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both my friend and i have purchased steam cs source. i downloaded all 2.4 gb of it but due to internet issues, he could not. i was wondering what would happen if i copy the entire game folder (240) and pasted it on his own computer. he would login on his own pc with his own steam account, and i can save him the lengthy downloads seeing that we also bought cs go.
i can not simply try without being sure of the outcome in fear that i might mess up my account. my question is would this cause issues of conflicts or blacklisting of any sort?

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2 Answers 2

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It would cause no issues in regards to your account.
To make this work, you would have to transfer the Counter Strike folder from steam\steamapps\common\ as well as the corresponding appmanifest_XXXX.acf (should be appmanifest_240.acf for CS:S) file from steam\steamapps\.

It's also possible to ignore the appmanifest file and just choose to download the game after you have the files transferred, which would trigger file verification and create appmanifest_240.acf automatically, but I have seen this fail, so I would recommend transferring that file as well.

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  • awesome. thanks for a quick and accurate answer :)
    – habboul mhabbal
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 17:25
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Sure I've done a similar thing before several times. Just make a backup for the game, it's more reliable, and it will cause no issues at all. Right-click on the game that you want backed up and select "Backup Game Files." You can then use that backup to install such game on any account by selecting "Steam" > "Backup and Restore Games."

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  • That is a valid way of doing it, but takes much longer, because the files have to be encrypted and then decrypted on target machine. Certainly more reliable way of doing it, but I have never had issues with just transfering the game folder and appmanifest, so I guess it's really comes down to preference. Your way is best for backing up games to an external drive though, so you don't have to download them again in the future.
    – Elise
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 17:54
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    @Chippies Oh yeah it's way slower. And the backup/restore has failed me on some games, Far Cry 3 for example. I just felt like adding this as an option.
    – Zerjack
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 18:02

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