035

The discussion here has derailed from the original topic and is most likely a side effect of 'Fixed an issue with invalid Steam Play tool selections if user had previously opted in to enable Steam Play for all titles. (Note: this will cause a one-time reset of all Steam Play global and per-app selections to the default state).' in the 2019-01-18 Steam client beta update and #5901.