Update for ark turned into a re-download of the game

Your game saves are saved in the cloud, so no worries there.

I had a similar problem with Ark the other day, I download a 30GB update to get me ready for the Xbox One X, lo and behold I had to re-download the exact same file one day later. now it could be that it was two separate updates, but I doubt it. normally
when something like this happens Wild Card mentions it on twitter.

If you have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription you should be able to download Ark from the Microsoft store for free. You will need to re download through the Microsoft Store in order to play, because you will be on Microsoft's Services and not Steam's.

Hi again.

Unfortunately, manually updating the Windows version of ARK: Survival Evolved is not officially supported by the developers. There is no built-in option within the game or Steam client to manually update the game files.

However, there are a few workarounds you can try, but they require caution and modifying game files, so proceed at your own risk:

Downloading the Update Manually:

You can attempt to download the update files manually from a reliable source.
Search online for "ARK: Survival Evolved Windows update version [version number]" and ensure the source is trustworthy.
Download the necessary files and replace the existing ones in your ARK installation directory.
This method can be risky and lead to errors if the files are corrupted or incompatible.

Using Steam Beta:

You can try joining the Steam beta branch for ARK: Survival Evolved.
This will allow you to access the latest updates before they are officially released.

However, beta versions can be unstable and might contain bugs.
To access the beta branch, right-click on ARK: Survival Evolved in your Steam library, select Properties > Betas, and choose the appropriate beta branch.

Reinstalling the Game:

This is a more drastic option, but it can sometimes resolve issues with updates not installing properly.
Back up your saved data before proceeding.

Uninstall ARK: Survival Evolved completely from your system.
Download and install the latest version of the game from Steam.

Best regards. Oskayra

Try deleting the game and the update data from the Hard Drive, re-download the game and try re-downloading the update.

Same issue. All storage is internal. Multiple hard resets after adjusting settings such as home Xbox, power mode, turning off auto updates, etc.. The download is the exact same size as the full game (ARK in my case) and I've deleted enough things to download
it in the past and it seemed to have turned out to be a smaller update because it didn't take up as much storage as it said it would. That being said, it still downloaded 33gigs, taking a chunk out of my data limit. This needs to be fixed ASAP because people
can get charged overages for the massive, pointless data transfers.