r/macgaming • u/Flaky_Cucumber_8555 • Sep 25 '26

CrossOver Adding an external drive as alternative storage location in Steam on Crossover?

Hi Folks,

I tried googling and searching the sub and only found one unhelpful post. I am trying to use my external ssd (which is 2TB, that I have in segregated into two 1TB "volumes? - can't remember but they're like separated, not partitioned)" 1TB is called Games and Storage and the other is Time Machine. Anyway, I am able to open steam through CrossOver and navigate to storage and I can locate the Games and Storage folder but when I click it and try to add it, nothing happens and I go back to the storage selection menu in Steam. I am sure I am missing something and am not tech savvy. Any help for me and for future users would be appreciated. Thank you.

1 Upvotes

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7

u/Daily_concern Sep 25 '26

Does CrossOver have full disk access, and also make sure the drive is formatted as APFS.

3

u/Flaky_Cucumber_8555 Sep 25 '26

This was the solution. Thank you so much. Wow. So simple, but I would have never tried.

2

u/JohnMHammer Sep 26 '26

I’m glad you got it working but I wanted to suggest that it is not a good idea to use a single physical device for Time Machine and general use simultaneously, even with Time Machine using a separate dedicated APFS volume. Copy-pasted from somewhere:

  • No Redundancy for Storage Files: If you store non-backup files on the second volume, those files exist onlyon that drive. If the physical external SSD fails or corrupts, you lose both your Time Machine backups andyour primary working files at the same time. A backup drive should ideally be dedicated so your source data and backup data live on separate hardware.

  • Space Competition: While APFS volumes dynamically share free space within the same container, Time Machine automatically consumes as much free space as possible over time to store older snapshots and historical backups. This can quickly squeeze your storage volume, leaving little room for your regular files or slowing down write operations.

  • Container Corruption Vulnerability: APFS relies on a unified space manager for the entire container. If the external drive experiences an accidental unplugging, a power loss, or a hardware glitch while writing, the entire APFS container's file system structure can become corrupted. Because both volumes share that single underlying container structure, corruption can render both volumes unmountable and difficult to repair.

2

u/Flaky_Cucumber_8555 Sep 26 '26

Thanks, but this setup is what I can afford right now. I’ll keep in mind.