Steam Game Recovery: How to Restore Lost Steam Games Easily

The Common Cause of Steam Games Go Missing

For PC gamers, Steam isn’t just a platform. It’s a library of countless hours of progress, achievements, and memories. But someday, when you open your Steam client and suddenly find a favorite game missing, it can feel like a nightmare. The thought of re-downloading hundreds of gigabytes, or worse, losing your saved progress can be incredibly stressful.

If you’ve run into this problem, you’re not alone. Many players experience games missing from Steam library or local files disappearing. The encouraging thing is, there are several effective steam game recovery methods to get your titles back without losing everything. Before diving into detailed solutions, it’s helpful to know why this happens. Knowing the root cause will help you choose the right recovery approach. Common reasons include:

🔔Steam Library Path Not Recognized

If you moved your games to another drive or folder without updating the Steam library path, Steam will show them as missing.

🔍Windows Reinstallation or Update

After reinstalling or upgrading Windows, Steam may lose track of your existing library folders, even though the game files are still on the disk.

💡Corrupted or Missing "steamapps" Folder

The "steamapps" folder contains all your installed game data. If this folder gets corrupted or misplaced, Steam won’t detect your games.

📌Accidental Deletion or Formatting

Sometimes games are truly deleted, whether by mistake, third-party cleanup tools, or formatting the drive. In such cases, recovery is required instead of just re-detecting.

7 Solutions for Steam Game Recovery on Windows

As you can see, in most cases, the games are not truly deleted, but rather Steam cannot detect or access them. This section will provide 7 methods to help you recover lost games from Steam. You can try them one by one until your games reappear in Steam.

Solution 1. Locate Steam Game Files on Local Folder

Sometimes Steam may fail to read game files. You can check the local folder where the game is installed to see if the game files still exist. If they do, it means the game hasn't been deleted. You can open it and Steam will show your games again. Generally, games downloaded via Steam are stored in the following path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common.

Solution 2. Check Hidden Games List

When you find that a game has disappeared from your library, first consider whether the game is hidden or if you're using incorrect filter criteria. You can try changing the filter settings and checking if hidden games are indeed hidden.

Step 1. Launch your Steam and click "Library".

Step 2. Click the filter and make sure "Show only ready to play games" unchecked.

Step 3. Click "View" and choose "Hidden Games".

Step 4. Right click on the game and select "Manage" and "Remove from Hidden". The hidden games will reappear in your library.

If the game isn’t hidden, the next step is to make sure your installation files are intact.

Solution 3. Verify Integrity of Game Cache

This method can automatically scan all local game folders, compare them with the latest version on the Steam server, and repair or redownload any missing or corrupted files. It is highly effective for fixing games that fail to launch due to file corruption.

Step 1. Open Steam and select "Library".

Step 2. Choose the corrupted game and right click on it, then select "Properties" > "Installed Files" > "Verify integrity of game files".

Step 3. Steam will scan and re-download only the missing or corrupted files.

Solution 4. Add Installation Library Folder to Steam

If you have previously installed the game and it ran properly, but it suddenly no longer shows up in your Steam library, this might be due to lost installation information. You can manually add the installation folder to Steam so that Steam can detect the game files and verify them.

Step 1. Launch your Steam client and click "Steam", then select "Settings".

Step 2. Locate "Storage", click "Add Drive" and select the location where your Steam games are installed.

Step 3. Restart Steam and the game should appear in Library.

Solution 5. Restore from Steam Backup Feature

If you've backed up the game data using Steam Backup feature, you can restore game files from the backup copies.

Step 1. Launch your Steam client and click "Steam" in the upper left corner of the Steam application.

Step 2. Select "Restore Game Backup", browse to the location of the game's backup files.

Step 3. Select the folder and click "Restore Backup" to get the game back.

Solution 6. Re-download the Game

If you’ve already purchased the game, you can redownload it even if you’ve deleted all local files and game content. Since all purchases are tied to your Steam account, you won’t lose your license.

Step 1. Launch Steam and log into your account, making sure you use the same account with which you originally purchased the game.

Step 2. Click "Library", you will see a list of all the games you have purchased, including both installed and uninstalled ones.

Step 3. Locate the target game and click "Install" to redownload it.

Solution 7. Recover Lost Steam Games with MyRecover

In most cases, you can simply re-download your purchased games from the Steam library, but this doesn’t always solve the problem. For example, if parts of the game files are still on your hard drive, re-downloading wastes a lot of time and bandwidth. Or worse, if your game files were accidentally deleted, lost due to disk errors, or even formatted, Steam itself cannot recover them.

In these situations, you’ll need a professional data recovery tool—MyRecover to restore your lost Steam game files. It can scan all the drives on your computer and provide a chance to restore files from the drives. MyRecover is an excellent choice for game recovery. It can not only recover Steam game files but also support recovering game data from Xbox, Nintendo, PS4, PS5 and more game consoles.

 MyRecover

Easy & Powerful Data Recovery Software

• Support 1,000+ file types, including documents, images, videos, emails, and more.
• Dual scan modes: Quick Scan for speed, Deep Scan for thorough recovery.
• Compatible with all storage devices: USB drives, HDDs, SSDs, SD cards, etc.
• Handle with more complex data loss cases like OS crash, formatted, RAW, corrupted or deleted drive.

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Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 & Server

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Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your computer from Microsoft Store or official channel, avoid installing it on the drive with lost game files.

Step 2. Launch it and choose the drive where the game was stored, then click "Scan".

Step 3. Choose the files you would like to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover".

Step 4. Select a safe folder (not the original one) to save the recovered files.

When the process is completed, the message indicating successful recovery will pop up. You can check the recovered files by clicking on the destination folder path or "Browse" button.

Summary

If you’ve recently lost favorite Steam games, take it easy. Try the recovery methods discussed above and choose the one that best fits your situation. While manual methods work in many cases, professional recovery tools like MyRecover provide a faster and safer way to restore your Steam game files. Even if your computer fails to start, the Professional version of MyRecover can still help you retrieve lost files.