Steam’s new storage manager will show you where your game’s gigabytes are
The new beta lets you see multiple libraries at a glance
When I think about it, I’ve probably spent more time looking at Steam than I’ve spent doing grown-up and useful things, like staring at my washing machine’s controls. And like someone who knows where all the bits are, I’ve gotten used to some design choices that could be better. I’ve been using external storage programs to deal with space issues across my multiple Steam installs, but Steam’s beta channel updated last night, bringing a new download manager and, importantly, a storage manager.
The download manager shifts the information around. All the speed details are on one line now. The biggest change in usability is reordering your downloads. Now you can drag them around, instead of clicking on the little movement icons to move them up and down. It’s not a huge change, but it feels more responsive and a bit more readable. If you click the gear icon on the top right of the page, it’ll take you to Steam’s settings, and in there, in the ‘Downloads’ tab and then ‘Steam Library Folders’, is the new storage manager.
It’s a tabbed screen where you can flick between drives and see what’s on them, the space each game takes, and the categories of files. So you can see what size on the drive all the games take up, but also DLC, workshop files, and other files (non-Steam installs). It’s already solved a problem I had recently. I added two new SSD drives to my system just for games. One was an overspill drive for the games library, and the other was where I installed large games and mods. I’ve slipped up a few times when installing, and now I have the ability to easily see what went where and to change things. To move installs, you select the game or games then use the ‘move’ button to fix the flub.
To enable these new elements, you need to opt-in to Steam’s beta channel. Just open Steam’s settings and in the ‘Accounts’ tab is a ‘Beta participation’ toggle. Then you’re good to go. Enjoy!