How to force Steam to Update games automatically and immediately
Steam has moved to scheduled game updates, but the option to download them immediately is still available, although partially hidden under the advanced settings for each game.
In the past, Steam did update all the games right away, but their policy changed because of the events that affected the world in the past years, which increased the number of people staying at home. This led to a drastic rise in Steam’s bandwidth usage.
In order to prevent issues and potential downtimes, Steam introduced scheduled updates, which are usually set at odd times in order to spread out the servers’ load.
How to make Steam update games immediately
Right-click on a game inside your Steam Library or directly in the Scheduled section, and select Properties.
Go in the Updates tab, and under Automatic Updates, select High-Priority - Always auto update this game before others.
Setting a Steam game Automatic Updates to High Priority
By default, Steam uses Always keep this game updated, but with this setting the games will just follow the scheduled download times. Only by selecting High Priority the game will be really updated as soon as possible.
After setting High Priority, Steam will move the game selected from the Scheduled section to the Download Queue, and the update will start.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a global setting we can use to affect all games. If you want your entire Steam library updated as soon as possible, you will have to set all games to High Priority manually.
Honestly, this isn’t a big nuisance. I suggest to set new games to High Priority right away, and edit the settings for the already installed ones via the Scheduled section over time.
Suggested article: Best 2D, 2.5D, and Isometric games for Steam Deck
Header and all images: Steam
