"Create or Selecte New Steam Library Folder" Dialog is Blank

[moldyharriet]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1705720677
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Arch (EndeavourOS)
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Yes
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes (Fresh install)
• Steam Logs: [generate by running this command in a terminal tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs]
• steam-logs.tar.gz
• GPU: Nvidia (RTX 3070 FE)

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Currently finding it impossible to add a new steam library folder. Any time I go into Steam's settings menu and to the storage submenu to add a new directory to Steam, the box to add a drive is empty. It has three options, "New Folder", "Select", and "Cancel". None of which, barring "Cancel" will do anything. There was another thread about this two weeks ago, and it was closed, linking to another post which had a similar issue that was NOT resolved. The user in that original issue was using Ubuntu, and simply updated their system, resolving the issue. Please do not close this issue and link to something similar to that.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Install Steam from pacman
2. Sign in
3. Go to settings -> Storage -> Add Drive

Thanks!

[TTimo]

This looks like the fallback / legacy directory chooser has issues. What desktop environment are you using? You may need to install xdg-desktop-portal so the client will pick your host facilities for this.

[JamiesonC]

I encounter exactly the same issue on Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS (Debian)

Steam Beta Branch: Stable Client Steam Version: 1709846872 Steam Client Build Date: Wed, Mar 6 8:28 PM UTC +00:00 Steam Web Build Date: Thu, Mar 7 9:17 PM UTC +00:00 Steam API Version: SteamClient021

System information: https://gist.github.com/JamiesonC/19f6cd98df2448bfd0ee04b792bf2b2b

xdg-desktop-portal is installed and up-to-date (1.6.0-1ubuntu2)

[Korygauger]

Having the same issue on linux mint also Debian

Steam Beta Branch: Stable Client Steam Version: 1709846872 Steam Client Build Date: Wed, Mar 6 3:28 PM UTC -05:00 Steam Web Build Date: Thu, Mar 7 4:17 PM UTC -05:00 Steam API Version: SteamClient021

System: https://gist.github.com/Korygauger/478eea2236a5f8fcaae6f48209782a2d

I also checked for xdg-desktop-portal and basically reinstalled it with sudo apt install and I still have this issue

[Korygauger]

@JamiesonC @moldyharriet Just in case you guys don't know in the meantime while this is still an issue, you can go into the steam console and type in library_folder_add <path> and it should work. it did for me.

[JamiesonC]

@JamiesonC @moldyharriet Just in case you guys don't know in the meantime while this is still an issue, you can go into the steam console and type in library_folder_add and it should work. it did for me.

@Korygauger this workaround worked for me. Thank you! Although the UI is still an issue, thanks to this workaround it's no longer a blocking issue for me.

[Korygauger]

@JamiesonC @moldyharriet Just in case you guys don't know in the meantime while this is still an issue, you can go into the steam console and type in library_folder_add and it should work. it did for me.

@Korygauger this workaround worked for me. Thank you! Although the UI is still an issue, thanks to this workaround it's no longer a blocking issue for me.

you are very welcome

[kaarelen]

Same stuff on my system. While

xdg-desktop-portal-1.18.2-1 is up to date

[ChristophFranzen]

Hello, for this special case I can confirm the console workaround is indeed working, but there's missing some information in the previous posts:

The folder must pre-exist, the console command does not create it for you, you'll have to do that from outside of the steam client, and make sure that it is actually usable: it must have +rwx permissions for the user or group the steam client is running as.

There is another workaround:

You can still choose a location from the "list", listed are only "mount points" for disks/partitions there. Doing so creates a folder "SteamLibrary" (fixed name) at this location, if the steam client is able to write there. You can then exit from Steam, move the folder wherever you want, and replace it with a symlink to the new path name, which must of course be named "SteamLibrary" (at the original place) as well. This approach is obviously inferior to the console workaround, but will still work if you've issues with the client's console.

The other workaround mentioned above to "upgrade the system" (using "XDG portals" subsequently) is not always possible – at least not without potentially breaking other things, which might be much more important than games.

This is also not the only place in the client where the fallback file/folder picker is broken, and for the other issues no workarounds are known yet.

[ChristophFranzen]

In the recent beta update, the issue of "unpopulated" folder trees has been fixed, but one last problem remains:

1. Go to the "Steam settings" -> "In Game"
2. "External screenshots folder" -> "Choose folder": a new window opens: "Select external screenshots folder"
3. At first this seems to be fully functional, you can browse to any filesystem location.
4. Choosing "Select", however, leads to an immediate crash, no matter which folder is chosen. No error messages or further log entries can be seen.

On my machine, this happens everywhere where the fallback file picker is used: as soon as I click on select after choosing a folder from the directory tree, the steam client crashes immediately.