I got 21 of these a couple of hours ago when I turned on Steam.
For me some updates were not 0-bytes (but still looks like a savegame sync, and not a game update)
The issue is that it continues to retry those 0-bytes updates every time Steam launches

You will get this in all Steam starts
Surprisingly, not all windows-only games are affected by this issue.
By checking cache of each affected game steam client marks them as normal ones, but if I restart Steam client all those games return to previous state and require checking game cache again.
Steam library folder is on ext4 filesystem. This behaviour happens only with windows-only games.
I'm having the same issue:
The "update" completes almost instantly for every game. Every time the Steam client is restarted, the Windows games must download this "update" again. The Steam library folder is on a secondary ext4 hard drive on which I have full read/write permissions. I'm on Ubuntu 18.04.
All native games and most Windows games I've tried so far run successfully, but the Windows games require this instant, 0 byte "update" to be installed before launching. Also, the Windows games run their first time setup every time they are launched, but I'm not sure if it's related. Native games don't have this problem.
Same issue.
Subscribing.
Same here. But I copied the games and the appmanifest files over from my Windows install to my Linux library (ext4). Maybe that's the problem? Maybe there's something in the manifest file that causes this?
Sometimes a few MB are downloaded, sometimes nothing, it seems. I'm also on Ubuntu 18.04. Steam initially installed from package manager.
I see the same issue with all natively (through steamplay) downloaded games.
This is a bigger issue than just 0 byte updates. I'm on Ubuntu 18.04 as well, when I launch it re-downloads ~13GB of Darksiders II, ~33GB of Dishonoured 2 and I uninstalled everything else for now to stop it downloading them.
Is it related to case-sensitivity of ext4 somehow?
Luckily all mine are 0 bytes, although DOOM occasionally tries to download about 280mb, @axredneck my games are on my NTFS drive and I have the same issue
My windows games are all in a steam library shared with my windows steam client and thus it's on a NTFS partition on another hard drive, so it's most likely not ext4 related. Also sometimes it actually downloads something for me, too. Like The Witcher 3 gets a 130MB download pretty often. And some don't need such an update ever, like Beat Saber or Superhot VR
@Zamundaaa I think that's just games which have updated, I have it occasionally for my newer games
This is also happening to me. However, for some games the update size is 354.3 MB (Bejeweled 3, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, Slab) while for others it's 0 bytes (Spelunky, Sorcery! Parts 1 & 2). This is not happening with native games.
The machine is running Linux Mint Cinnamon 18. With the exception of Slab, I moved these over from my other Linux machine (Linux Mint Mate 18) by using the backup and restore backup functionality of Steam. Both machines are in the Steam Beta. With the exception of Slab, all these games are on a 4TB hard drive (full-disk encrypted EXT4) that's separate from my OS installation which resides on an SSD.
@veikk0
354.3 MB
It's Proton itself
Happened that connecting my windows steam library (NTFS file system). Some games got deleted, or with 300MB circa of data remaining. I had to re-download all missing games.
On my system I'm seeing this for several titles. All games are installed to a library in a separate mount (/data/steam) which is a BTRFS file system. Verifying the local files and starting each game caused a couple to drop out of the list (as they should have been), but several persist on each restart of Steam no matter what.
Same problem here. Affected only steam play (proton) games.
@MrCapone please avoid the spam of "me too" messages. If you are also affected, give this issue a "thumbs up". Thank you for understanding.
Occurs with Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity. I don't use Steam Cloud.
Ubuntu 18.04.1.

The following games seemed to have the same update. After allowing one of them to update they all moved to completed. Guessing there's something in these
@JackRyder it's update of Proton itself, not games
I've also had this problem (of 0b downloads), though I've had it long before Proton or any Windows games installed on my Steam account. However, it would only occasionally come up, so it wasn't really annoying. Now, it's starting to get pretty irritating when I have 10+ games asking to update every single time I start up Steam.
EDIT:
For those of you downvoting my comment, I'm not just saying "me too"... I think pointing out that this isn't a new problem or specific to Windows games is valuable information...
There seems to be a few issues regarding this bug with 0 byte updates that started after opting into SteamPlay(Proton).
At its most basic; it seems to be Steam bugging out when modifying the "appmanifest_*.acf" files of these SteamPlay(Proton)-games.
Everytime a Windows game is launched with SteamPlay(Proton); Steam edits the manifest to add the Proton(858280/930400-beta) depot as a "shared depot" to the game's manifest.
Then at next startup, it is removed; only being re-added when the game is launched through SteamPlay(Proton) again.
However, some games seem to get out of sync and stuck in an update loop. You end up with manifests that already have the shared depot enabled at startup. Then Steam tries adding it & then removes it at startup. That's where it notices a 'big' change has occurred & the stateflag in the manifest is changed to 'update required'. The update happens, and it is out of sync again with the depot re-enabled. From there is where you get the constant 0 byte updates.
Not all of them show up in the "Downloads" section, but it's visible in the logs.
I've tried fixing the files manually, but Steam seems to have a local backup it restores from which interferes; or complains about disk write errors if you try to make the manifests read-only.
The most noticeable part of this bug; is either when updates continuously get stuck as "delayed/scheduled", or they take too long to update at startup. So, they end up showing in the "Downloads" section even though they completed updating.
Some example log info:
https://gist.github.com/MysticTempest/a5ae8205aacf921b829d7fe1da31a80a
I've 1 ext4 drive with native Linux games and 1 NTFS drive with Windows only games; I've added them as Steam libraries (LG for Linux Games and WG for Windows Games).
Various (but not all) Windows only games from WG library present this 0.0 KB update issue, some of these games work, some no.
I've another "strange" issue that may be unrelated: Shadow of Mordor and Batman Arkham Knight need to be fully downloaded (45 GB each), despite being already fully installed from Windows.
I've another "strange" issue that may be unrelated: Shadow of Mordor and Batman Arkham Knight need to be fully downloaded (45 GB each), despite being already fully installed from Windows.
Shadow of Mordor has a native version.
I've another "strange" issue that may be unrelated: Shadow of Mordor and Batman Arkham Knight need to be fully downloaded (45 GB each), despite being already fully installed from Windows.
Shadow of Mordor has a native version.
I've checked, and it's on my Linux partition, hence I've should have installed it from Linux. So I'd say the download problem is unrelated to Proton.
Same problem here.
@MadPierrot please avoid the spam of "me too" messages. If you are also affected, give this issue a "thumbs up". Thank you for understanding.
@vanyasem the problem is though that if you give thumbs up to the op that's like months old, so everyone might think the problemmight no longer show up, but by adding "me too" you can see the latest date the problem still persists to pester users.
@vanyasem the problem is though that if you give thumbs up to the op that's like months old, so everyone might think the problemmight no longer show up, but by adding "me too" you can see the latest date the problem still persists to pester users.
If the problem was solved the issue report would be closed. Proper bug etiquette is to use the tools provided to follow or track a bug, otherwise everyone watching the bug is getting emails with worthless 'me too' comments rather than actual development updates on the bug itself.
This has been reported outside of Proton context:
This has been reported outside of Proton context:
I think that's probably a different issue (some comments say it's been happening to them for years). This git issue only happened to me after installing Proton games and only Proton games in my library have the zero byte download problem.
@Fluffkin it may be not technically the same, but the behavior is the same. I had hit it before Proton too, but it was not that annoying, with Proton, things simply got worse.
Not sure if it helps, but this game in particular has literally always a 0 size update anytime I start steam, others do it, but not always: https://store.steampowered.com/app/674940/Stick_Fight_The_Game/.
@oblitum It matters that it's not technically the same because this github issue is for the 0 byte problem with Proton games and Proton games only. It isn't the place to try and expand the issue to other problems with downloads. If you scroll back up a long way @MysticTempest seems to have done a decent job of identifying the issue. When that issue is fixed, you will need to find another appropriate bug report for any remaining download issues you may still have.
Not sure whether you ever programmed, but this kind of association is helpful at problem resolution (there may have been a fix before, and then a regression). It is the same behavior, and that may be helpful at identification.
I didn't post information to solve another problem. It was solely to provide more context for resolution.
@oblitum I'm sorry you seem to feel insulted. (I'm not sure whether you've ever tried bug fixing). But read https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5644#issuecomment-423718402 .. If that is the main issue here (which seems highly likely), then it can only affect Proton games. Once that issue is solved, any remaining issues will be due to a different problem. This issue is tagged "Proton".
@Fluffkin I take no offense, I just provided info that may be of interest for anyone resolving it, which I assume not targeted at you. Enough of chatting in the issue tracker right?
I have this problem even without opting into Proton. Basically started when Proton started shipping with Steam.
Yesterday after 3.16-5 proton update steam decide redownload all my proton games. It wasnt 0 byte downloads, i had to download about 60 gb.
@MrCapone I guess that's what's called a beta user experience, for real.
@oblitum I don't believe 3.16-5 is in beta anymore.
@MrCapone Thanks for reporting what you're seeing, one of the most difficult things to account for with tracking down and fixing bugs is if the issue is reproducible by the developer. To help with this, it'd be good to let @kisak-valve know if your system is configured in a "non-standard" way (I.E. storing the proton games on an NTFS partition mounted in your linux distro).
@dhollinger
My system is Linux Mint 19 (Based on Ubuntu 18.04). I use default steam path (~/.local/share/Steam/). And my /home directory on ext4 partition.
Per "Fixed 0-byte downloads getting queued on startup for all Steam Play titles" in the 2019-01-16 Steam client beta update, please opt into the beta and retest this issue.
Fixed for me.
Fixed! (Arch + Btrfs)
after another "download" of all installed games it is gone here too.
thanks a lot!
I had to let them all update once but on restart none rescheduled anymore. Thanks. It was very annoying
Yup, needed one more update to each Steam Play title and now it's solved. :+1:
Like a few stated, after restarting, updates still showed but after
"updating," the showed no updates available even after quitting Steam.
We'll see if games update property now.
On Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 3:13 PM Zamundaaa <[email protected] wrote:
I had to let them all update once but on restart none rescheduled anymore.
Thanks. It was very annoying—
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Seems to be fixed. Thank you!
Thanks for retesting, closing.
I'm already into beta (3.16-6). Should I do something to force redownload? Nothing changed for me, both regarding a client update or the zero sized updates.
Wondrous!
Hello @oblitum, downloads are managed by the Steam client, not Proton. You'll want to give https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7021-EIAH-8669 a read if you need help switching to the beta client.
@kisak-valve I'm using the beta client (necessary for proton 3.16-6 Beta), but I didn't get a recent client update (if I recall correctly), and the system is behaving basically like before, often full of zero sized updates. I asked because whether there's any means to force the beta client to update. I could have got the update already and don't know (and it's not fixing), or it still needs to be applied but for some reason I didn't receive it.
Update just arrived, thank god this is finally fixed \o/ Move this fix out of beta soon! No one deserve this, it was painful.
By the way, just for anyone info, my games are on a NTFS partition, it has never been an issue (just needs to mount it with my user as owner).
Per "Fixed 0-byte downloads getting queued on startup for all Steam Play titles" in the [2019-01-16]
Thank you Baby Jesus. Clicking through all that crap became a psychological test/game in itself.
With the re-release of the patch, I have noticed there's always 1 game which still presents a 0 byte download.
I have now a few games that are always in planned update state and cannot be brought to actually update.
I have now a few games that are always in planned update state and cannot be brought to actually update.
If the games are small enough have you tried reinstalling them?
The issue seems to have reappeared with today's update...? (that's the version built on Jan 19th 2019 at 2:01:59)
@evilynux it happened just once after the update for me, for all games.
Ah, trying to play one of the affected games forces a redownload. This may actually fix the issue. To be continued... the download will take some time (7.4 GB). I'll update the status here once it's over.
be careful! with todays update default settings changed and many games are forced to re-download.
"To reduce the amount of lost data, when you start the client after the update, go straight to the Steam settings > Steam Play and enable Proton for all titles and restart the client. The faster you can do that, the less data steam is able to delete." via https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/ahi5i8/steam_client_beta_update_january_18th/eeet4t4
thx NoXPhasma!
The discussion here has derailed from the original topic and is most likely a side effect of "Fixed an issue with invalid Steam Play tool selections if user had previously opted in to enable Steam Play for all titles. (Note: this will cause a one-time reset of all Steam Play global and per-app selections to the default state)." in the 2019-01-18 Steam client beta update and #5901.
proton 3.16-6x1 2019-01
Issue transferred from https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/130.
@MartinPL posted on 2018-08-22T17:33:25:
So problem is that Steam after start keep downloading empy updates, i thinks it some save stuff.
https://i.imgur.com/im16Jsn.png