How to Fix the Content Blocked Error on Steam

Steam is one of the most used platforms today, thanks to the practicality and simplicity of using it, with it you can have access to thousands of online games . Besides that you can configure them to your liking, so that your experience is more personalized; Through Steam you can download games and also update them whenever you want.

If you are a frequent user of the Steam platform, it will have happened to you that you find the error of blocked content, this error occurs very commonly , if you need to solve this error you are in the right place. In this article you will find the information you need, and we will also guide you on how to solve it in a very simple way.

Index(  )

1. What causes Steam to mark as blocked content doing certain actions?
2. How can you fix this error in the operation of Steam?
   1. Run Steam as administrator
   2. Fully reset Winsock
   3. Move the Steam app out of the folder
   4. Repair files from your PC
   5. Do a scan of your hard drive
   6. Check the operation of your antivirus
   7. Uninstall and reinstall Steam

What causes Steam to mark as blocked content doing certain actions?

This error is something very annoying, since being it will not allow you to execute or update the file that is blocked, this is very easy to discover, since when a file has this error, the message ‘An error occurred while updating will  appear on your Steam (content file locked ) ‘.

According to users, this error occurs when trying to update some games or also when downloading games on Steam . Basically, this error is due to Steam not being able to write those files to the hard drive, which may sound like a very complicated thing, but in reality this error can be corrected very easily .

How can you fix this error in the operation of Steam?

Fixing this problem might sound very difficult, but you don’t really need to be an expert on the subject to do it. Here we will show you some methods that can be used to fix the blocked content error on Steam. You only have to follow the steps that you will see in each method that we will explain below:

Run Steam as administrator

This option is one of the first that you should try, since Steam requires the use of special permissions to access the files and folders on your computer. Most likely, the error is that the required permission has not been granted, and that is why Windows can block it, to solve it you will only have to run Steam as administrator as follows:

1. Go to the Steam icon and right-click on it, the menu willappear there, you must enter properties .
2. Look for the ‘compatibility’ option and go there.
3. Then, you need to click on the box that indicates ‘run as administrator’, you can see this in the configuration section.
4. Click on apply and then you must accept.
5. And finally, run Steam to see if the error has been fixed.

Fully reset Winsock

In some cases, this error may be due to the content file being locked due to the Winsock catalog; Winsock was added to your operating system to function as a dynamic library of DLC functions, it has the essential function of transporting network packets, such as game downloads and Steam updates. To fix it, you just have to reset it in this way:

1. You must open the run dialog box, this is achieved by pressing the Home and Rkeys at the same time .
2. Enter the command ‘ netsh winsock reset’ in the box and hit Enter.
3. Finally, you just have to restart your computer and that’s it.

Move the Steam app out of the folder

In some cases it may also work for you to change the location of the Steam installation folder and its game files, this should solve without major problem the one of your blocked content files. You just have to follow these steps to change the default location of Steam:

1. Enter the Steam client and look for the ‘settings’ option.
2. Click on downloads and from there enter Steam Library Folders.
3. Once there, click on add library folderand choose the new path to which you want to relocate your Steam downloads .
4. Now you must exit the Steam client.
5. Open the folder where Steam is located.
6. Delete the executable file with the extension .EXE and the rest of the files are there; take a good look at the directories called UserData and SteamApps, these should not be deleted.
7. Move all the files to the new address you want to relocate it to.
8. Now restart your Steam client and log in to check if it worked.

This procedure can become complicated and making a mistake is always a possibility . In case it did not work or you had a problem with the relocation just follow these steps:

1. Close Steam.
2. Go to the location where you relocated your Steam files.
3. You will need to move the SteamApps folderto your desktop.
4. Uninstall and reinstall Steam in the new location.
5. Move the SteamApps folderback to the Steam directory.
6. Open the Steam client and I logged in again.

Repair files from your PC

If the message ‘content file locked in Steam error’ appears on your Steam, it may be because the file itself is damaged or corrupted, and not something caused by your Steam. This is easily solved, you just have to repair the damaged files or finish the download of the missing ones as follows:

1. Go to the Steam directory.
2. Once there, go to the ‘Logs’ folder and click on TXT.
3. You should go to the end of the text, there you will see the recent errors.
4. Go into the root folder.
5. Restart the Steam client and go to the download folder.
6. Steam will ask you to update the gameyou are repairing, this will update the files you needed to make the game work.

Do a scan of your hard drive

It is possible that the hard disk that includes the installation of the game is the one that is causing the problem, whether it has a bad sector or is damaged , the disk will become a problem, since Steam will throw the error because you will not be able to access it. To solve this you must first verify what happens through a disk scan, this is very easy to achieve, you just have to do the following:

1. Enter the run box by pressing the Home and R keys at the same time.
2. In this you must write the command ‘cmd’and press OK.
3. A new tab will appear, in this command manager enter the command ‘ chkdsk / f C: ‘ and press Enter to continue.
4. Press Y to start the verification disk scan.
5. Wait for the verification to finish and check to see if the error has been solved.

Check the operation of your antivirus

Many times the cause that this problem appears is due to the antivirus that you have on your computer, it is not something strange, since more than once you will have had a problem with your antivirus when installing some files. And this could be perhaps the most obvious reason for the file locked error to appear, as your antivirus may detect it as a potential threat to your computer.

For this reason, you will have to verify if your antivirus is the one that is producing the error that your files are being blocked or not, in the event that this is the case, you will only have to deactivate the antivirus when updating any game on Steam. In case disabling the antivirus does not work, then you will only have to uninstall the antivirus from your computer and reinstall it when you finish downloading the game. In order to disable your antivirus, you can usually do it from the toolbar that is at your start.

After doing this procedure what you should do is verify the integrity of the game files, to achieve this you just have to follow these steps:

1. Restart your computer and Steam.
2. Enter the library sectionand right click on the game you want to see.
3. Click on the properties option and select the ‘local files tab’.
4. Now, click on verify the integrity of the gameand voila, so you will know if it was fixed.

Uninstall and reinstall Steam

In the event that none of these solutions have worked for you, you will have to take drastic measures, uninstalling and reinstalling the Steam application will make it return to its original settings, and therefore, you will no longer have this problem that you will lock files. This should be the last option , since it will cause you to lose all the information you had in it, to avoid this it is best to protect them with a backup copy .