How to Fix a Broken Steam Install

7 steps to repair your Steam games

Have you ever downloaded a large 20GB+ game on Steam only to find out that it won't run due to corrupt or missing files? Fortunately for you, we've created a brief how-to guide on how to resolve these issues so you don't have to come up with an intricate work around or have to re-download your games. As a matter of fact, there are only seven easy steps to fixing this issue!

Note: These steps may not fix every broken Steam install, but they will fix a large amount of them quickly and easily. We also recommend backing up your game saves through the Steam Cloud or onto a flash drive before attempting to fix it.

Step 1: Launch Steam

Step 2: Go to the Library tab in Steam and select the game you want to fix

Step 3: Right Click on the game and click on Properties

Step 4: Select the Local Files tab

Step 5: Click on Verify Integrity of Game Cache

Step 6: Wait for Steam to validate your game’s install if it finds anything wrong with it those files will be re-downloaded and installed.

Step 7: Click play and Steam will re-install and launch your game. Voilà!

Verifying the Integrity of your Game Cache will fix your install if there are corrupted or missing files in your game. When you try to launch the game again, the game will be fixed if Steam finds anything wrong with it and should be fully operational!

Follow Chris on Google + or Twitter

Latest in Platforms
A screenshot from game Mudborne of a little humanoid frog in a marsh
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 24, 2025)
midnight murder club
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 17, 2025)
Screenshot of Children of Clay showing a mysterious clay model
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 10, 2025)
discord
Brace yourself for Discord to get worse: Reports swirl that the company is in talks with bankers about opening itself up to shareholders
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
Steam users react ecstatically to update that lets them access their heaving game notes via the web, also it fixes Monster Hunter Wilds video recording
HasanAbi
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker suspended after saying Republicans would 'kill Rick Scott' if they really cared about Medicare fraud
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened