Anyone else notice steam updating TESV tonight? I loaded up steam and it's pushing an update down. Of course no information available anywhere as to what the hell it's actually doing.

I do have the HD DLC installed, so I guess it could be either being updated.

Anyone else know what's going on? Seems fairly large..

According to http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=29236353&postcount=9 by a Valve employee, they've just added cloud saves to Skyrim. (Which apparently caused the intermittent cloud issues that have been going on all day today.) That's probably the update you're seeing.

Although FWIW I haven't seen Skyrim pull down any updates for me. On the other other hand, I couldn't launch the game until I nuked the ClientRegistry.blob because of said Steam Cloud herp derp. Oh well.

Also, for future reference, you can see the size of the download by going to the "Search" box in the upper left-hand corner of the Library screen and clicking the little downward-facing triangle. Select "Downloads" and it will show you all current downloads, their speed and size, along with a link to update/product news, assuming there is any.

After I finished a session of Skyrim, I spotted Steam doing what looked like a download for Skyrim -- top left corner of the Steam Library page on the line that Skyrim is on.

I checked the main Skyrim files including the .exe, .esm and .bsa files. There were no changes.

Confused.

If it was a very brief, "blink and you'll miss it" thing, that was just Steam auto-syncing your saves to the Steam Cloud. As I said, they've just added cloud functionality to the game (so you can use your settings and saves across multiple computers); when you quit a Steam Cloud enabled game like Skyrim now apparently is, Steam syncs what it has stored on the cloud to whatever new data you've written locally (new saves, a keybinding change, etc.).

It was downloading for about 15 or 20 minutes, counting the percentage transmitted and a number which was probably download speed.

yeah mine went into download mode again now. It was 100% complete an hour ago, I just exited the game and see that steam is on the move again and Skyrim is back to downloading.. 25% now.. this one seems shorter than early.

I hate the take our crap and like it mentality of steam. Time to disable auto updates I guess... If they at least had a way to tell what was being downloaded - even a one liner that said 'syncing this' or 'updating that' I could live with it...

And just to note the original was about a 10 minute download for me. was running about 500k/s most of the time so it was by no means a small download...

According to the Steam forums, what you're seeing is in fact the cloud sync. Yes, really. It takes a super long time to sync your saves for Skyrim (especially if it's your first time doing it since they enabled Steam Cloud for it), moreso than with other games, because most people's Skyrim saves are quite large--10MB+. And as far as I can tell it's uploading all your saves to the cloud.

That adds up. It took ~10 minutes for Steam to sync my saves just now.

FYI, you can disable Steam Cloud for Skyrim very easily: right click on it in Steam -> Properties -> Updates tab -> uncheck the "Enable Steam Cloud synchronization" tickybox. No more syncing.

Yeah I have this cloud nonsense disabled on my entire account and I haven't noticed anything.

Yeah I had this too when I closed Skyrim last night... real slooooww... 1% of... 2% of...
Checked the download page - nothing.

Hmmm, I thunk to myself, have they added Steam Cloud or something? Checked properties, couldn't see anything about Cloud... hmmm...
Just checked again now, and the Cloud thing is on the properties, so I've turned it off.
My laptop couldn't cope with Skyrim, so I'm not interested in synching saves with anything else. And it really slows down closing Steam 'cos it insists on waiting while it uploads my latest saves.

Interestingly, it tells me "98.32 MB stored / -50,662,476 bytes available." Does that mean I owe them 50MB?
They ain't getting it, I tells ya!

It's taking absolutely ages for it to sync, I spent ten minutes begging my PC to shut down & let me sleep, That'll teach me for having so many saves.

I'm sure there is a way to turn it off in the Steam options, at least i hope so.

Open your Games library, right-click on Skyrim, select Properties. Go to 2nd Tab - Updates - untick 'Steam Cloud'. Voila!

Just disable it - Steam menu, settings, Downloads and Cloud tab, uncheck "Enable Steam cloud synchronisation for games which support it"

I have just about everything un-checked in the steam client on every tab and run it in offline mode .. The less things checked the less it hogs your machine, for a single player game its pretty much all un-necessary, and if I want to backup saves the trusty old usb hd does the job instead of taking up internet bandwidth.

Edit: ^^ Or just disable it for the individual game as wolfhound said

Yup - there are a few games I play across my PC/Laptop/Notebook, like Plants v Zombies and Torchlight, so I like to keep them synched thru the Cloud.
It has its uses for some games, but it's a bit excessive for Skyrim with the size of the saves. If I ever want to play it on my laptop ( at really low res!), I'll just copy my latest save to a USB stick and transfer it manually.
But you're right - if you've no use for the cloud, best to just disable it totally like you said, especially when Steam does something like this - activates the Cloud for a game and just automatically turns it on without asking.
Like MoggyW, I just wanted to shut down my PC and go to flippin' bed, and I had to wait 15 minutes for Steam to grab all my saves. That'll larn me..

I'd really recommend disabling Steam Cloud only on a case-by-case basis. It's clearly got some issues with Skyrim, but it's been very useful for me with other games like Left 4 Dead 2 or Trine. (In fact, after getting a new HDD and a fresh install, Steam Cloud saved my Trine saves so I could pick up right where I'd left off before the hardware issues.)

Also, nice to see people read my initial post where I gave explicit instructions on how to disable Steam Cloud for Skyrim.

... and no more posting screenshots. I think I'll have to sacrifice the screenshots if I don't want this cloud syncing my saves thing. Did they ask for our advice, by the way? I bet no.

Um...Steam Cloud sync and screenshots are two separate things. Taking and sharing screenshots works just fine if you've disabled Cloud sync for Skyrim. I disabled Cloud last night and was able to http://steamcommunity.com/id/tyraarane/screenshot/505764837173953625/?tab=public just fine. Just tested it again this morning, http://steamcommunity.com/id/tyraarane/screenshot/505764868632052476/?tab=public

If you're having difficulty uploading screenshots, that's an issue unrelated to Steam Cloud syncing.

I use Fraps for taking screenshots. This way I don't have the clutter of Steam's screenshot interface.

Disabling globally will also cause the CK to cease functioning as it requires cloud-sync even if you're not publishing to the Workshop. Imagine my surprise when I turned off cloud-sync and the CK rudely told me I needed that turned back on. Bleh. At least you can turn individual games off.

Yes, I did notice afterwards.

I'm afraid the problem is on your side... I disabled cloud syncing for each of my games first and then in the general settings of Steam and was able to open the CK.

http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1329559328.jpg

hmm, if their doin cloud saves now I wonder how thats gonna work with my 8gb of save files...lol

good to know, I was wondering why steam was doing this. Maybe now I try playing skyrim on my fathers laptop as well.

I believe there is a 50MB limit for save files and only the most recent files are synched with the Steam cloud service.

There is. 50 MB is the maximum you're allowed. All games have a limit of some sort so folks don't end up taking up all the space.