How to fix slow Steam unpacking

Steam unpacking is the process of downloading and installing games and updates from the Steam platform. As you download a game, Steam unpacks the files into a folder on your hard drive. Sometimes, the process can take a long time, depending on the size of the game and the size of your download.

If you’re dealing with slow Steam unpacking, there are a few things you can do to speed up the process. These include restarting Steam, setting Steam’s priority to high, deleting temporary data in the depotcache folder, and defragmenting your hard drive (HDD).

Sometimes a simple restart of Steam can help speed up the unpacking process. If Steam is running slow and taking too long to unpack games or updates, try restarting the application. To do this, open the Steam client, click on the Steam tab at the top, and then select “Exit”. Once you’ve exited Steam, you can open it again and see if unpacking speeds up.

By setting Steam’s priority to high, you’ll be giving it priority access to resources on your computer. To do this, open the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), click the “Processes” tab, right-click on “Steam.exe” and select “Set Priority”. Select “High” from the list of Priority options and click “OK”.

If Steam is taking a long time to unpack games, you may have too much temporary data in the depotcache folder. To delete this data, open your Steam library, select “Settings”, and then go to the “DLC” tab. Under the “Depot Cache” section, check the box to delete all temporary data.

If your hard drive is fragmented, it can slow down the unpacking process. To defragment your HDD, open your Start menu, type “Defragment”, and select the “Defragment and Optimize Drives” option. Select your HDD from the list, click “Analyze”, and then click “Optimize”.