Dota 2 not detected in Steam folder fix

Many who have experience playing Dota 2 have faced all sorts of technical problems from time to time. For example, it happens that the game is installed, but Steam does not detect it. This can happen due to a sudden power outage or for some other reason.

That being said, players often don’t want to reinstall the Steam client every time something like this happens. But there is a way to fix this error without reinstalling the game.

How to add a game to Steam if it is already installed on your computer

Most often, even though Steam does not detect Dota 2, the game itself and its associated files are still on the computer. Therefore, to fix the error, as a rule, it is enough to re-indicate to the platform exactly where the folder with Dota 2 is located on the PC.

Instructions on how to do this:

1. Запустите Steam.
2. Откройте игровую библиотеку.
3. В левом нижнем углу нажмите «Добавить игру».
4. Нажмите «Добавить стороннюю игру».
5. Выберите из списка Dota2.exe.

If the Steam client does not find the game independently, the user must show him the way using the “Browse” button. After that, the file check starts, which may take several minutes. If no fresh updates are found, Dota 2 will be ready to launch. Otherwise, you will need to wait a bit for the missing files to load.

Why Dota starts but is not displayed?

But what if the game seems to have started, but Steam does not detect Dota, only a black screen, or the desktop itself is visible? This problem is, in fact, easy to solve.

Procedure:

1. Go to Steam.
2. Select RMB Dota 2.
3. Open “Properties”.
4. Go to “Local Files”.
5. Click View Local Files.
6. Go in turn to the folders “Game”, “Dota” and “CFG”.
7. In the latter, open the text file “Video”.
8. Set the maximum values of your PC opposite to the parameters “setting.defaultres” (monitor width in pixels) and “setting.defaultresheight” (monitor height in pixels).
9. Save the file with changes.

Now you can re-enter Dota 2. This should help you start the game without any problems. This, in principle, is all you need to know in case Steam suddenly does not detect the installed Dota 2.

FAQ