Most people look forward to game updates as they add extra content and fix problems, however, if you are someone who likes to mod games, game updates are a nightmare! While Steam used to offer a simple pause and don't update option that is no longer the case so follow along as we guide you through the current workaround.
Takeaways:
- How to disable automatic updates for games on Steam.
- Preventing games in Steam from automatically updating.
How to Disable Updates for a Game on Steam.
- To begin, find the game you want to stop updates on then right-click on it and select Properties.
- Change to the Update tab and take note of the App ID number at the bottom of the window. In my case, it is 678950.
- Now change to the installed files tab on the far left and choose Browse in the top right corner.
- Here go back two folders so you are in the steamapps folder.
- Here you'll see a bunch of different appmanifest.acf files for each of the different games that you currently have installed. Now find the appmanifest file that matches the app ID we found earlier. In my case it is appmanifest_678950.acf.
- In order to pause updates for this specific game right-click it, choose properties, and at the very bottom, make sure read-only is ticked then click Apply and Ok to save the changes.
The next time the game goes to update, you'll see in Steam that it gives you a disk write error and it won't be able to install the actual update even if it does successfully download update files. You won't have to worry about it though as the game will still work fine and won't drive you mad with warning errors etc.
If you want to update the game again at a later date, just return to the same location and remove the tick from the Read-Only checkbox and the game will install updates as it normally would.
How do you Private & Hide NSFW Games in your Steam Library?
While you're here you're probably also wondering if it is possible to private your NSFW games so that people can't see all of the R-rated stuff you have in your library or are playing at the moment. If so, check out the guide below for the steps to do so.
How to Mark Games as Private in your Steam Library - Think NSFW Games!
Can you Disable Automatic Updates in Steam to Stop Updates Breaking Mods?
Yes, you can! Although Steam doesn't offer an official method to prevent games from automatically updating anymore there is a really easy workaround that will stop any Steam game you choose from automatically updating. As you are well aware all it takes is one game update to break all of your mods so preventing games from updating in Steam is super important. So if you are playing Fallout 4, Cyberpunk or any other game the steps above will show you how to prevent it from updating automatically and breaking all of your mods.
