Games are getting bigger. While SSDs and fast access means some titles are shrinking, it’s still not uncommon to find some games that will be at least 100GB in size. Some, like Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection are 130GB on Steam, and that meant that people even found ways to reduce the size by deleting unused language files.
| Steam Deck, though, is a convenient way to play games, that’s for sure. But with limited storage, and potentially limited bandwidth, people will want to know if the Deck can download games in sleep mode, similar to how consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S | X can manage. |
Can the Steam Deck download games in sleep mode?
Unfortunately, because the Steam Deck is essentially a portable PC, when you put it into sleep mode, it acts like a laptop. What this means is that as of now, it cannot download games in sleep mode.
Furthermore, if you start a download then hit the power button for instant sleep mode, it will stop the download, and not resume until you bring the Steam Deck out of sleep mode.
What you can do, however, is go into the options menu and find the “Downloads” section (it’s a little way down underneath the Friends & Chat menu, but above the Cloud one: pictured above). Here you can find an option for “Allow downloads during gameplay”, which is not enabled by default. What this means is that to download a game, or an update, you essentially need to sit on the downloads screen and wait for it to happen.
It’s very important to note that while enabling this will mean you can get updates and new games while playing a title on your Steam Deck, this can negatively impact performance for whatever you are playing, so it really is a decision you need to make for yourself. And there you have it, that’s all the information about downloading games on Steam Deck and sleep mode you need to know.
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