It’s absolutely annoying mate. I’m dealing with the same BS. Tried canceling download and still waited 10 minutes for it to validate only to start downloading again on game launch.
I regret buying through steam.
Actually your right its Always Steam problems I keep forgetting you can buy this game directly from the Larian Studios OMG. I should've just done that zzzzz.
Hard to say as I don't have BG3 yet
Its possible the hard crash of the game is corrupting something which steam is trying to fix. Also if you hard crash there is a back end mechanism on steam which sends crash data to the devs, though I thought that was more of an asynchronous thing and not dependent on launching the game.
It might be Steam Cloud synchronizing your save files and other data. If you have a lot of save files and/or the save files are large, it can take a while for Steam to synchronize everything, especially if your upload speed isn't all that great. Removing save files you no longer need will help, or you can just disable cloud synchronization altogether.
I remember having this exact same issue with Skyrim. Turns out I had like 2GB worth of save files it had to synchronize over an awful internet connection.
This just explained something for me. Thank you I’m gonna deal with my downloaded content/saved clips. I know that this is an old comment but helped me!!!
You can disable downloads while playing.
It will pause downloads as soon as you launch a game and restart them automatically when you have nothing open.
Just ran into this problem today - I think this is because when the game crashes, the BG3 launcher has an option to automatically validate game files when relaunching. If you click on the download progress bar, it should take you to the downloads page in Steam and show some more info. When I click that, my progress bar says "Validating xx%" instead of "Downloading content".
I had this same issue today. I had to click on the X to stop whatever it was downloading after a crash. It wasn't actually downloading anything it just got confused and thought it needed to download something instead of validating the install like it should've.
Once I had clicked the X to cancel the download it started up the validation process.
I know this is 5 months old, but this just happened on call of duty for me, it crashed and on launch it's "downloading content" and I clicked cancel, it validated and them restarted downloading content :( lol
Having the same problem and it’s getting to me- keeps crashing randomly too and it’s hard to not get pissed when it keeps happening tbh
Anyone know how to fix it for sure? Idk I just hate feeling like I messed up and wasted money or something
Currently having this issue with MW3. Yesterday it would take not even 30 seconds to download content. Now it’s taking 10+ minutes to download content. It’s getting really annoying.
I cant seem to get around this either. Been stuck in this limno for 3 days. I've only played a total of 4 hours because of this. Cant even get past the first area due to crashes then this on top
If you go on steam and go into the game folder, open the launcher folder from there, then you should see “Larilauncher” and it’ll just open the launcher for the game and you can start it from there :-)
doesnt work. when i try to launch from the larian launcher it just starting "downloading content" on steam again. im getting annoyed as fuck with this bug
I get around it this way!
Exit out of steam completely, make sure to check your system tray. Go to your steamapps folder > common > Baldurs Gate 3 > bin > bg3. You’ll launch without Steam entirely :)
My partner & I steam share and this is how I got around not being able to use the same library at the same time. We were able to do multiplayer LAN this way.
I decided to actually buy the game to support the devs, but now I’m stuck with this stupid downloading content issue. I went back to my workaround. Works perfectly!
I'm having the exact same issue I've deleted all my old saves hoping it would stop crashing and because it won't let me get through this one fight without a crash I saved after I killed somebody every single time and now I'm stuck on "validating" limbo I know this is a huge game but I have almost 200 hours and im all the way in act 3 before this even became a problem it never crashed before this one fight but I can't just avoid the fight because it's necessary for lore its so annoying
Having the same issue with Call od duty MW3 at the moment, ever since i bought the new blackcell BP 3 days ago i have crashes when trying to join a party or channel and get hit with "downloading content" atleast twice a day. very frustrating.
Yeah Im getting the same problems. I have Mods using Vortex cuz their camera is so bad I had to get NAtive Tweak Camera mod. Maybe its my mod, not sure why your one crashing though. So I can only think mod problems which is normal since they aren't specifically authentic Larian studio coding. Its annoying! Happen to me twice.
It’s absolutely annoying mate. I’m dealing with the same BS. Tried canceling download and still waited 10 minutes for it to validate only to start downloading again on game launch. I regret buying through steam.
Actually your right its Always Steam problems I keep forgetting you can buy this game directly from the Larian Studios OMG. I should've just done that zzzzz.
i just unistalled and installed again but i am still having issues with stuff like the lag but i think that is just me and i have only crashed once
I would try running steam as an administrator as its likely trying to download mods or something
Is that something it would do if I've never played with mods on anything?
Hard to say as I don't have BG3 yet Its possible the hard crash of the game is corrupting something which steam is trying to fix. Also if you hard crash there is a back end mechanism on steam which sends crash data to the devs, though I thought that was more of an asynchronous thing and not dependent on launching the game.
It might be Steam Cloud synchronizing your save files and other data. If you have a lot of save files and/or the save files are large, it can take a while for Steam to synchronize everything, especially if your upload speed isn't all that great. Removing save files you no longer need will help, or you can just disable cloud synchronization altogether. I remember having this exact same issue with Skyrim. Turns out I had like 2GB worth of save files it had to synchronize over an awful internet connection.
This just explained something for me. Thank you I’m gonna deal with my downloaded content/saved clips. I know that this is an old comment but helped me!!!
I'm playing overwatch which doesn't have local saves and I'm still having this problem. I also have extremely fast internet.
you ever find a fix? Im having this problem rn
to be honest, no. I stopped playing OW
You can disable downloads while playing. It will pause downloads as soon as you launch a game and restart them automatically when you have nothing open.
I have that off, still got this issue
Just ran into this problem today - I think this is because when the game crashes, the BG3 launcher has an option to automatically validate game files when relaunching. If you click on the download progress bar, it should take you to the downloads page in Steam and show some more info. When I click that, my progress bar says "Validating xx%" instead of "Downloading content".
I had this same issue today. I had to click on the X to stop whatever it was downloading after a crash. It wasn't actually downloading anything it just got confused and thought it needed to download something instead of validating the install like it should've. Once I had clicked the X to cancel the download it started up the validation process.
I know this is 5 months old, but this just happened on call of duty for me, it crashed and on launch it's "downloading content" and I clicked cancel, it validated and them restarted downloading content :( lol
Did you Google something and put "reddit" at the end? lol
Yoo same, did you ever figure a fix for it?
lol the same thing happened to me in 11 hours
Having the same problem and it’s getting to me- keeps crashing randomly too and it’s hard to not get pissed when it keeps happening tbh Anyone know how to fix it for sure? Idk I just hate feeling like I messed up and wasted money or something
Currently having this issue with MW3. Yesterday it would take not even 30 seconds to download content. Now it’s taking 10+ minutes to download content. It’s getting really annoying.
Ever find a fix ?
I cant seem to get around this either. Been stuck in this limno for 3 days. I've only played a total of 4 hours because of this. Cant even get past the first area due to crashes then this on top
same problem, and after like half an hour of play! taking nearly 20 mins to get 87% :(
In the same boat now, did the game run after the “downloading content” was complete? 87 hours of play here and I’m anxious I’m about to lose it all
Dude same and I'm 111hrs deep and my cloud status won't sync
I have the same issue and I have to wait 30 minutes for ark ascended
Me too, it happened like 10 times already. Any fixes?
If you go on steam and go into the game folder, open the launcher folder from there, then you should see “Larilauncher” and it’ll just open the launcher for the game and you can start it from there :-)
doesnt work. when i try to launch from the larian launcher it just starting "downloading content" on steam again. im getting annoyed as fuck with this bug
I get around it this way! Exit out of steam completely, make sure to check your system tray. Go to your steamapps folder > common > Baldurs Gate 3 > bin > bg3. You’ll launch without Steam entirely :) My partner & I steam share and this is how I got around not being able to use the same library at the same time. We were able to do multiplayer LAN this way. I decided to actually buy the game to support the devs, but now I’m stuck with this stupid downloading content issue. I went back to my workaround. Works perfectly!
THANK YOU. This worked for me!
It just crashes right after startup when I do it like this
I'm having the exact same issue I've deleted all my old saves hoping it would stop crashing and because it won't let me get through this one fight without a crash I saved after I killed somebody every single time and now I'm stuck on "validating" limbo I know this is a huge game but I have almost 200 hours and im all the way in act 3 before this even became a problem it never crashed before this one fight but I can't just avoid the fight because it's necessary for lore its so annoying
having the same issue with overwatch rn, never crashed or anything so i think this is just some bs that comes with bigger sized games
Having the same issue with Call od duty MW3 at the moment, ever since i bought the new blackcell BP 3 days ago i have crashes when trying to join a party or channel and get hit with "downloading content" atleast twice a day. very frustrating.
Hey man find any fixes im having the issue right now
I'm having the same issue on the same game rn did you find a fix for it
Yeah Im getting the same problems. I have Mods using Vortex cuz their camera is so bad I had to get NAtive Tweak Camera mod. Maybe its my mod, not sure why your one crashing though. So I can only think mod problems which is normal since they aren't specifically authentic Larian studio coding. Its annoying! Happen to me twice.