3 Ways to Fix Content File Locked Error in Steam for Windows

Pankil is a Civil Engineer turned freelance writer. Since his arrival at Guiding Tech in 2021, he delves into the world of how-tos, and troubleshooting guides for Android, iOS, and Windows. Besides his new-found love for mechanical keyboards, he’s a disciplined footfall fan and loves international travel with his wife.

Try Basic Fixes

Fix 1: Reset Winsock on Your PC

Winsock is a program that helps apps like Steam connect to the internet on Windows. If there’s a problem, resetting the Winsock data might fix it.

Step 1:Right-click theStart iconand selectTerminal (Admin)from the list.

Step 2:SelectYeswhen the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears.

Step 3:Paste the following command in the console and pressEnter.

Restart your PC after this to finish resetting the Winsock Catalog, and check if the error still appears.

Fix 2: Clear the Steam Download Cache

Steam may have troubleinstalling the updateif the existing download cache is inaccessible. To fix this, try clearing the download cache in Steam by following the steps below.

Step 1:OpenSteamon your PC.

Step 2:Click theSteam menuat the top-left corner and selectSettings.

Step 3:Switch to theDownloadstab and click theClear Download Cachebutton.

Fix 3: Delete Downloaded Update Files

If clearing the download cache proves ineffective, try emptying Steam’s downloads folder manually. Here are the steps for the same.

Step 1:Press theWindows + E keyboard shortcutto open File Explorer and navigate to the following directory.

Step 2:Select all the files within this folder and click thetrash iconat the top to delete them.

Restart Steam after this and try to update your game one more time.

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Last updated on 03 June, 2024

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