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How to Stop Steam From Updating Games Automatically

Choose “Only update this game when I launch it” in the game’s Steam Properties to defer automatic updates for that title.
Length1 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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To stop one Steam game from updating automatically, open its Library page and select Manage > Properties > Updates. Under Automatic updates, choose Only update this game when I launch it. This defers the update; it does not block it permanently, and launching the game forces a pending update.

Stop automatic updates for one game

  1. Open your Steam Library and select the game.
  2. On the game’s Library page, choose Manage > Properties.
  3. Open Updates. Under Automatic updates, select Only update this game when I launch it.

Steam describes this setting as temporarily disabling automatic updates for that game. If an update is pending, launching the game will start it immediately. See Steam Support’s guide to managing downloads and updates.

Set a download time instead

If you want Steam to download updates at a more convenient time rather than defer updates for one title, open Steam > Settings > Downloads and configure the automatic update time window. Steam gives midnight to 8 a.m. local time as an example; this is a scheduling option, not a permanent block.

Manage or start queued updates

Use the Download Manager to view update progress, reorder the queue, and manage queued downloads. Steam lets you override the schedule to download an update immediately from the Download Manager. Launching a game with a pending update also forces that update, even if you had selected the launch-only option.

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