Workshop mods left behind

Updated: 2026-08-25

For a heavily modded game the Workshop folder can be larger than the game was. It is not counted on Steam's storage screen and nothing removes it when the game goes.

Why they are still there

Subscriptions belong to your account. Uninstalling a game does not unsubscribe you from anything, and the files that were downloaded for those subscriptions stay where they are — Steam keeps them in case the game comes back. See what Workshop content is for the shape of it.

Finding them

For each library drive, open steamapps\workshop\content. Every folder there is named after a game's app id.
Sort by size. On Windows this means selecting all the folders and checking Properties, because Explorer does not show folder sizes in the list.
Identify each app id by pasting it into store.steampowered.com/app/<appid> — the page title is the game.
Anything whose game is not in your installed list is a leftover.

The item folders inside are named by published file id, which identifies the mod but tells you nothing readable. steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=<itemid> resolves one, if you want to know what a particular 4 GB folder actually is.

Delete, or unsubscribe?

Both free the space. They differ in what happens next:

Delete the files, keep the subscription. The space comes back now and your list is preserved. Reinstall the game later and Steam downloads it all again.
Unsubscribe. Steam removes the files itself and the subscription with them. Cleaner, and permanent — including for any mod whose author has since removed it from the Workshop, which will not come back at all.

For a game you are done with, unsubscribe. For one you might return to, delete the files.

Doing it from inside Steam is safer than deleting folders by hand, because Steam also updates appworkshop_<appid>.acf — its record of what is downloaded. Remove the files alone and that record disagrees with the disk, which usually resolves itself and occasionally means a re-download that starts by verifying files that are not there.

A game you still play

Do not clear the Workshop folder of an installed game to free space. Those are the mods it loads, and a save that depends on one does not always survive its absence. Steam re-downloads subscribed items on the next launch, but the gap is real.

To reduce a working setup, unsubscribe from the individual items you do not use, in the game's Workshop page under Subscribed Items. Slower, and it does not break a playthrough.

Act on it

Vapor Storage Manager shows Workshop leftovers with the game name and the real mod titles instead of two levels of id numbers, totalled per game, and only for games that are no longer installed. That identification is the part that makes this tedious to do by hand.

Download Vapor Storage Manager