How to stop Fallout 4 from updating (Steam/GOG/Xbox)

[Necronomnicon]

On 4/18/2024 at 10:57 AM, FoxtrotTheSpaniard said:

Once I'm in SteamDB, what should I do? I tried clicking on Install, but it says "error: no license". What's the DB part about??

I just logged into steam again and tested to confirm this worked for me, I can open the launcher and click "Play" from my library and then change settings and close the launcher and then load the game through F4SE and it runs as expected. 

 

What I also did was delete the "downloading" and "temp" folders in the "steamapps" folder with the game's appmanifestID ("appmanifest_377160" minus quotes) since i accidentally opened steam first and it began trying to update.

I then un read-only the appmanifest for a moment so I could edit it, opened the SteamDB link, and in the appmanifest file (I opened it in Notepad++ since it's Much cleaner it's meant for code) and I used control+F to search for each of the installed depot's numbers on the steamDB's page, then opened each link in a new tab to avoid refreshing the steam DB page constantly, then I went down to the line for the ManifestID (You can use control+F to find it) then I copied the long number for that and pasted it in the part in quotations beside "manifest" in that "installed depot" section of the file. It might be a little bit tedious, but do that for each installed depot area's manifest number in the file and when steam checks that against it's databses it thinks the game has the newest versions of the base game and dlc. 

You Must make the appmanifest file read-only after this, and before doing this Backup the Original appmanifest file to restore it when you're ready to let steam update the game for the smoothest update process possible at the time. Sorry for the long post, the steamDB is probably a confusing part for a lot of people so i wanted to be a little more detailed there since there's a lot of entries on the steamDB page and it looks overwhelming (did to me too lol). 

[Yosharian]

2 hours ago, Alldoraafi said:

I had success in changing the status from "Update Required" to "Play" in steam by deleting the line "DlcDownloads" including it's contents inside the brackets and also changed the "StageFlags" from 6 to 4 inside the .acf file.
Then hard restarted the steam app(right-click->exit on steam icon in system tray then oper the app again).

CTRL+F StageFlags no such text

CTRL+F DlcDownloads no such text

dunno what you did but neither of those are in my .ACF file.

[Yosharian]

22 minutes ago, Necronomnicon said:

What I also did was delete the "downloading" and "temp" folders in the "steamapps" folder with the game's appmanifestID ("appmanifest_377160" minus quotes) since i accidentally opened steam first and it began trying to update.

I have no idea what you're trying to say here.

[sattyre]

if you don't know how to modify your appmanifests, then the next easiest solution is to copy your entire FO4 directory/folder and then allow steam to update.  It will change the appmanifest to show it's been updated and you can simply delete the new FO4 folder and rename the old folder back to the the original name.  Then go and mark the appmanifest as read only.

Voila.  You have now got an updated appmanifest, but an old FO4 version.

[Alldoraafi]

4 minutes ago, Yosharian said:

CTRL+F StageFlags no such text

CTRL+F DlcDownloads no such text

dunno what you did but neither of those are in my .ACF file.

whoops, I meant "StateFlags" sorry for the typo

The "DlcDownloads" didn't exist in my other games' .acf files so I deleted it from my FO4 one, I think it's a list of DLCs to be downloaded for the update so it may not exist in your .acf file if you haven't prompted to update your FO4 on steam.

I found these solutions after comparing the .acf files of my up to date games with my pending update FO4 one. Just throwing attempts to see what sticks.

[agentj3di]

2 hours ago, sattyre said:

if you don't know how to modify your appmanifests, then the next easiest solution is to copy your entire FO4 directory/folder and then allow steam to update.  It will change the appmanifest to show it's been updated and you can simply delete the new FO4 folder and rename the old folder back to the the original name.  Then go and mark the appmanifest as read only.

Voila.  You have now got an updated appmanifest, but an old FO4 version.

Slick. I'd also say set your game to now Only Update on Launch so that it doesn't get confused and for good measure.

This is a huge pain that people have to do this and those who didn't backup/lock their manifest files beforehand got screwed. I did it at the last minute, which is what lead to my own adventure here.

[anneezuzu]

Please, help a girly decor fan here.
     I have a lot of decor mods, and also content creator stuff. Almost all of my stuff is in custom containers, and all of my settlements have modded decoration (sorry, vanilla stuff are UGLY , doesn´t have a matching collor palette and no match in decor style). I wasn't able to remove my stuff from these containers, and now I have to open the game to do so. Honestly, I don't feel like uninstalling the mods...I took too long to make every settlement and houses pretty and functional.

I 've managed to switch the Steam configurations to update the game only when launched, and disabled the downloads while playing. These steps are enough to prevent the game update?
I can't find the appmanifest_377160.acf txt, here is a similar document with this name, but not located in the subfolders were specified in this topic (the content is also different). 

If I quit steam or disable my internet would avoid the literal fallout in my save ? Or should I cry for months while waiting the patches for the mods ?

What should I do ?

[sattyre]

I've been down this road before and honestly hated steam from the moment I heard of it.  I'm old.  I like having my game in my control.  I don't want a third party involved.  I'm good with just me and the devs.  I'd love to burn valve to the ground with thier ideas about ownership and control.  I preferred buying a cd from a store and bringing it home.  The first time I bought an empty CD with a steam key, I was pissed.  I hadn't realized it was just a steam key.

Anyway that's a long way of saying I keep backups of the original downloads for everything from the start of the steam era.  Cause they can go f%$k themselves.

[Yosharian]

12 hours ago, agentj3di said:

Slick. I'd also say set your game to now Only Update on Launch so that it doesn't get confused and for good measure.

This is a huge pain that people have to do this and those who didn't backup/lock their manifest files beforehand got screwed. I did it at the last minute, which is what lead to my own adventure here.

The instructions literally said 'this does nothing until the update drops' so it's rather counter-intuitive for people to have to lock their manifest files before it dropped

Regardless, I've been watching this thread and nothing that anyone has said so far seems to work to stop Steam from displaying the update as waiting.

[r4v1n6m4d]

2 hours ago, Yosharian said:

Regardless, I've been watching this thread and nothing that anyone has said so far seems to work to stop Steam from displaying the update as waiting.

I think there was a flag in the manifest that indicate if there's an update available. Try setting it back to zero. If you do this while Steam is not running, maybe it will stop?

There were also a couple of other fields that kept track on how much it have downladed/have left to download. If they are different, try setting them to the same number.

If it managed to update, there probably isn't much you can do unless you have a backup. GOG might be an alternative then for getting the old gen version back.