It’s important to choose a microSD that works well with the system because not all of them will be the best choice. Some are not necessarily meant for use in portable gaming systems or mobile devices for storing and playing games. Some are. Basically, you want to look for a microSD card that comes with a decent amount of storage. As well as a read speeds up to 100MB/s and write speeds up to 90MB/s. There are more than a few options for this. But if you want a suggestion, we’re using this one from PNY and so far, it’s working great. With that all out of the way, how do you install games on the Steam Deck using the microSD for your storage location? This isn’t a hard process. But there is at least one step you’ll need to do first.
How to install games on the Steam Deck via microSD card
Once you’ve chosen a microSD card that will work for the Steam Deck, insert it into the Steam Deck and move on from there. It doesn’t matter if the Steam Deck is powered on or not when you insert the microSD card.
Press the Steam button and head to settings
Just like with the keyboard theme swapping, press the Steam button to open the menu on the left side of the screen, then head to settings.
Open the System settings menu
Once you’re in settings, navigate down to and open the System settings menu.
Format the microSD card
Next, before you can use the microSD to install games on the Steam Deck, you will need to format it. Inside System settings, navigate down the menu to find the option for formatting the microSD card, then click the format option. You will be asked to verify that you want to format the card as this will wipe all data off the card. If the card is new and unused, don’t worry about this and just click ok. If the card is used, then make sure you’re fine with deleting all data on it through the formatting process. Formatting the card can take some time depending on how big the card is. We used a 512GB microSD card for example. And the process took at least 5 minutes to complete.
Start installing games
Now that the card is formatted you can start installing games on it. Just make sure that before you attempt this, to set the microSD card as the default storage location. Or, if you haven’t installed any games yet, keep the internal SSD as the default until you fill it up, then swap to the microSD card once that’s done. As one last recommendation, use the internal SSD as the default for games where faster load times are most important to you. Then use the microSD card for everything else. And that’s it. Now go start playing some games on your Deck!
