How to transfer games from PC to Steam Deck

Rohan

Rohan

You don’t need to download everything all over again

The Steam Deck allows game transfers on your local network which means you can transfer games from your PC to your device. This is especially useful for players as they do not need to re-download their games all over again. 

How to transfer games from PC to Steam Deck?

  1. Enable Steam’s Beta on both Steam Deck and Steam Client
  2. Select the game you want to install on Steam DEck
  3. Steam will automatically check if any PC has the game downloaded
  4. If the game is downloaded on PC, Steam will automatically transfer the game files to your Steam Deck

This system considers the Steam Deck to be simply another PC on the same network. It is important to note that you can transfer files to another PC using the same method. 

Things to do to ensure Steam Game Transfer works

There are a few considerations to keep before doing this. Firstly make sure that your Steam and Steam Deck have all the latest updates. Outdated software versions can be a big reason for the file transfers to not work as intended. You should also follow through the below steps to ensure you can transfer files between two Steam devices.

  1. Open Steam on your PC
  2. On top left of the screen, click on Steam
  3. In Settings, click on Download
  4. Click on “Game Files Transfer over Local Network"
  5. Choose the appropriate option
    1. Don’t allow any transfer
    2. Transfer to/fro own devices
    3. Transfer to/fro friends
    4. Allow transfer to any user

Going through these steps, you can set up your Steam account to share games with either your own accounts, your self or any Steam user at all. Depending on how many people you trust to use your network, you can choose the right option from among these.

Transferring games from PC to Steam Deck will allow you to save time and data by not redownloading the same game again. This is also useful if you have friends over to play together and they don’t need to redownload the game all over again if they don’t have it. Using the same trick you can simply transfer games, quicker in many cases to your friends. 

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest tech news and updates.