The Introduction of Cloud Sync Conflict Resolution

[D. Von]

On PC, when going from offline to online mode in games with a cloud save function, Steam gives the option for you to choose between uploading local files into the cloud, or downloading the cloud files to the machine.

This is not the case for the Steam Deck.

Normally, there's no issue if you close your game and come back to it. However, if you put the Steam Deck to sleep with a game open, then play that game on another device before coming back to the Deck, you lose all progress from the other device. Despite being the older save with older files, the Steam Deck's local files will override the cloud save once you open it, game still running.

With some games, this isn't a problem since they're exclusive on my Steam Deck or my PC.

Some games however, are more troublesome: they're on both.

For reference, in Dead Cells, the game I switch device the most on, I went from my PC to my Steam Deck so I could play on my treadmill. I powered on my Steam Deck to horror: it opened to a run I completed a few days ago. That could only mean one thing. My mind aghast, I checked my unlocks to find some slots vacant, a lock in their place instead.

In this moment of realizing my blunder in leaving Dead Cells open, I realized the Steam Deck does not yet have this critical function it's PC brethren has: Steam Cloud Conflict Resolution. Were that feature have existed, hours of progress and unlocks could've been saved!

Imagine! On powering up, a window pop up!

Cloud Sync Conflict
!!! Your local Dead Cells Save File conflicts with the one stored in the Steam Cloud!

[Download Cloud Files to this Machine]
--Last Modified Thursday, December 8, 2022 12:00:00 PM ~NEWER~
[Upload Local Files to the Steam Cloud]
--Last Modified Tuesday, December 6, 2022 2:00:00 PM ~OLDER~

With the press of a button, I could override the Local Save File! I could prevent losing all the progress from my PC!

But alas, it were not so.

This isn't yet a feature. I'm forced to close games before putting the Deck into Sleep Mode out of fear. Fear of the loss of progression. Indeed! How can one forward if there exists the possibility of stepping into oblivion.

That's why I cannot progress anymore. There's simply no option to Resolve Cloud Sync Conflicts if you've left your game open. The only way forward is acceptance. Accept that that you made a dire mistake. Accept that you should've closed the game before putting the Steam Deck to Sleep. Accept that you yourself have to let yourself move on. You have to accept that that time is lost to in a state of limbo.

Had I learned to accept earlier, maybe this wouldn't have been as gargantuan of a problem as it were. An anthill turned into mountain as I froze, paralyzed in fear. Was I afraid of the Steam Deck's Automatic Override of the Cloud Save, or was I afraid of moving on?

In this state I brooded. My young and exuberant body became old and decrepit. My quick and flexible mind became jaded and cynical. Regret filled my thoughts as I pondered.

'What if there were Cloud Sync Conflict Resolution back then?'

[Man's Best Friend]

The feature you're talking about getting doesn't exist on PC either. Even on PC the only time a save conflict prompt will appear is when you launch it, not while it's running. If you put your PC to sleep with a game open, you won't get any prompts when you wake it up later, just like with the Deck. This is exactly how the Deck works too. It checks for conflicts on launch. I've hit it a few times myself, so I know it's there.

The good news, syncing saves on sleep is a feature that Valve is working on, but developers will have to implement it too since the game will need to actually write out saves when the system notifies it that sleep is incoming. The game will also have to check for and update its gamestate when returning from sleep. So while Valve may implement it, don't get your hopes up of all games, especially older ones, supporting it. Some developers can't even be bothered to actually read all the best practices, which is why you sometimes see people complaining that their PC is all of a sudden trying to play games at low settings. The developer flagged the settings file for cloud saving, exactly how Valve told them not to.