Dota 2 update stuck on starting

Thread: A Possible Fix for the stalling update (stuck at certain % complete)

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A Possible Fix for the stalling update (stuck at certain % complete)

Here’s a list and a guide with step by steps on how to possibly fix the stalling update/download for Dota 2 client.

Here’s a summary of fixes for the issue.

• Verify the integrity of the game cache.
• Removing the Dota 2 files from the downloading folder.
• Refreshing your clientregistry. blob and your winui. gcf in your steam folder.
• Changing the region to force download from a different server.
• Clearing out the Dota 2 files from your depotcache folder.

If I have left any out please PM and leave a message below for me to add it to the guide please.

– Verify the integrity of the game cache –

To verify the integrity of the game cache simply open steam to your library where all your games are, locate Dota 2. Make sure that the download is paused and right click Dota 2, click properties and a new window will open. Click the local files tab and you should see an option to verify integrity of game cache. Wait for this to complete and then resume your download.

– Removing the Dota 2 files from the downloading folder –

*Make sure you pause any downloads before you attempt*
To remove the downloaded files that might be causing the game to no longer continue to update/download correctly all you need to do is to open up your steam directory (This is usually defaulted to C:/Program Files/Steam) and open steamapps , downloading and locate any folders associated with the number 570. 570 is the steamid number for Dota 2 (as seen on the dota 2 store page). Delete the folder and any state_570_###.patch files to restart the download again.

– Refreshing the clientregistry. blob and winui. gcf files in your steam folder –

To refresh these files you must first exit steam completely, then go into your steam directory (defaulted to C:/Program Files/Steam). Now locate a file called clientregistry. blob and rename it to clientregistryold. blob. DO NOT DELETE THIS FILE as it is recommended not to delete the Old. blob as it may be used later to determine recurring issues. Now open steam and it will reacquire a new clientregistry. blob and try to download again.
The next file Winui. gcf is more related to menu’s and configurations of steam but I have heard people able to resolve their issue by correcting this too. To refresh this file close steam and go to your steam directory (defaulted to C:/Program Files/Steam). Now open the steamapps folder, locate winui. gcf and rename it to winuiold. gcf. DO NOT DELETE THIS FILE as it is recommended not to delete the Old. gcf as it may be used later to determine recurring issues. Now open steam it will reacquire a new winui. gcf and try to download again.

– Changing the Region to force download from a different server –

To change the region from which you want to download you want to open steam and open the menu (located in the top left of you ui) and then go down into settings under the steam tab. Move across to the Download + Cloud tab. Now there are 2 options here you will want to change around. The first is the Region because whenever steam downloads a game it will always download it from the closest server to the one you have selected. So we want to force it to download overseas depending where you’re from. so if you are in SEA region you want to download from the US or Europe.
The 2nd part to this is the approximate speed, I can’t confirm this but have heard changing the speed can also help although I am unsure how this would occur. On the same tab you can see the approximate speed which you can change people have stated changing this has allowed them to get past the stuck download. Restart steam and try to download again.

– Clearing out the Dota 2 Files from the depocache folder –

If your still continuing to have issues downloading dota 2 or updating dota 2 where it stalls at the same spot every time after the above fixes your next step is to remove the depocache files as they are what is most likely causing it to stall.
To remove the files from the depocache folder first you want to exit steam completely, then go into your steam directory (defaulted to C:/Program Files/Steam). Open the depocache folder and you will see a few files 571_######.manifest to 573_######.manifest. These files are related to Dota 2 and can cause the download to stall. You can delete these files although I recommend not to delete but remove the files and place them in a folder on your desktop. Make a folder on your desktop (right click anywhere on the desktop and make a new folder, name it dota2dump and the cut and paste the 571_ to 573.manifest files into the folder.
When you remove these files also clear out the downloading folder as well in one of the previous steps above to make sure we have a fresh run at downloading Dota 2. Now run steam and download Dota 2.

Hopefully the above has fixed the stalling update issue and I want to state that all fixes are based upon previous threads and there are too many people to thank for assistance in resolving this issue. I do not take credit for the gu >

Last edited by Rapacity; 11-28-2012 at 05:12 PM . Reason: Prioritizing post so the guide shows first, Old post will be added below with tags stating this was an older post.