Slow Steam Download? Here’re Ways to Make Steam Download Faster

This article aims to introduce how to make Steam download faster with 3 methods, including changing Internet Options and download Settings for Steam as well as using SSD. What’s more, a professional assistant – MiniTool Partition Wizard is also recommended here to upgrade to SSD with ease.

As we all know, Steam is an online game platform that allows you to organize and download game content. It is not a game itself, so you cannot make any change in 3D settings to increase download speed on Steam or achieve its maximum performance.

But you can speed up Steam download with other methods. In this post, three methods are displayed to help you solve the problem, namely changing Internet Options, changing download settings, and using SSD. Let’s see the detail one by one.

Make Steam Download Faster by Changing Internet Options

Steam possesses its built-in web browser which is used in both the Steam store and Steam’s in-game overlay. You can quickly use the web browser within games. However, it lacks the typical speed expected from the desktop browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox.

Due to an incompatibility with the Automatically Detect Settings option, there is always a noticeable delay before the new page appears in Steam’s built-in web browser. This option is enabled on Windows by default, but you can disable it to eliminate the delay and make the built-in web browser more responsive.

Note: It is safe to disable the compatibility option. If there is any problem raised with your network connection, just enable it again by checking the Automatically detect settings option.

To help you change the compatibility option in Windows Internet Options, the specific steps are displayed below.

Step 1: Type Internet Options in Windows Search bar and click the shortcut of search result to open it.

Step 2: In the pop-up Internet Properties window, click on the Connections tab and then click the LAN settings button.

Step 3: In the Local Area Network (LAN) Settings window, you can see that the Automatically detect settings option is checked by default. Just uncheck this option to disable it and click OK button to confirm this change.

After making this change, there should not be a significant delay anymore when you browse a web page in Steam’s browser.

Make Steam Download Faster by Changing Download Settings

Steam attempts to select the download server nearest to your location automatically. However, the closest server might not be the fastest in some cases, so the download server chosen by Steam automatically might not always be ideal.

A server a bit farther away could be faster if your local server is more congested especially when you encounter high-traffic events like big seasonal sales and huge game launches. Considering that, we recommend to select a less-congested server for Steam download temporarily instead.

The following is the tutorial for you on how to make Steam download faster by changing download settings to select another faster server.

Step 1: Log into your Steam account to enter the main interface.

Step 2: Click on Steam in the top menu bar and choose Settings option from the drop-down menu.

Step 3: In the Settings window, click Downloads tab. In the Downloads interface, select the closest download server from the drop-down menu of Download Region. Besides, make sure that the Limit bandwidth of Steam download has been set as No limit. Finally, click OK button to save the change.

In this way, the download speed on Steam should be faster than that with the original congested download server. You can restart your Steam to see whether the download speed has been improved after changing the setting.

Note: Steam provides a web page that shows you Steam download stats. You can have a look at the amount of download activity happening in different regions, including a global traffic map of Steam, the different download bandwidth and speed of certain country or state.

Make Steam Download Faster Using SSD

Another effective way to increase download speed on Steam is to use SSD. For larger capacity and lower price, most Windows users would like to choose HDD. Whereas, as a game lover, you had better take advantages of SSD for greatest performance. You can choose to transfer your Steam folder to a new SSD, or directly upgrade your hard drive to SSD.

Transfer Steam Data to a New SSD and Add Library Folder

By default, your Steam data is saved at C:Program Files (x86)Steam, but you are allowed to transfer the folder to another hard drive. Thus, you can also launch the Steam.exe program normally from the new drive, without reinstalling Steam or losing your previous Steam data.

After transferring your steam data to the new SSD, you can configure multiple game library folders for your Steam based on this hard drive. It means that you can save your game data separately according to your needs. For example, you can install your most frequently played games to the new SSD to increase speed, and install others to your original hard drive to save the space of SSD.

Tip: When you try to install more Steam games or in other situations, you may receive the error that you don’t have enough disk space even though there is a lot of it available. 5 Solutions to Fix “Steam Not Enough Disk Space” would be helpful for you to fix this error.

To add library folders on Steam to your new SSD, just do as the following tutorial shows.

Step 1: After log into your Steam account, navigate to Steam -> Setting -> Downloads. Then click STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS button under Content Library to manage content locations on multiple drives.

Step 2: In the pop-up Steam Library Folders window, click ADD LIBRARY FOLDER to create a new game library on another hard drive or your new SSD.

When you try to install a game through Steam next time, just choose your ideal library folder from the drop-down menu of Choose location for install.

Note: You may want to move the original library folder directly to the additional library folder on another drive or the new SSD. To move Steam games to another drive, you can find the folder from the default place mentioned above and copy it over to the certain library folder.

Upgrade Hard Drive to SSD – MiniTool Partition Wizard

Compared with transferring folder to another drive, upgrading to SSD can be a better choice, since this can speed up both Steam download and computer performance.

When it comes to upgrading the hard drive to SSD, maybe you are bothered by reinstallation of the operating system, or fear of data loss. Take it easy! A powerful disk partition manager – MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended for you here.

This program can help you manage your hard drive and partitions with ease, including clone your hard drive to another new drive without data loss, and help check whether there are bad sectors on the drive. Now, let’s see how to upgrade your hard drive to SSD with Migrate OS to SSD/HDD feature of MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Before migrating, you need to make sure that the prepared SSD is larger than or equal to the used space on system required partitions.

Step 1: Install the software on your computer and launch it to get the main interface.

Step 2: Select Migrate OS to SSD/HD Wizard from Wizard volume of Action panel to activate this feature.

Step 3: When you get the following window, you are required to choose a way to migrate your OS. There are 2 options:

Option A: It allows you to copy all the partitions and data on the system disk to another hard disk, which is the same as Copy Disk feature of MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Option B: It allows you to copy the system required partitions only and keep the original hard disk with the rest of data in your computer.

Just choose one of the options as your needs and then click Next button.

Step 4: Select the hard disk to which Windows 10 is going to be migrated, and then click Next button.

Note: All the data on the destination disk will be deleted during the process of migrating, so please make sure there is no important data on the SSD.

Step 5: Check some items of Copy Options and change capacity of the selected partition as your need by dragging the handle. And then click Next. You are recommended to check Align partitions to 1 MB item for better performance of SSD.

Note: Use GUID Partition Table for the target disk option helps you to move Windows 10 to another hard drive with GPT partition style. But this feature is only offered by the Professional or other advanced editions.

Step 6: Read the note about how to boot from the destination disk and click Finish button.

Step 7: Click Apply button from the Tool Bar to confirm the operation.

These are all about how to upgrade to SSD with the help of Migrate OS to SSD/HD feature built in MiniTool Partition Wizard. After migrating, you can boot from this new SSD by setting it as the first boot drive in BIOS.

Steam download slow problem should be resolved effectively if you have disabled the compatibility options, chosen the right download server and upgraded to SSD. Apart from these three methods, you can also, of course, upgrade other hardware such as your computer’s CPU.

I have been bothered by the Steam low download for a long time but couldn’t find an effective way to solve this problem. Thanks to the 3 methods to speed up Steam download I learned from this post, now Steam slow download is not a bother for me anymore.Click to Tweet

Bottom Line

Three effective methods have been introduced for you along with the detailed steps. They are worth taking a shot if you encountered the problem that Steam download speed drops.

If you have any difficulty in resolving Steam download slow problem with these methods, don’t hesitate to contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. Alternatively, you can leave your suggestions, dissatisfactions or doubts in the Comment Zone below.

How to Make Steam Download Faster FAQ

Why is my download speed so slow on Steam?

The main reason for the low download speed on Steam is the plethora of games and huge titles included in the library of the app. There are other factors: the download server you’re using is not working properly, or you network driver is outdated, or your network connection status is not stable and so on.

Does Steam limit download speed?

The Steam beta client has the ability to limit download speeds, which helps users on slow connections to manage their bandwidth more easily. To limit your download speed, go to Steam Settings > Downloads > Limit downloads to the following bandwidth and select the maximum download speed.

How can I speed up my Steam download?

To speed up your Steam download, you can do as follows:

Uncheck Automatically detect settings option for your Network Connection.
Select the closest download server and set Bandwidth as No limit in Steam Settings.
Upgrade your hard drive to SSD.

How do I fix Steam download stop?

You might encounter Steam download stop error while downloading games. Here’s how to fix it:

Clear download cache.
Make your Steam client offline and then online.
Change Steam download region and restrictions.
Update or reinstall your Steam.
Temporarily disable antivirus

About The Author

Amanda

Position: Columnist

Amanda has been working as English editor for the MiniTool team since she was graduated from university. She enjoys sharing effective solutions and her own experience to help readers fix various issues with computers, dedicated to make their tech life easier and more enjoyable. Amanda has published many articles, covering fields of data recovery, partition management, disk backup, and etc. In order to provide more useful tips and information, she is still committed to expand her technical knowledge.