Linux: Lost all save games from steam cloud

[dot.dot.dot.]

Hi,
this one is a Linux-only issue. I just wanted to post this one here in case I have to google it again later ;)
I did a Ubuntu upgrade recently - it failed hard. After plain reinstalling Ubuntu (LTS this time) and redownloading Steam and XCOM, I started the game - and was shocked: No savegames have been displayed!
I knew that Steam Cloud was enabled the last time I played XCOM:EW and looked into the Steam Cloud Info file for XEW at ~/.steam/userdata/<UID>/200510/remotecache.vdf
It's a plain text file that contains info about all steam cloud save games. If your save games happen to be listed in that file, they're most probably not gone!

It's a file system capitalization issue. If you start a new game now, XCOM:EW will place it into
~/.local/share/feral-interactive/XCOM/XEW
inside this folder, XEW tries to read save games from (and write them to) a folder called 'savedata'.
However, Steam Cloud Sync created a folder called 'SaveData' there - which might be the same for Windows' NTFS partitions, but certainly not for ext4 or mostly any linux file system partition.

The new games stored into 'savedata' are not synced with steam either. It's like a local storage that hides the cloud-based one ;)

To fix this issue, open up a console window (like bash) and enter:
cd ~/.local/share/feral-interactive/XCOM/XEW
rm -rf savedata
ln -s SaveData savedata

This will remove the non-steam-cloud savegames from your disk and create a symlink from 'savedata' to the 'SaveData' folder - so anything that accesses the XEW savegames using either capitalization of the two will reach the same savegames.
Game on!

[Yabos McGee]

Thanks so much for this post. After installing X-COM on my Fedora box, I noticed that all my saves were missing from when I saved on my Windows box. This post pointed me in the right direction. One note for anyone else searching for a solution to this issue:

My problem was with X-COM Enemy Unknown, not Enemy Within. The file path for me was therefore ~/.local/share/feral-interactive/XCOM/.

[ProfessorKaos64]

OMG dude, thank you a million! I was freaking out after I installed a new SSD in my Steam Machine. Did you report this to Feral?

[Zan]

You are awesome.

[blackbird]

Excellent! thanks! note: ".local" its a hidden file/directory, so: menu | view | show hidden files.

[fabry]

omg thank you very much! :D

[strEEtfox]

Very good, the best solution for this bug!

[erik]

Fantastic, thank you!

[TheGreatWent]

Worked for me too! Kudos!

[neutro]

Sorry to wake up this thread, but maybe someone can help me. Similar issue I think: I thought I could use cloud sync to sync my saved game from my linux computer to a windows one. Enabled cloud sync; for some reason this had the effect that my saved game was locally deleted.

I have two hypothesis as to why this happened. The first would be an unfortunate sequence of event: I enabled cloud sync on the new Windows XCOM install first. Steam asked me if I wanted to sync the cloud content first, and said yes, as I didn't have any game yet. Old games from years ago were synced, but not my new game because sync was not yet enabled on my linux install. Then I enabled sync on my linux install; it might have silently synced with the state of the new Windows install, wiping my new game in the process. I don't see the logic of this but that might be it.

The second hypothesis is would be path capitalization issues in which the paths on the Windows and linux platform don't match.

In any case, creating a SaveData (by opposition to savedata) folder in linux did not solve the issue, and my save file is not present locally anymore on any computer. However, it *is* listed in the remotecache.vdf file! So it looks like it's still there in the Steam Cloud, but Steam doesn't know where to put it. It doesn't get downloaded under Linux, and under Windows, I now have a "unable to sync" error.

Any hint as to how to get this save game pulled from the Steam Cloud? Thanks!

[maalmike]

Thanks, this saved my day!!

[OldPirate999]

This thing i was finding a lot of time, thank you dot.dot.dot

[octochris]

Thanks, this is really helpful!

[Guilliem]

The saved games on the cloud are device not linked to a device. If you use two of the same devices, then they will both access the same save files. I have played on a Tablet, Mac, Ipad, PC. Some devices can see saves they did not make, some can only see their own.

In either case the cloud based save should mirror the device saves, otherwise you get a message asking you which one to keep. You can always play off line then go on line to force them to sync.

[beautiful_c0ck]

Thanks a lot! You literally saved my day!

[Ben]

Thank you, this workaround still works in 2025.
I guess none ever thought that capitalization could matter.