Steam-Deck.Shader-Cache-Killer VS DeckCleaner

By default, Steam stores these shaders at /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache/ where each directory is named after the relevant game’s Steam app ID. (For example, 1551360 is the app ID for Forza Horzion 5, whose shader cache takes up 8.9 gigabytes on my Steam Deck!) I wouldn’t really recommend deleting these caches, but you can use tools like Shader Cache Killer or CryoUtilities or Storage Cleaner for Decky to better manage these shaders– or just uninstall the relevant games that take up too much space. There’s tons of YouTube videos out there that can help you with this.

To clear them out you need special programs (careful, when clearing out compatdata on games, as those are the fake windows folders (one per game) also savefiles are stored there, back them up, if they arent cloud synced, also dont delete a compat folder of a random unnamed small thing, because that might be the protons versions compatdata folder, and doing that would ruin the functionality of that entire proton versiion until and uninstall reinstall of that proton version) like https://github.com/scawp/Steam-Deck.Shader-Cache-Killer

if u need clean cache after gaming session try it

GitHub - scawp/Steam-Deck.Shader-Cache-Killer: Script to Purge The Steam Decks Shader Cache

Last but not least, some games break, after you change proton versions via force compatibility - they are in the vast minority but it happens. In which case before switching to a new proton version its also recommended to kill compatdata for that game (can be done via https://github.com/scawp/Steam-Deck.Shader-Cache-Killer or CryoUtilities. Make sure to only kill them for the game, and not for unknown or all uninstalled games - as if a mishap happens there and you kill the compatdata folder for an entire Proton install, that version is then borked for every game - so dont.)

Otherwise: Shadercachekiller is helpfull: https://github.com/scawp/Steam-Deck.Shader-Cache-Killer

I believe there is an option to send shader cache to the SD card. Also, https://github.com/MiaPepsi/DeckCleaner/releases

I use Deck cleaner when I uninstall games it removes leftover shader caches from games you have uninstalled.

Deck Cleaner. It doesnt get rid of proton versions, that I know of, but it will scrub shader caches and proton prefix folders for games no longer installed.

There’s an app that will do this exact thing, only need to run it once and it’ll point all your shader caches to the current SD card that is installed, it’ll only copy the cache to the SD card if the game that needs it is on the SD card, it’s called Deck Cleaner

This is the GitHub for it https://github.com/MiaPepsi/DeckCleaner/releases