How to fix Steam Download Queued / Update Queued issue

How to fix Steam Download Queued / Update Queued issue

If you've stumbled upon this post it probably means you are a Steam user (the massively-popular gaming distribution platform owned by Valve Corporation) and you have one or more games stuck into the dreadful "Download Queued" or "Update Queued" status - even if there are no active downloads. Whenever this scenario occurs Steam is basically unable to download or update anything, which can be extremely annoying.

Luckily enough, there are many effective solution to fix this issue for good and resume downloading/updating games.

Option 1: Clear Download Cache

Open the Steam client, then go to Steam > Settings > Downloads: once there, click to the CLEAR DOWNLOAD CACHE button.

steam-settings-clear-download-cache

This should do the trick: in case it doesn't, keep reading.

Option 2: Flush Configuration

If the above option doesn't work, you can try resetting the Steam configuration in the following way:

  • Right-Click to the Windows Start button and click to Run (or left-click and select the Run command icon if you're running Windows 7 or earlier).
  • Write steam://flushconfig in the run textbox (see screenshot below) and hit OK.

steam-flush-config

  • Steam will start with a popup saying that doing this will clear the download cache and that you will need to login again.

steam-flush-config-popup

You just have to click OK, since this is precisely what you want, and your downloads should resume right away.

Option 3: Change Download Region

If clearing the Download Cache doesn't work, you can try to change the Download Region: go to Steam > Settings, then choose the Downloads menu and change the Download Region with one of your choice: there's a good chance that this will fix the issue. In case it does, you can revert to your original region shortly after.

Option 4: Turn off the Proxy Autodetect feature

If none of the above works, there's a last suggestion I got from here (thanks to NerdBoxMedia for the suggestion and also for the Youtube Video below): kill Steam from the Task Manager, then go to Windows Settings > Network & Internet > Proxy (or just write

proxy

in Cortana and click to Network Proxy Settings): from there, disable the Automatically Detect Settings option, then restart Steam and see what happens.

Here's a short video which shows how to perform this last step:

Option 5: Verify Integrity of game files

If none of the options above work in your scenario, another thing you can try  is to check the integrity of your stuck games. For each one of them, do the following:

  • Right-click to the stuck game.
  • Select Properties
  • Navigate to the Local Files tab.
  • Click to the Verify Integrity of Game Files button
  • Once done, check if the issue is gone: in case it doesn't, repeat with the next stuck game.

Thanks to Z and Dr. Linox for suggesting such approach!

Conclusion

That's it for now: I hope that the above workarounds will help you to get rid of this nasty Steam bug, hoping that Valve would eventually fix that for good. Happy gaming!

 

About Dark

Lead Developer, IT Project Analyst, UI Designer, Web Enthusiast. IT Architect for websites, interfaces, services & apps built for web & mobile devices. Microsoft MVP for Development Technologies since 2018.

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11 Comments on “How to fix Steam Download Queued / Update Queued issue”

  1. Pingback: Steam bloccato su Aggiornamento Necessario - il Download non parte: FIX
  2. Nothing worked for me. I have finally unstuck all downloads by right clicking on a stuck game, selecting “properties”, “local files” tab, and “verify integrity of game files”.

  3. Don’t waste your time, nothing of this works. Maybe you’re lucky that it will work once, but just forget about anything of this being a permanently fix. It won’t! This is a bug with Steam, reinstalling Steam or wiping your computer or even buying a new one won’t fix it. The workaround is to verify the integrity of the game file every time this happen, but this needs to be fixed by Valve. There’s nothing you can do about it other than making your voice heard. The issue is NOT your computer…..

  4. I almost forgot. There’s two other workarounds:

    Open the settings for each installed game, select Updates and change Automatic updates to “High Priority – Always auto-update this game before it launch”.
    Select Library > Downloads. Click the arrow to right for each game queued for update to force start it now.

  5. I have found it necessary to go through each of the above methods before finding the answer, but in all cases at least one of them ends up working, and it is usually the last one. The easiest one of all is to just double click the game and attempt to start playing it. In most cases I’ve found the update will start at that moment.

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