While it should not be necessary, it is possible (with a bit of symlinking) to get Steam on OS X working with a case-sensitive boot volume.
This can be done as follows:
- Launch Disk Utility, and create a new disk image (File > New > Blank Disk Image…).
I used the following options:- Name: Case Insensitive
- Size: 100 GB
- Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
- Partitions: Hard Disk
- Image Format: sparse bundle disk image
- In your new case-insensitive volume (mine is named “Case Insensitive”, so all paths used in this document will refer to it as such), create the following directories:
- /Applications
- /Home
- /Home/Library/Application Support/Steam
- /Home/Documents/Steam Content
NOTE: These paths are suitable for a single user. I chose to use /Users/dustin/…
- Download Steam and put Steam.app in /Volumes/Case Insensitive/Applications
- Symlink your Steam directories to the case-insensitive volume. In Terminal:
ln -s /Volumes/Case Insensitive/Home/Library/Application Support/Steam ~/Library/Application Support/Steam
ln -s /Volumes/Case Insensitive/Home/Documents/Steam Content ~/Documents/Steam Content - Create /volumes (lowercase) and symlink /Volumes/Case Insensitive into it as “case insensitive”. This is to get around the intentional lowercasing Steam does of all paths it comes into contact with.
mkdir /volumes
ln -s /Volumes/Case Insensitive /volumes/case insensitive - Launch Steam!
If that’s too much work, use this shell script. Save it to your home directory (or wherever, really), launch Terminal, and issue the following commands:
OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): On a case-sensitive file system, “file” is different from “File”. By default, Mac OS X doesn’t use a case-sensitive file system. This option exists because it matches the traditional behavior of UNIX and some people might need it–don’t select this unless you know you need it for some reason. However, implementing a case-sensitive file system in OS X has some significant hurdles, the most compelling being that many current Mac OS applications that work with files will need to be. No problem with the update for my iPhone and iPad but massive problems with the latest Mojave update on my Mac! Still not fixed after spending four hours with the Apple help line running many programs trying to fix with no success.Now they are planning to reset my whole computer from my backup hardrive.this morning.fingers crossed that works.
chmod +x ~/steamcase.sh
~/steamcase.sh 100g
Substitute 100g with your desired size. This script creates a sparse bundle disk image, so you don’t need to worry about having all 100 GiB (or whatever size you choose) available up-front.
Then proceed to install Steam.app to /Volumes/Case Insensitive/Applications. Run and enjoy!
Honestly, Valve, this shouldn’t even be necessary.
Disk Utility User Guide
Disk Utility on Mac supports several file system formats:
Apple File System (APFS): The file system used by macOS 10.13 or later.
Mac OS Extended: The file system used by macOS 10.12 or earlier.
MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT: File systems that are compatible with Windows.
Apple File System (APFS)
Apple File System (APFS), the default file system for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later, features strong encryption, space sharing, snapshots, fast directory sizing, and improved file system fundamentals. While APFS is optimized for the Flash/SSD storage used in recent Mac computers, it can also be used with older systems with traditional hard disk drives (HDD) and external, direct-attached storage. macOS 10.13 or later supports APFS for both bootable and data volumes.
APFS allocates disk space within a container (partition) on demand. When a single APFS container has multiple volumes, the container’s free space is shared and is automatically allocated to any of the individual volumes as needed. If desired, you can specify reserve and quota sizes for each volume. Each volume uses only part of the overall container, so the available space is the total size of the container, minus the size of all the volumes in the container.
Choose one of the following APFS formats for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later.
APFS: Uses the APFS format. Choose this option if you don’t need an encrypted or case-sensitive format.
APFS (Encrypted): Uses the APFS format and encrypts the volume.
APFS (Case-sensitive): Uses the APFS format and is case-sensitive to file and folder names. For example, folders named “Homework” and “HOMEWORK” are two different folders.
APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted): Uses the APFS format, is case-sensitive to file and folder names, and encrypts the volume. For example, folders named “Homework” and “HOMEWORK” are two different folders.
You can easily add or delete volumes in APFS containers. Each volume within an APFS container can have its own APFS format—APFS, APFS (Encrypted), APFS (Case-sensitive), or APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted).
Mac OS Extended
Choose one of the following Mac OS Extended file system formats for compatibility with Mac computers using macOS 10.12 or earlier.
Mac Case Sensitive File System
Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Uses the Mac format (Journaled HFS Plus) to protect the integrity of the hierarchical file system. Choose this option if you don’t need an encrypted or case-sensitive format.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted): Uses the Mac format, requires a password, and encrypts the partition.
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): Uses the Mac format and is case-sensitive to folder names. For example, folders named “Homework” and “HOMEWORK” are two different folders.
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted): Uses the Mac format, is case-sensitive to folder names, requires a password, and encrypts the partition.
Windows-compatible formats
Choose one of the following Windows-compatible file system formats if you are formatting a disk to use with Windows.
Mac Os Extended Case Sensitive
MS-DOS (FAT): Use for Windows volumes that are 32 GB or less.
ExFAT: Use for Windows volumes that are over 32 GB.