PSA: How to prevent a Steam update

[Rooker75]

On November 11, all your mods that depend on SKSE will suddenly stop working until SKSE is updated, which is expected to take longer than usual this time. To prevent this from screwing up your game until SKSE is updated, you will need to prevent the update to SkyrimSE. Since Valve does not respect users choice to decline game updates, you will need to perform a few hacks on Steam data files to protect your game from an unwanted update. Don't worry, nothing will break.

 

To prevent the update:

 

In your Steam library, set SkyrimSE to "update only when I launch" (Steam library > Skyrim Properties > Updates)

Personally, I hate Steam, so I keep it offline when not installing/reinstalling a game. I also firewall it, because even in offline mode, it still misuses my network without permission.

Never, ever, EVER launch the game from within Steam, or from the desktop shortcut that Steam creates. Never do that. Launch it from the script extender or just make a shortcut to SkyrimSE.exe if you don't use the script extender.

Zip up your entire Skyrim folder and save it somewhere, just for situations like this. Yes, this takes a while to do and costs you several gigs of storage space, but do not skip this step.

Now, if Steam says an update is required, but has not yet downloaded it:

Immediately put Steam into Offline mod and then close it. Check the system tray to make certain it's not still running. Check Task Manager for things like Steam.exe, steamcrashreporter.exe, steamservice.exe, steamwebhelper.exe (basically, anything with steam in the name). If something is still running, terminate it.

Find the file >>appmanifest_489830.acf<<, which should be in the \Steam\Steamapps\ folder. Open it in a text editor. Look for this line: "StateFlags" "XX" where XX is a number. Change that number to "4". This tells Steam that the game is installed and is fully up-to-date, no update required.

Look for these two lines and make sure the number is 0 in both:

"BytesToDownload" "0"
"BytesDownloaded" "0"

When you're done, save it, close your text editor and set the file to Read-Only. NOTE: you'll need to undo this when and if you ever decide to allow the update.

Look in the \Steam\Steamapps\Downloading\ folder and if there are any files or folders with "489830" in the name, delete it immediately. Delete any folders with this number in the name.
You *should* be safe to play the game now, as long as you DO NOT EVER launch it from within Steam. Only ever launch the game while Steam is in offline mode.

If it already started downloading the update but didn't install it, this *usually* works to halt the update and return it to a playable state, but I can't promise anything.

 

I have been doing this myself for all of my Steam games for the last several years and it works perfectly to prevent unwanted updates, at least as long as you keep steam in offline mode. If you put Steam back online for some reason, it may find that there is an update and try to download it, or at least refuse to let you launch the game until you do update. As long as you have followed the steps above, it will forget about the update when you restart it in offline mode.

[Gorgopis]

Biggest Thanks. We also keep Steam sequestered, and only play offline. We need to learn more about firewalling it though. We've run out of room for a SR:SE backup.

[Supersaiyangoku84]

hey thanks for the info much appreciated , also would there happen to be a way in which i could move my skyrim se install and put it on another drive and still have mod organizer find it with all my mods just the way they was ? thanks again valuable info ill deff be using

[Rooker75]

No idea, I've never used Mod Organizer. Maybe somebody else knows.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Rooker75

[Gorgopis]

For @supersaiyangoku84:

 

We don't know, but we do recall seeing a tutorial somewhere about how to compress and save all of your Skyrim SE and Mods, and send it to another drive or memory device, so you can reinstall it as it was, in the event Steam replaces all the vanilla files in an update.

 

Maybe a search on the topic? (or by Gamerpoet?)

[Wererommel]

"Immediately put Steam into Offline mod and then close it."

 

Not sure how to do this. Online instructions are to click on the Steam menu and then Settings, but I can't find that.

 

It appears that I can turn off the Steam shell under the game settings. Would that do it?

 

 

(Later) Found it! That's some tiny, tiny little type.

[TheCrimsonDagger]

I downloaded a totally fresh copy of Skyrim SE and zipped it for this exact reason. In case it accidently gets updated I can go back.

[SylvainGautier77]

Just a quick question, my Steam downloaded the update while i was gone, but i haven't actually launched the game through Steam. Does that mean my Skyrim is still screwed or can i still backup my skyrim to avoid it? here's a screenshot.

[Vistasucks]

I downloaded a totally fresh copy of Skyrim SE and zipped it for this exact reason. In case it accidently gets updated I can go back.

If someone was on the previous version of Skyrim SE, prior to the current update and was using the latest version of SKSE, would it work if I downloaded their back-up, and extract it into my forced updated Skyrim folder? Tried a lot, but even doing the whole 'downloading an older version of Skyrim SE' still didn't work for me.

[Rooker75]

Just a quick question, my Steam downloaded the update while i was gone, but i haven't actually launched the game through Steam. Does that mean my Skyrim is still screwed or can i still backup my skyrim to avoid it? here's a screenshot.

This is in theory, so it may not work, but if you follow the steps in my original post, edit that app manifest file and delete whatâs in the "downloading" folder, AND you have allowed it to *install* that update, then you might be ok. If you have a backup somewhere, you may need to restore it.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Rooker75