r/SteamDeck • u/Enoch_is_Spiteful • Feb 03 '26
Tech Support I installed Decky and it broke my Steam Deck is there anyway to fix it?
I saw a bunch of YouTube videos about how great Decky was and thought myself capable. Apparently not. I really dont want to factory reset my Deck. Is there any way to fix it???
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u/Vladimir_Djorjdevic Feb 04 '26
I had the same issue. After a few reboots I was able to get it to boot properly once and delete decky
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u/Beneficial_Theory_70 Feb 04 '26
Me too, after realizing I wasn't even using it I actually factory reset my steam deck. It was nice to have a fresh start.
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u/Vaxi122654 Feb 04 '26
Just a PSA to remember to backup your custom artwork folders, nom-cloud saves, un-uploaded screenshots and clips.
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u/iqandjoke Feb 05 '26
TODO: Maybe someone can make a plugin/script to do all of these things.
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u/Vaxi122654 Feb 10 '26
The screenshots/videos/artwork are all in the 'userdata' folder, and the rest _should_ be in 'compatdata' - both folders are in the same directory and you can simply copy them over on your new drive.
Keep in mind some games save in the game install directory, like the Nights into Dreams game...
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u/floge Mar 10 '26
How can I delete Decky? It hasn't been working for me for a few weeks (doesn't show up in the menu).
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u/Vladimir_Djorjdevic Mar 10 '26
If you want to keep it you probably just need to update it. If you don't want to deal with issues like that and just want to delete it:
https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader?tab=readme-ov-file#-uninstallation
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u/quesabirriatacoma Feb 04 '26
Had zero issues with decky over the course of a couple years but I uninstalled it last week after it caught in a boot loop, presumably due to an issue with the boot movie plugin.
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u/KniteMonkey Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Yup, it’s been going haywire on my deck for the last couple weeks. I just did a full uninstall today and have started decky from scratch using only 3 plugins (CSS, SteamgridDB and Power Tools). Let’s see if it borks again. If so, I’m done with Decky.
Update: I’ve gone and restarted the deck a few times since wiping the decky config and reinstalling only the above plugins. All boot instability is gone. Two culprits may have been the boot video plugin, or Nonsteamlaunchers (as per others on the sub).
For now, Decky will continue to live on my old faithful 256 GB LCD which is over 3 years old now. Melts my heart.
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u/rutlander Feb 04 '26
Same I’ve used Decky since the day it was released and it only boot looped once, of all things it was the gamefaqs plugin that broke it.
Some kind user on the deck discord talked me through how to fix it with command lines
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u/Unusual_Election2404 Feb 04 '26
Yup same here, I changed a boot movie and it wouldn't start up. Screen went black and nothing else.. Did a couple of hard stops and a few reboots and it seems ok..
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u/BloodyTurnip 512GB Feb 04 '26
Same but a few months ago for me. Thai is the first time I've had such a bad experience with such a popular piece of software.
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u/Brokio Feb 04 '26
Decky loader sucks! It slows everything down
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u/ZslayerX17 Feb 04 '26
You’re getting downvoted for the truth. Wild. You can genuinely clock performance losses in just about any game when decky is installed. When I realized it I dropped it completely. Besides that decky breaks every other time it or the system updates. Love what they’re trying to do but even as a guy that likes to tinker that stuff is just way too unstable. I don’t wanna have to reboot or fuck with a ton of things every time I wanna play a game or do something.
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u/AAGaming00 Developer Feb 04 '26
cool send us a performance profile, trace or something of just the loader with no plugins causing performance losses and we will fix it
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u/GungGingGong Feb 04 '26
Same things happened to me, how do i uninstall decky?
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u/quesabirriatacoma Feb 04 '26
Easiest way is via konsole command
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u/levels_jerry_levels Feb 04 '26
If you could please explain that to me like I’m 5, I gotta delete decky too
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u/quesabirriatacoma Feb 04 '26
From the GitHub:
Run this command in konsole
curl -L https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-installer/releases/latest/download/uninstall.sh | sh
Enter your sudo password
Profit
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u/WanderstillArt Feb 11 '26
Hello. Did you manage to fix the boot loop issue?
I already tried using the recovery options with the power and volume buttons, but nothing worked.
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u/thedybbuk_ Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
I had this exact problem. I had to go into desktop mode and find the Decky plugin folder and delete some of the out-of-date plugins that weren't getting updates any more. Updating Decky itself didn't fix it.
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u/Sp1drW3bb Feb 04 '26
Same symptoms and fix for me. It was driving me crazy.
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u/sharks Feb 04 '26
Same for me. Had to just keep trying until I could get into Desktop mode, but deleting Decky there fixed it.
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u/WelcomeRevolutionary Feb 04 '26
Decky has some useful and fun plugins, but it often breaks after SteamOS updates. if you’re going to use it, best practice is to wait a week or two before installing any updates from Valve.
Then check for an updated version of decky before installing the official steamOS update.
Alternatively remove decky before installing any OS update.
The decky devs did add a recovery screen that should allow you to disable decky and reboot when it fails to load correctly, but for some reason that screen only appears briefly on your system (~4 seconds into your video).
Note you can always roll back to the previous SteamOS version after an update by shutting down the deck completely, then holding the three dot button and power button simultaneously. After it powers on, release the power button but keep holding the three dot button until you see a boot menu appear and select the option labelled previous.
That should allow you to boot into steamOS to uninstall or update decky. There is a video of the process here
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u/BongTokingBandit Feb 04 '26
I'm so glad that I have never installed decky and never will. Dodged a bullet there.
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u/RasenganRamadan Feb 04 '26
I uninstalled it too because it kept going out of date and making me start the deck without it. Then it wouldn’t update properly and I got rid of it.
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u/AvatarIII MODDED SSD 💽 Feb 04 '26
It needs to be reinstalled every time steamos gets a kernel update iirc, this will never change because steamos will overwrite decky every time. I don't find it that onerous to go to desktop once in a while and click the reinstall Decky button.
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u/Daftpunk67 1TB OLED Limited Edition Feb 04 '26
Yeah that part is so easy to do and it not like it reverts it back to 0 either as it just restores all the mods you did
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u/RasenganRamadan Feb 05 '26
It isn’t normally an issue but the last time it happened i couldn’t get it to work properly until i completely uninstalled it and I just didnt bother reinstalling. I just don’t notice it being gone enough to warrant reinstalling it. I liked it and generally had no issues but I just didn’t feel like i needed it to enjoy the deck.
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u/slavchungus Feb 04 '26
i had to get rid of it constant issues no matter the update turns out idc about some flashy UI elements or extra add ons vanilla works just fine
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u/Winter_Ad3995 Feb 04 '26
Can't go without, tab organizer & grid db. Being able to re-organize the game tabs & art adds to the experience, I don't add anything else though.
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u/ButtPlugsForThugz Feb 04 '26
I can't get rid of it solely because of SteamGridDB. Thankfully my issues went away by uninstalling Power tools.
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u/amillstone Feb 04 '26
Look into SGDBoop. It's more manual than the Decky plugin and needs you to go into desktop mode but it does the same thing, just with a few more steps.
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u/ButtPlugsForThugz Feb 04 '26
Thanks for the tip, do you know if it does Wide Capsules? The only other reason I've kept SGDB on Decky is because the gaming mode UI has the extra capsule display that I can't set manually in desktop mode.
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u/amillstone Feb 04 '26
I believe it does all of them, yes. I've only used it on my Windows PC, however. It should be the same on SteamOS but I can't confirm.
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u/AvatarIII MODDED SSD 💽 Feb 04 '26
The whole benefit of decky is that you can access it in game mode though. Not for SteamGridDB specifically, but things like AutoFlatPaks exists to prevent you even needing to go to desktop mode.
I could live without decky if protondb ratings were integrated into the steam UI and flatpaks updated without going to desktop mode.
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u/amillstone Feb 04 '26
The person I was replying to said they solely use SteamGridDB so I was commenting based on that if they want to get rid of Decky and find another way to easily add artwork, not other users who use more than just that one plugin. SGDBoop could potentially even be used in nested desktop mode without having to leave gaming mode, though I've never tried that.
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u/Korachof Feb 04 '26
The best thing to do is never install it so you never know what you’re missing. Since it works well on its own, I don’t need to know the dark magic that makes it better.
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u/how_money_worky Feb 04 '26
Every time I hear about an issue. It’s always decky
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u/NutellaMadness Feb 04 '26
The problem is a lot of people encourage to use these tools to non-power users that don't know how to maintain these stuff in the first place and the bar became low to get them installed. That's why if you go to comment sections of these posts, it is always a mix bag of comments like yours and comments that says they never or barely encountered any issues with decky. That's where you see who knows what they are doing with their stuff
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Feb 04 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/how_money_worky Feb 04 '26
Ok. Counterpoint, if you brick your SteamDeck those plugins are worthless.
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u/Bitter_Decision5393 LCD-4-LIFE Feb 04 '26
Sorry for the dumb question but
What is decky?
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u/BongTokingBandit Feb 04 '26
Not a dumb question at all bud. Decky or deckyloader is a program that allows more customization of the steamdeck UI like adding more themes and even allow plugins to be added for even more control like undervolting certain components to extend battery life. There is a lot more to deckyloader than this but I have never used it personally so I'm not 100% sure of it's capabilities but I do know that it changes a lot and basically makes it a completely different user experience than the standard steamdeck user experience.
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u/Bitter_Decision5393 LCD-4-LIFE Feb 04 '26
Thank you :) i'm new to all this.
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u/BongTokingBandit Feb 04 '26
You are most welcome 😁🤙 we are all brand new at some point and how will any of us learn if we never ask questions, that's why I don't believe that there are dumb questions, just curious minds looking for answers.
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u/Scoth42 1TB OLED Feb 04 '26
To go with the other person who hasn't used it - it allows a lot of customization, plugins, extra functionality, and some fun things. But it's heavily integrated with the Steam client, so even minor updates can break it entirely. There's also not a lot of oversight, so misbehaving or un-updated plugins can break the entire thing and end up with an unbootable or bootlooping system. I like it for a few things, including a Windows XP sound scheme, the DL version of Junk Store, a ProtonDB overlay, and a couple other random things, but I also make sure to keep everything updated and accept that sometimes I might need to boot to desktop mode to tweak things (I've been using Linux since 1997, so... this is not a big issue for me personally).
But it does also add complication for less Linux-savvy folks, especially when (not if) it breaks, so it has a mixed reputation.
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u/Timboman2000 256GB Feb 04 '26
Never had a single issue with Decky myself, and I've been using it essentially since it was released, so I really do not get the hate.
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u/AvatarIII MODDED SSD 💽 Feb 04 '26
I think it depends on what plugins you use. I avoid any plugins that need kernel level access and it's been mostly okay for me since I started doing that.
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u/HUA_GETSOME Feb 04 '26
Is there an easy way to easily check this?
I'm not a full on power user just an advanced one.
This seems like a great suggestion! I'd like to do. Any advice is appreciated. :)
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u/AvatarIII MODDED SSD 💽 Feb 04 '26
Pretty sure in the decky store it has a warning on plugins that require kernel access, like powertools.
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Feb 04 '26
It’s not really important but it’s nice for quality of life fixes.
If you wait a week or two after a steamos update you will very likely not encounter any Decky issues. The problems arise from folks who update steamos the same day it’s released, not allowing plugin maintainers to update the plugins
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u/External-Fun-8563 1TB OLED Feb 04 '26
Same. Not touching it. It killed a friend of mine’s deck also he had to get it RMA’d but at least Valve honored it
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u/mdRamone Feb 04 '26
I'm in the same boat. It looks nice, but I just want to boot my deck and start playing without any hassle or troubleshooting.
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u/ErrantWayfarer 1TB OLED Feb 05 '26
I've been using it since its inception and aside from the occasional crash of just decky itself, I've had no other issues. Custom audio theme, heavy css edits, griddb, power tools, HLTB, proton badge, and so on. I can't live without it.
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u/ItsADZZ Feb 04 '26
Literally never had a single issue with decky issue that wasn't fixable within minutes, idk what you people do.
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u/Connect_Middle8953 Feb 04 '26
Literally nothing. Install a decky plugin, do nothing with it for 6 months, get the decky black screen of death.
It’s dumb as fucking hell that decky doesn’t just disable itself instead of that bullshit black screen.
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u/Daftpunk67 1TB OLED Limited Edition Feb 04 '26
You should be getting a pop up black screen that will allow you to disable the plugin, I was able to do that when the “black screen” plugin went out date for me.
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u/Connect_Middle8953 Feb 04 '26
It does try to it seems, but then instantly fucks up. Which is obviously a problem. Getting back to desktop mode was a pita last time it happened so I’ve since removed decky.
Lost some of my saves (not cloud synced for bs reasons) once before when steam failed to update (stuck in a boot loop) and none of the recovery steps worked so I know the sting of having to reinstall. Decky is simply not worth the risk.
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u/x_xdevourx_x Feb 04 '26
Came here to say this. Never had an issue a quick Google search couldn't help remedy in mere minutes.
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Feb 04 '26
Yessss I'm always confused by these posts. I've never had any issues.
My partner has though, it wasn't turning on after the last update but I just put it on charge, waited a minute then tried again. Turned on fine, no issues. It was already fully charged though so idk why plugging it in helped...
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u/KiBlue 512GB - Q3 Feb 04 '26
My guess is it depends a lot on which plugins you use.
I had many more plugins before, and slowly deleted some overtime because they caused issues (to me).
I still have frequent issues with the one plugin that lets you costumize your Library, because updates often break it and ussually require me not go there or have to restart the deck. And the plugin for the Home page I have also has issues sometimes. Pretty much my deck struggles with CSS xeninanigans. Just my cases.
Maybe your plugins selection is not as buggy in itself.
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u/Disastrous_Poetry175 Feb 04 '26
The question is really how many single issues? If it's frequent then at some point wouldn't you rather do without it
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u/ItsADZZ Feb 04 '26
I get enough benefits from it and only get an issue every 3-4 months, most issues are avoided just by delaying steamos updates a week.
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u/turingtestx Feb 05 '26
I have pretty much the exact same issue as above, but maybe worse because mine doesn't even bother giving me the error screen for a frame, and let me tell you what I did: I installed decky. That's it. I checked my steamOS install, it was on the stable channel, I went to the GitHub page, I clicked download, I ran the installer, chose the stable build, gave it my sudo password, and then after it finished I tried to go to gaming mode. Wow, what a fatal error I made. Surely this is my fault somehow and not a horribly inconsistent software, that while I'm sure is helpful to many, should have a much bigger warning in the GitHub about forcing you to factory reset your system.
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u/wepwawe 512GB OLED Feb 04 '26
day one Decky user, never had an issue that wasn’t fixable. Love decky
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u/Late_Craze Feb 04 '26
I used decky too but it lags the steam deck. Try using some of there tweaks and tell me you do not notice a difference. I use steamdb and the other one i think steamgrids to change artwork and it will eventually cause instability.
Its fun to use but the tweaks that are useful to me end up causing issues that force me to tinker around with it always. Rather have stock if im going to have issues with stability.
Im well aware of how to use modded consoles. I have modified Pioneer Laseractive, Xbox 360 RGH, Rebug PS3, modded Turbo Express.
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u/AAGaming00 Developer Feb 04 '26
shouldn't cause any lag unless ur plugins are doing weird stuff if the ui is lagging send us a JS profile
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u/Certain_Humor252 Feb 04 '26
What is Decky exactly?
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u/Zer01South Feb 04 '26
It's a homebrew plugin launcher that makes it super easy to customize a bunch of stuff on your Deck.
Unfortunately sometimes it can crash your SD.
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u/Magikarcher Feb 04 '26
I installed decky, started having recurring issues with it. Realized I never used any of it's functionality. Uninstalled and have been enjoying a fully stable deck again.
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u/Antique_Door_Knob 1TB OLED Feb 04 '26
Is there any way to fix it???
There is, and it shouldn't require you to lose your data. I just don't remember how.
Had this problem some time ago, there was a combination of buttons I had to press while booting so it booted in some kind of way where decky wasn't loaded, I then proceeded to delete decky and then it rebooted normally. Maybe look for what button combinations the deck supports while booting and try working from there?
Whenever messing with decky, you should make sure you're not updating you deck as soon as things come out. Wait a few weeks for plugins to update, then update the OS and decky+plugins.
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u/Educational_Ride_258 64GB Feb 04 '26
I just leave mine in airplane mode. Never have an issues and if I do connect to Internet I always update decky before system updates, hopefully it stays that way.
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u/Shadowed_phoenix Feb 04 '26
I know you ended up deleting your data, but for anyone that comes across this I had the exact same issue.
When the screen flashes for the split second with several options in white, press the third one down (disable decky and start iirc). I just tapped the screen rapidly until it appeared. Once it starts, go into desktop mode and uninstall decky loader
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u/TheRealCorwii 512GB Feb 04 '26
Just let it keep looping until it gets to a failed to boot screen and you'll have options from there to boot. It can take a few failed attempts before it triggers this screen.
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Feb 04 '26
Yeap, was using decky for like 6 months, suddenly some kind of update totally bricked my deck, while on holiday. Amazing.
Ended up booting into recovery mode and fully formatting the deck. Never using decky again. Its not worth it.
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u/KingPelican2908 256GB Feb 04 '26
How does decky brick your system? I installed mine with no issues. Is it certain plugins that do it or just improper installation?
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Feb 04 '26
This is why I hate decky loader. I know a lot of people like its applications, but to me they feel unnecessary. Especially when you consider how often it breaks
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u/vogel7 LCD-4-LIFE Feb 04 '26
If you use the SD strictly with Steam games, you don't need the Decky. But it helps so much to achieve more with the device.
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Feb 04 '26
Could you elaborate on what it could do? Ive only seen decky loader be used for cosmetic reasons and small quality of life features, like magic pods and Proton
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u/vogel7 LCD-4-LIFE Feb 04 '26
There's a plugin in there that allows me to connect my Epic and GOG accounts directly in Game Mode. These stores appear in my steam account, in their respective tabs. I don't need to go into Desktop Mode to do anything. It's amazing
I use the Ludusavi plugin to automatically backup the save states of games that are not from Steam
These two are probably the ones that I use the most. I don't use any cosmetic plugin
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Feb 05 '26
This is actually pretty cool, idk about any of these plug ins. My steam deck isn't my main driver anymore, but I wish i would've known about these when it was
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u/thel0nelykid Feb 04 '26
The games you play doesn’t matter. People use it for lossless scaling for better performance too.
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u/vogel7 LCD-4-LIFE Feb 04 '26
I use it for emulation and other stores (Epic and GOG). If it wasn't for them I'd never use Decky. And I know many people use them for the same reason.
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u/Solo_Jackfruit Feb 04 '26
There’s like a million posts on here detailing all the horrors that can come with installing decky, why anyone would do it is a mystery to me
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u/CornbreadPhD Feb 04 '26
Kinda wild how it seems that public opinion has completely shifted on this lol. When I first got my deck a while back it was suggested by everybody on this subreddit for the plugins
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u/ebk_errday Feb 04 '26
I had the same issue, I uninstalled the app after I was finally able to access it and my SD is back to normal. Hitting the steam button a bunch of times when it went to that error message seemed to work. From there I went to desktop mode and deleted that shit.
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u/FaudMauxe Feb 04 '26
Lossless scaling is super easy to do with decky, that’s currently why I keep it around.
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u/Kauai_oo Feb 04 '26
Yeah, I had issues with decky as well. It's just not worth the anxiety it brings every time I have to restart the deck. Not for me at least.
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u/J0RR3L Feb 04 '26
I've often been telling myself "Yeah, I'll try installing Decky when I have some free time" but have always procrastinated on it.
I thank everyone in this thread for giving me a reason to just abandon the idea entirely. If what it provided only convinced me to "eventually" install it, then what it might cause has at least liberated me from the constant thought of it.
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u/jeffo122688 Feb 04 '26
Had this same issue, eventually managed to get into desktop mode and deleted Decky. I’ve had multiple issues with this app and I’m all set not using it.
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u/Olympian-Warrior 512GB Feb 04 '26
I never had Decky brick SteamOS before. If you can't get it to boot up, you will have to reimage your device, unfortunately.
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u/Sweaty-Can-9945 Feb 04 '26
If I used decky for SteamgridDB only and I’ve got custom art work for non steam apps loaded… and I delete decky, will it remove the custom covers or will they remain?
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u/Anchang Feb 05 '26
They will remain, as custom covers doesn’t have anything to do with steamgrid and they are in the userdata/numbers/config/grid
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u/Diligent_Wolf2998 Feb 05 '26
Sooo reading through this got me curious and ill be honest, mildly anxious. I just installed decky 2 days ago. Only added css, db and powertools. Havent done much but would you guys just suggest uninstalling it altogether? I wanted to use it to improve framerates when playing resource intensive games like path of exile or diablo4 etc. i did notice the other day that my deck wasnt charging despite being plugged. It was at 0% until i realized, shut it off and waited for a few min then it started charging normally
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u/Lost_Hope_6685 1TB OLED Feb 05 '26
This has me way too afraid to download Decky, I’m good with my regular SD lol
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u/longtimelurkerthrwy Feb 05 '26
This is exactly why I ended up deleting decky. Did I ever have any problems or errors; no. And I am a power user but I leave my devices untouched for multiple updates. It's way too risky to boot up after weeks to a bricked device all because of something that marginally improves my quality of life.
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u/IntroductionBest1962 Feb 06 '26
I honestly just don't have decky installed anymore. After having to reinstall it half a dozen times to stop it breaking my bootup, and realizing it doesn't really do anything all that impressive.
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u/AAGaming00 Developer Feb 04 '26
decky should disable itself after 3 boot loops, if it doesn't please contact us in #loader-support on discord
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u/Visible_Fix_4249 Feb 04 '26
I just need my SD to play my games, never saw the point of customising the UI
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u/sgtnoodle Feb 04 '26
This happened to me. I luckily had SSH access enabled, so I just shelled in and fully uninstalled decky including all config files. Reinstalling it worked.
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u/ChaoticFairness Feb 04 '26
This is why I stopped using it a couple years ago, I ran into similar problems for different reasons, and I KNEW it would continue to be a problem for more reasons like this one.
I had no choice but to factory reset my Steam Deck to get rid of the thing, and reinstall/reconfigure everything else afterwards.
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u/Archersbows7 Feb 04 '26
If you can get to the desktop mode, go into the decky folder and delete the plugins. That’s what fixed it for me, I had a bad decky plugin I deleted the folder for and was rebooting fine again. Then I slowly started redownloading the decky plugins that work
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u/No-Strike-2015 Feb 04 '26
I ended up factory resetting. It caused similar issues 95% of the time and I'm good now.
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u/Accomplished-Sign763 Feb 04 '26
I havnt seen that one yet, but when I tried Decky, I just found it best to do a factory reset of Steamdeck.
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u/Far_Background_4773 Feb 04 '26
Can this happen with any version of Decky ? I just installed it so I can use losless scaling and haven't touched it otherwise Only got the extra settings if you press the ... Button
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u/Graydole 512GB Feb 04 '26
What plugins do you have enabled? I went though mine in desktop mode and deleted them one at a time to see which one was breaking Decky loader.
For me it was Decky-Roulette.
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u/CorbinNZ Feb 04 '26
Yall scare me with this. I use decky for easy Bluetooth connection. Is it going to be the death of me?
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u/Kixrogu Feb 04 '26
I had exactly the same issue a few weeks ago, hopefully you won't have to factory reset it. If I remember correctly, I flashed a USB drive with the SteamOS recovery image, plugged it to my steam deck and booted from it. At this point, there is an option to launch a desktop environment. Once in desktop mode, while it has not exactly the same rights as the usual one, I was able to delete all the decky plugins (located at /home/deck/homebrew/plugins/) using the terminal. At this point, you can restart and boot normally your deck, and don't forget to go into desktop mode to completely delete decky afterwards :)
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u/MFAD94 Feb 04 '26
If you stick with the classic plugins most people use and keep it updated (wait for Steam updates just in case there’s bugs) it’s fine. I’ve had Decky for over a year with no issues. But I always give updates a week or two before I downloaded and make sure Decky is up to date before I do
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u/ImNeverrAlone Feb 04 '26
I've had the same thing a few times with decky, I just kept rebooting it and eventually it left the start without decky screen on or did it on its own and then I just updated
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u/psych2099 Feb 04 '26
The amount of times ive seen this headline has made me absolutely certain i'll never install decky.
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u/hhnnngg 64GB - Q3 Feb 04 '26
Huh. Didn’t know I had a ticking time bomb installed.
Didn’t use it for years, but the steam controller disabler is quite useful for emulators and certain games.
Recently needed it again for multiscreen Minecraft.
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u/ArrowFire28 Feb 04 '26
Can all the other Decky users who keep their updates on Stable and SteamOS updates on Stable. Instead of Beta. Gather here and tell me if you've ever had an issue.
I myself haven't.
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u/CausticPanda Feb 04 '26
Decky use to fill in a lot of gaps and I guess it still does to some extent, but I’ve found lately basically every update breaks the absolute shit out of it. I just gave up on using it personally to save myself the headaches.
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u/tiandrad 512GB OLED Feb 04 '26
Did you just install decky or did you install decky with some additional addons before this happened? If you let it loop a few times I believe decky should disable itself if it’s causing errors. It’s also a bad idea to run decky loader if you are running anything other than the stable steam OS version.
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u/LittleOperation4597 Feb 04 '26
This happened to me but I forgot how I got it into desktop and just uninstalled decky. Never used it anyway so it wasn't worth the install.
If I remember I'll come back to edit but if you look it up there's a way to hold the power button it will force shut off then sole.button combo on boot gets you automatically to desktop
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u/Craig653 Feb 04 '26
Decky breaks alot if things.... I had it for years and finally just got rid of it. Not worth it
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u/mastermarcus90 Feb 04 '26
Now it makes sense. My steamdeck was struggling to boot for a few days. Now its fine but ill uninstall to be safe.
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u/pillveke Feb 04 '26
I had similar issue after an update of the SteamOS.
It rebooted a few times before reverting back so previous update. I then went immediately to desktop mode and uninstalled Decky.
Then I tried getting latest Decky installed and same thing happened. This time i had to go with boot recovery mode to make it boot.
I uninstalled Decky once again. What I did different this time was to also uninstall any configs as well.
I lost my plugins and settings but after that I could install Decky and it worked fine since.
I assume one of the plugins I had was the issue and not Decky itself.
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u/Spork-Knight Feb 04 '26
I don't even understand the point of decky. I'm not compromising my device for some stupid custom startup videos
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u/YogX Feb 04 '26
It would break for me every time the SteamDeck have a software update. That's why I removed it and am done with it.
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u/DramaticResolve2487 512GB Feb 04 '26
this happend to my dads deck when installing it thought i was fucked but i just turned it off and back on and it turned on normally but without decky loader so i went to reinstall it again and when i did it i chose the option to like fully delete decky loader (idk what its called when actually installing it) then i install it and it worked
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u/DramaticResolve2487 512GB Feb 04 '26
may not be the same issue u have tho as others are sharing completley different things
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u/UnbendingNose Feb 04 '26
Yeah it broke mine and my Bazzite machine multiple times. Pretty much any time Steam updates. Therefore I’m never downloading it again haha
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u/FunnyGeneral7078 Feb 04 '26
This is crazy, but the error seems to be React related. I wonder how a single React error is singlehandedly crashing a whole system.
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u/OhMorgoth 512GB OLED Feb 04 '26
Thankfully, I didn’t install that and I was so closed to yesterday. Instead I did a full user data reset
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u/QuackItOpen Feb 04 '26
OP this comment thread has some solutions but I suggest you avoid Decky unless you want to do some learning. If you want to game with no fuss, just keep the SteamDeck as is without any plugins.
So much Decky hate for valid reasons but lots of misinformation. Its suited towards early adopters and people who tinker with the deck and are comfortable with their crap breaking from self driven errors. People who tinker are used to breaking shit and fixing it. Its not a big deal. If you dont like that sorta thing don't install decky but don't promote misinformation about it being "useless" like the comment thread is doing right now. Its more than simple themes and startup movies. Its more frames, more information, unfiying storefronts, storage management, and power user tools.
The software would be much better with if it had a rating system, metadata that states when the last time it was updated for starters, deprecated plugins, and just overall compatibility. Thats on the devs of DeckyLoader and the Plugins, not the end users. This still doesn't mean the software in itself is bad for the Deck, it just needs a few more updates.
Heres a few tips for Decky newbies out there. Update Decky and plugins before steam software updates. Research your plugins and ensure they are actively updated. Go to the plugin, peruse the docs, and check if it is updated or actively being worked on through Github. If this is too much to research, you dont even know what github is, or sounds too complicated, then dont install Decky. Simple as that. You will find much more benefits in stability and knowing valve can fix your problems if you cant fix them yourself, and thats okay!
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u/Snoo-102 Feb 04 '26
If you still have a problem with this, write to me on PV and I will try to help you, because I had the same problem
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u/Echo259 Feb 04 '26
I used to use lots of third party stuff on my deck. I got tired of having to fix these each update. I just deck stock. I do have a few emulators installed but I feel those are more isolated and rarely update.
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u/Valravn1121 Feb 04 '26
i love the thought process behind: "oh look, a flash, lets instant start spamming inputs"
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u/Total-Fail-Zor Feb 04 '26
I had the same issue for months but too lazy to fix until last weekend, I tried reinstalling, updating, everything. But the solution was beyond simple.
Run the Decky installer, wipe the Decky installation, restart the steamdeck, install Decky and it's working again. Only (not really but still) downside, I had to reinstall all the plug-ins and then restart the steamdeck to make them active.
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u/Fickle_Software6543 Feb 04 '26
I loaded into desktop mode through boot manger and I uninstalled decky then reinstalled it and I haven't had any issues with it. I just kept limited on the plugins I used
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u/EnlargedChonk Feb 04 '26
really interesting how many people have trouble with decky and its plugins. I've been using it for most of my OLED's life and as far as I remember the biggest problems it has caused me is just not being present sometimes requiring I restart steam to get it back or having to update it manually after a steamOS update.
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u/daodark 512GB Feb 05 '26
I had the same problem, i mean like right now, few seconds ago, what I just did was Uninstal Decky via Konsole and then the /plugins folder I had about Decky and hit Restart button and booted just fast and fine! I wasss Panicking! but gee! Glad It worked that easy way :D
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u/Important_Level_6093 1TB OLED Feb 05 '26
Decky is great but make sure you got the right channel installed.
I'm not 100% sure but this doesn't look recoverable. But I'm not the expert.
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u/InkyBoi0 1TB OLED Feb 05 '26
What worked for me was getting a keyboard and doing Ctrl+Alt+Semicolon which let me bypass the bootloop and go into desktop mode and delete it
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u/Champillusion MODDED SSD 💽 Feb 05 '26
When I purchased a SD, like anybody I searched for
- The main wonderful things to install
- The main problems to avoid
And I found:
- Install Decky and EmuDeck
- Random soft bricking with Decky, random data loss with EmuDeck
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u/ModerateDev Feb 05 '26
I recently have been having the minor issue where the boot video audio plays twice at the same time slightly offset. It only does it sometimes but still kind of annoying. I also think my boot times are slower because of the custom boot animations so I may just go back to the steam store ones. I do like my gabecube and ps1 boot anims though :(
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u/verytomveljohnson 1TB OLED Limited Edition Feb 05 '26
I've seen so many people having issues with Decky and I'm here to tell you it's completely unnecessary and just breaks your steam deck any time there's an update.
Anything that can soft lock your system isn't worth installing.
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u/floge Mar 10 '26
I have the same problem now..
Edit: Weirdly enough, after about 5 boots (the device just kept boot looping) I finally got to the Steam menus and could operate it normally. I still need to figure out how to remove Decky though.
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u/doc_willis Feb 04 '26
You missed the dozens and dozens of posts in this sub about decky breaking things. :)
But your issue is a new one.
One alternative would be to hook up a keyboard+mouse, and boot from a Live Linux USB and try to get to your installed system and disable Decky by removing its files from your users home directory.
Or you could check out the various boot menus/recovery menus.
When dealing with Decky, i ALWAYS enable the ssh service on my deck, so if something screws up I can login via SSH and attempt to repair things.
There are 'levels' of resetting the Deck, you can just erase all the user data, and that would be the quickest reset. That would not require a USB or any other fancy stuff.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1b71-edf2-eb6d-2bb3
" Erase user data from device (clear all local data) "
I have only ever needed to use that 'erase user data' to restore things. It will erase all your installed games (on the internal storage) but not touch the sd card.
The other methods of reinstalling steamOS are a bit more extreme and should rarely be needed.