Hello. Having the same issue with my fresh Linux install (Bunsenlabs Linux (Debian 11))

Hello, I'm having the same issue, here is the gist
When trying to add a library nautilus opens up with the following error:

@kisak-valve thanks :heart:

Here are the Steam Runtime Diagnostics, and I added it to the original report too :+1:

https://gist.github.com/aghArdeshir/01af488d2f6a808de1669c5a64b27780

While I also get the error on Nautilus as @Greifent, but apparently that error is not the source of the problem. Because, for instance, if I try to upload a profile picture, the same error is shown, but I can successfully upload a profile picture (the file is selected and uploaded with no problem :heavy_check_mark:

@aghArdeshir can you run steam from a terminal and check the output, see if it reports something along the lines of Couldn't write /opt/d/.steam_exec_test.sh: Permission denied ? (I have a drive mounted at /opt/d here).

If that's the case you can probably work around this by creating a folder where you have suitable write and exec permissions, then pointing to that when using 'Add Drive' (the UI is rather Windows centric and the 'Add Drive' wording is incorrect).

That's next-level headshot @TTimo :sweat_smile: Yes exactly there was a line about my mounted drive. And I found out my permissions are problematic :heavy_check_mark:. I'll find out what is wrong. Thank you very much for helping me :heart:.

Just there is this other error I don't understand:

Couldn't write /boot/efi/.steam_exec_test.sh: Permission denied

Is that important?

Apart from that, my problem is resolved. Should I close the ticket?

@TTimo if it can help, I have this lines:

Couldn't write /.steam_exec_test.sh: Permission denied
Couldn't write /boot/.steam_exec_test.sh: Permission denied
Couldn't write /boot/efi/.steam_exec_test.sh: Permission denied

All the drives with the games are mounted in /mnt

@aghArdeshir Just to double check mine, what permissions did you give to the folders?

Well, tried giving 775 to drives in mnt, restarted steam and it added them, still giving the lines above and the error in nautilus, but its working now

Is that important?

Apart from that, my problem is resolved. Should I close the ticket?

Please leave this open for now, if anything it might help other people with a similar problem.

The Steam client enumerates local drives during startup and checks if it has write and execute permission on them, as that's a requirement for putting a Steam Library there. That's why you see it try paths like /boot/ and /boot/efi/. The client could be a little smarter and skip checking a few well known paths and filesystem types that couldn't possibly be suitable for a Steam Library, but generally this approach works well enough.

The issue here is really UX - the Steam client may need to change the wording as it's really asking for a folder to put the library under, and that folder needs to have adequate permissions (we may need to add an error message to communicate this also).

@Greifent what helped me was this: https://superuser.com/a/1720231/373358

I had to go to my disk/partition app and change the mount options. I removed nosuid and added uid=1000,gid=1000 options. This is how it looks like now:

And this is the folder permissions and owners after a reboot:

It is no longer owned by root :smiley:

I don't understand what those options of mount mean really, but they worked for me :sweat_smile:. chown did not help me and I did not like the chmod approach.

The issue here is really UX - the Steam client may need to change the wording as it's really asking for a folder to put the library under, and that folder needs to have adequate permissions (we may need to add an error message to communicate this also).

Yes I agree t that. :+1: Initially I thought there is a problem with Steam client not being able to communicate with file system or maybe with Nautilus somehow. But making sure the Steam understands what I tried to choose and give that to me in an error message, helps a lot so I know the problem is rooting from some place else (permissions in this case)

Hi, fresh install in debian and nothing happens when I click the + in Settings -> Storage -> /home * to add another folder where install my games. It doesn't happen anything when I click on Browse Folder.

Apparently no related errors during startup from console, and I even installed nautilus.

Here's the gist : https://gist.github.com/Ces-Sanchez/12f9c73b7ce6b27cfb6741d844675aeb

@Ces-Sanchez try pressing it multiple times. :sweat_smile:

For me it always works after 4 or 5 times trying/clicking.

@aghArdeshir tried, but nothing happens

Hi, fresh install in debian and nothing happens when I click the + in Settings -> Storage -> /home * to add another folder where install my games. It doesn't happen anything when I click on Browse Folder.

Apparently no related errors during startup from console, and I even installed nautilus.

I get the same, but with permission errors on the console and do see some in the logs. Clicking on add drive does nothing.

In my case most mount points are zfs which steam does not see (no permission errors on console). I made a symlink for now.

==> webhelper.txt <==
[2023-12-18 04:55:34] contextmenu_2-'Steam Root': WasHidden 0: (0, 0) 2x1
[2023-12-18 04:55:36] contextmenu_2-'Steam Root': WasHidden 1: (0, 0) 2x1
[2023-12-18 04:55:36] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': CreatingPopup name:Steam Settings browser:65536 pid:104123 type:4 flags:114: (711.00, 546.00) 850.00x722.00: url:about:blank?createflags=18&minwidth=850&minheight=722&centerOnBrowserID=3
[2023-12-18 04:55:36] CreateOutputWindow: Creating browser window at: 711,546 size: 850x722
[2023-12-18 04:55:36] Steam Settings: Created window: size: 850,722 pos: 711,546 mode: System window: 0x3a0006c
[2023-12-18 04:55:36] Steam Settings: AfterCreated handle:2752526 type:4: (0, 0) 850x722
[2023-12-18 04:55:36] Steam Settings-'Steam Sett': WasHidden 0: (0, 0) 850x722
[2023-12-18 04:56:21] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': ERROR: https://steamloopback.host/libraries/libraries~00299a408.js:2: Uncaught (in promise) #<Object>
[2023-12-18 04:59:14] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': ERROR: https://steamloopback.host/libraries/libraries~00299a408.js:2: Uncaught (in promise) #<Object>
[2023-12-18 05:01:59] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': ERROR: https://steamloopback.host/libraries/libraries~00299a408.js:2: Uncaught (in promise) #<Object>

...

==> steamui_system.txt <==
[2023-12-18 05:04:40] Error: operator(): failed to retrieve file open dialog results

==> steamwebhelper.log <==
[1218/050440.973915:INFO:CONSOLE(2)] "Uncaught (in promise) #<Object>", source: https://steamloopback.host/libraries/libraries~00299a408.js (2)

==> webhelper.txt <==
[2023-12-18 05:04:40] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': ERROR: https://steamloopback.host/libraries/libraries~00299a408.js:2: Uncaught (in promise) #<Object>

==> cef_log.txt <==
[1218/050440.973915:INFO:CONSOLE(2)] "Uncaught (in promise) #<Object>", source: https://steamloopback.host/libraries/libraries~00299a408.js (2)

have you tried to do this ?

 Steam > Settings > Interface
and tick "Enable context menu focus compatibility mode" 

It solves the problem for me

 Steam > Settings > Interface
and tick "Enable context menu focus compatibility mode" 

This helped me! How did you find it, why was this the problem? And why isn't it on by default when it being off breaks things?

Ehmmm .... I tried the symlink workaround a few months before, and it hanged. Today I'm checking, not changing anything, and I could play.

I'm testing this "Enable context menu focus compatibility mode" and it also fixes the issue with the directories.

I tried to install another game, and it worked out also.

So, much much appreciated for all the help. It's been tough and long, but it's working.

Thanx a lot !!!

 Steam > Settings > Interface
and tick "Enable context menu focus compatibility mode" 

This helped me! How did you find it, why was this the problem? And why isn't it on by default when it being off breaks things?

I found it form internet I just keep searching and forgot the source,

I found an actual semi-elegant solution for the Problem and decided to share.
First of all, fstab needs to include "exec" in the mount options in order for steam to be able to add the drives properly. That fixed it for me once, and then I had to fresh install my OS for unrelated reasons, and then it seemingly wasn't enough anymore.
I also got this error in the terminal:

Couldn't write /opt/d/.steam_exec_test.sh: Permission denied

Enable context menu focus compatibility mode didn't work for me although I did turn it on before getting it to work, so maybe it did do something.

What I did this time was fiddle with ownership of the mount points. Changing ownership of the drives didn't work, as others in this thread have already found out, but then I tried to change ownership of the mnt directory itself using.

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /mnt   # Don't run this command unless you know what you're doing

although I think doing it to all containing folders with -R is probably a bad move and also not necessary. From what I understand it's enough if mnt, the drive folders within mnt, and the respective Steam folders, as well as all of the Steam contents are owned by the user.
Doing these commands would probably look something like this for you:

sudo chown -v $USER:$USER /mnt
sudo chown -v $USER:$USER /mnt/drive1
sudo chown -v $USER:$USER /mnt/drive2

# (...) and so on for all your other drives

sudo chown -R -v $USER:$USER /mnt/drive1/Steam

# (...) and then do the same for your steam folders in all the other drives.

Obviously you need to make sure that you've mounted in /mnt, and you need to change drive1, drive2 accordingly. This probably also works if you're not mounting in /mnt .
You can leave out -v, as it just tells you whether or not anything has been changed, and if you have a lot of content in your Steam folder it will give more output than you will know what to do with for the last command. I like to have it on to see if I'm actually doing anything.

I'm a Linux noob so there might be a more elegant way of doing this, but I prefer this to putting my mount points in my home directory. Let me know if there is a better way to do any of this :)

In case it is relevant, I am using Debian 12.5 with KDE Plasma.

@Ces-Sanchez try pressing it multiple times. 😅

For me it always works after 4 or 5 times trying/clicking.

Something like this occurred to me. Unaware of the changes, though I did create a folder within the mounted "Add Drive" that may have resolved it, but I swear I had tried that before as well. Path is now /drive/folder

In Fedora 40 Open "Disks" application in utilities, select disk you want to take ownership of select gear icon select "Take Ownership" in option menu.
go back to steam and add drive you may want to quit steam and relauch.
something to note i have not had much luck with the flatpack version of steam install via .rpm

Hello, What helped me was simple step to create folder manually.

it says me that this operation is not supported, so i just go to location where i wanted my steam folder and manually created "Steam library" folder, then on steam add drive and ignore that error message just navigate to that folder and click select or apply (cant remember just accept that :D) and it worked fine

Creating this file and restarting steam solved it for me.

/home/username/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
@fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

Then adding my other ext4 drive worked.

I fixed this by going into the Properties of the drive and setting all the Permissions for it to Create and Delete Files, even for Enclosed Files at the bottom
Also adding a directory steamapps to the drive, but not sure if that was part of the fix :P

Ubuntu 24.02
Steam from App Center

I'm experiencing essentially the same problem, but the permissions workaround mentioned above does not solve it for me.

I'm using Zorin OS 18.1 (Ubuntu 24.04 based), GNOME 46, X11, with Steam installed from the Debian package.

My second SSD is an ADATA SU630, formatted as ext4 and mounted at:

/mnt/juegos

The filesystem is mounted read/write and my user owns the directory. I also verified that I can create and delete files there without any problem.

Steam initially did not show this drive in Storage. I manually added /mnt/juegos to libraryfolders.vdf, and Steam then correctly detected it and showed approximately 416.7 GB free of 439 GB.

However, when I click the /mnt/juegos library in Steam -> Settings -> Storage, nothing happens. The dropdown simply closes and the drive cannot be selected.

I also have another related problem: right-clicking a game and selecting "Properties" does nothing. The menu closes, but the Properties window never opens.

The interesting part is that Steam itself works and games run correctly. GTA V runs perfectly through Proton on my NVIDIA GTX 1060.

So this does not appear to be a filesystem permission problem in my case.

System:

• Zorin OS 18.1
• GNOME 46
• X11
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
• NVIDIA driver 580.173.02
• Steam build 1785799196

This issue appears to still be present in 2026, even though the permissions workaround mentioned in the May 2025 comment does not resolve it for my system.

Additional testing: I found that the installation workflow can correctly select /mnt/juegos. When installing another game, Steam shows /mnt/juegos as an available installation location and allows me to select it. Games can also be moved to /mnt/juegos successfully and run correctly from there.

Therefore, the problem appears to be specifically related to certain UI actions such as "Add Drive" and "Properties", rather than Steam being unable to access or use the library.