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This article was written by Stan Kats
and by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA
. Stan Kats is a Professional Technologist and the COO and Chief Technologist for The STG IT Consulting Group in West Hollywood, California. Stan provides comprehensive technology solutions to businesses through managed IT services, and for individuals through his consumer service business, Stan's Tech Garage. Stan holds a BA in International Relations from The University of Southern California. He began his career working in the Fortune 500 IT world. Stan founded his companies to offer an enterprise-level of expertise for small businesses and individuals.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
Are you getting a "Content File Locked" error when you're trying to do something in Steam? This error can pop up if you're modding, uninstalling, or updating a game through Steam, but why? Several issues, like incorrect permissions, or corrupted cache data, are the cause for this error. Follow the troubleshooting steps in this guide to get rid of the error.
Quickly Fix Steam's "Content File Locked" Error
You might encounter this for several reasons including incorrect permissions or corrupted cache data, but you can fix this in many different ways: Running Steam as an administrator is the most common fix, but you can also check your firewalls and antivirus software to see if they are quarantining or blocking Steam.
Steps
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This allows Steam to access settings that were previously blocked. If you're on Windows, right-click the program icon and select Run as administrator . For Mac users, you'll need to be logged into the computer as an administrator .
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Services meant to protect your computer might be blocking Steam. Anti-virus software, VPNs, P2P Clients and File Sharing software, Firewalls, and security applications are installed on your computer to prevent fraudulent or malicious activity, but these can also prevent your Steam client from accessing the servers and your computer.
- Check if any of them are preventing Steam from downloading data to your computer, then turn it off or allow Steam to continue working to solve the "disk write error" issue. [1] X Research source
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Any corrupted files in the game will prompt the error message. Go to your Steam library and right-click the game you're getting the error with. Click Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files .
- This process will take a few minutes and any corrupted or missing files will automatically be replaced. [2] X Research source
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Stored data can be corrupted and cause errors. Your stored data includes data from the games in your library as well as updates. However, if this data is corrupted, Steam won't be able to access it and will give you an error. Follow these steps to clear your cached data:
- Go to Settings (Windows) or Preferences (Mac) in Steam.
- Go to Downloads and click Clear Download Cache . [3] X Research source
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A fresh install may do the trick for you. If you're using Windows, press Win + I and click Apps to find and uninstall Steam. On Mac, drag and drop the Steam icon from the Applications folder in Finder to the trash.
- Once you've deleted the app, you can re-install it by going to https://store.steampowered.com/about/ .