How to Move Steam Games to a New PC
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Tested on
- Windows 11 - Steam Client Version 17.x
- You will need
- External hard drive or network storage, Steam account access
Step by step
Locate the Steam Library folder
On your old PC, open Steam and navigate to Steam > Settings > Storage. Identify the drive where your games are installed and note the file path listed under the drive bar.
Copy the common folder
Navigate to the Steam library directory in File Explorer. Locate the folder named steamapps and open it; within, find the folder named common. Copy the entire common folder to your external storage device.
Note: Copying to an SSD is significantly faster than a traditional HDD.Prepare the new PC
On the target PC, install the Steam client and log in to your account. Go to Steam > Settings > Storage and click the Plus (+) icon to create a new Steam Library folder on your desired drive.
Move files to the new directory
Close Steam completely. Open your new Steam Library folder in File Explorer, navigate to the steamapps folder, and paste the contents of the common folder you copied earlier into the new common folder.
Verify integrity of game files
Launch Steam on the new PC. Right-click the game in your library, select Properties > Installed Files, and click Verify integrity of game files. Steam will scan the directory and update its internal database to recognize the existing installation.
Note: Steam may download a small amount of data to finalize configuration.