🔍 What happened
Recently, while updating ARK: Survival Ascended on Steam, I encountered the following error:
❗ “An error occurred while updating ARK: Survival Ascended (content file locked)”
When I hovered my mouse over the error message, Steam showed the exact file that was locked:
D:\steam\steamapps\common\ARK Survival Ascended\Engine\Binaries\Win64\CrashReportClient.exe
I tried verifying game files, restarting the PC, and even clearing the download cache in Steam settings, but nothing worked. When I tried to manually delete the file, Windows popped up this message:
“The action can’t be completed because the file is open in vgc.”
🕵️ Investigating the cause
Turns out, the file CrashReportClient.exe was being used by a background process called vgc. After some digging, I found out this process is part of Vanguard Anti-Cheat, installed by Riot Games alongside Valorant. Vanguard runs at system level and automatically launches at Windows startup — even if you’re not currently playing Valorant.
✅ The fix that worked for me
1. Stopping Vanguard (vgc & vgk) via Command Prompt
I opened Command Prompt as Administrator, then entered the following commands:
sc stop vgc
sc stop vgk
2. Deleting the locked file
Once Vanguard was stopped successfully, I used this command to force delete the file:
del /f /q "D:\steam\steamapps\common\ARK Survival Ascended\Engine\Binaries\Win64\CrashReportClient.exe"
This time, the file was deleted without any issue.
3. Rerunning the game update on Steam
After deleting the file, I went back to Steam and clicked Update again. This time, Steam re-downloaded the file, and the update completed successfully.
💡 Tips if you also encounter the “Content File Locked” error
- Don’t panic — this error usually means a file is being used by another program, not that your disk or game is broken.
- Identify which file is locked, and check what app or service is using it.
- If it's related to vgc, follow the steps above to temporarily disable Vanguard.
- After the update, Vanguard may restart automatically when launching Valorant or rebooting your PC.
🛡 Should you disable Vanguard?
If you’re not actively playing Riot Games like Valorant, temporarily disabling Vanguard won’t harm your system. Just don’t fully uninstall it unless you’re sure you don’t need it anymore.
