JamesBombed

Keep Skyrim SE from updating safely and permanently Skyrim app id: 489830 I see a lot of desperation when Steam updates SSE. One simple way many people keep their game from updating is by setting the game to only update when launched and then use SKSE to launch the game. Although this approach works just fine I have another solution that can be applied to any Steam game and allows them to be launched more freely with the assurance that there's absolutely no way you or anyone can accidentally cause an update. The way I keep my game from updating is by making Steam unable to use the game's app manifest. The app manifest is a Steam configuration file for a specific game that can be found in your Steam library folder. Steam needs to change this file in order to update a game, by removing its ability to do so it won't update the game. That said, let's get to the steps on how to do it: 1-Locate the library folder where your game is installed: That part is pretty easy, on Windows it'll usually be located in X:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps, where X is the drive you installed Steam on (generally C or D) and on Linux it's usually in ~/.steam/steam/steamapps In the case you have multiple library folders or installed Steam on a custom folder and don't know exactly where your library folder is, the easiest way to find it is to right click the game > properties > local files > browse local files. After that just move to the father directory until you reach a folder named steamapps. 2-Find the app id for the game: For Skyrim SE, the app id is 489830. If you want to find the app id for any other game just head to steamdb.info and type the title of the game on the search bar. 3-Find the app manifest file (appmanifest_489830.acf): The app manifest is a file in your library folder with the name appmanifest_<app id>.acf (appmanifest_489830.acf in the case of SSE). 4-Make the manifest read-only: On Windows: Right click the manifest file > properties, mark the checkbox "Read-only" and hit apply. On most Linux distros through the GUI: Right click the manifest file > properties > look for permissions and uncheck all write permissions (w) On Linux distros without using a GUI: open the folder containing the manifest file in the terminal and issue the command "chmod 444 appmanifest_<app id>.acf" Steam will now show that the update was paused due to "Missing file privileges" if you head to the downloads page. After that, there's no way in hell Steam will update your game until you set the app manifest to be editable again. Note: after that you won't be able to launch the game directly from the default Steam launcher, as it will immediately attempt an update and display an error, since it's unable to update. The two easy workarounds are to either add the launcher executable as a non-steam game or to go into offline mode. In Skyrim's case, the game can also be launched using your mod manager, SKSE, MO2 desktop shortcuts, etc. Undo step 4 if you want to update again: On Windows: right click the manifest file > properties, uncheck the box "Read-only" and hit apply. On Linux using the GUI: right click the manifest file > properties > check write permissions for the owner and the group (w) On Linux without the GUI: open the folder where your manifest is located in the terminal and issue the command "chmod 664 appmanifest_<app id>.acf" After that Steam will be able to make the needed changes to the manifest file and update your game. EDIT: removed unnecessary step and added instructions for Linux users.