Where does Space Engineers keep the save files?

[EmberStar]

Where does Space Engineers hide the save files? I've tried giving a save an incredibly distinctive name and then searching for it, but Windows can't seem to find it. This might be because Windows is stupid when "file Indexing" is turned off. I turn it off because I don't need Windows constantly churning through everything trying to keep the database up to date *just* so that it can autocomplete suggested file names. But either way, the result is that I have no idea where Space Engineers hides data, and can't find it.

I have Steam installed on a secondary drive, not the default C: drive location. Steam is installed to F:\Games\Steam, so Space Engineers is installed relative to that location.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, all Saves and Blueprints goes to appdata on your C: Drive.

Here :

C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers\Saves\76561198034579663

+

The game will create and new folder in the "Long number folder" if you play without internet connection and will not see those saves when you go online but can be transfered to the main "Long number" folder manually to see those when playing online (with internet connection).

Edit

Type in your explorer: %appdata%\SpaceEngineers

Go to the SpaceEngineers folder

C: users / your username / appdata / roaming / spaceengineers

[EmberStar]

Is there any way to change this behavior? My C: drive is an SSD, and not a very large one. I'd prefer that it *only* holds Windows. Especially since right now there's only 17gb free out of 111gb available. It would *really* suck if a game (that shouldn't be saving there) crashed my computer because it filled the hard drive with data that it doesn't NEED to be saving there. The entire point of moving things to the D: and F: drives is because I *DO NOT WANT* things saved to the C: Drive.

[EmberStar]

Edit: I have tried searching for the %appdata% folder. No results. It's apparently hidden, and in a way where the "show hidden files" setting doesn't seem to affect it.

[Dan2D3D]

The SE programmer added the Saves over there for security reasons cause we can share on the NET, well upload to Workshop (linked for update) and that is where it is the best place for that and recommended by Microsoft.

You may try "Symbolic link" but may not work properly so testing needed to know more, well it gives problem when doing this with internet browser app.

[EmberStar]

Um... sorry, I know English isn't your first language. But I have no idea what any of that means. That still leaves me with the problem that Space Engineers is using up space on a drive where ther is NOT enough space. And I can't seem to even find the directory to see how much it is using, "Show hidden files" doesn't seem to have any effect when searching for it.

Space Engineers needs to NOT be using space on that drive. I don't care what Microsoft Recommends, because they are quite often stupid. At one point in time they *also* recommend saving game data and program settings directly the the Registry. (The original Black & White actually did this, and it made it nearly impossible to keep backup saves of your game, because half the actual game state was wound through the Registry. This. Was. A. Stupid. Idea.)

If my only option for getting Space Engineers off the C: drive is to Uninstall it, then I might have to consider doing that. Because there is NOT enough space. It's a 120gb SSD, and Windows uses over half of that just by itself. If the free space hits zero, Bad Things will happen that I might not be able to fix without nuking my entire install. There is a *reason* I bought a 2TB drive for games to go on. They need to STAY where I put them.

[Dan2D3D]

Use Google and type in : "Symbolic link" and you will find Tutos on how to create.


Edit

"Symbolic link" = will change/redirect your Saves folder location to where you want.

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

Use Google and type in : "Symbolic link" and you will find TRutos on how to create.

I'll take a look. That still leaves me with the problem of being unable to locate the original directory. Searching via File Explorer does not find it, even with "Show Hidden Files" checked.

[Dan2D3D]

Bring your PC at my home and I will show it to you, I live in Canada Quebec ;)

I really don't know why you can't find it, well a lot creates Backups of their Saves and Blueprints folders in appdata SE and they all can go there using this :

Type in your explorer: %appdata%\SpaceEngineers

Go to the SpaceEngineers folder

C: users / your username / appdata / roaming / spaceengineers

[JarutheDamaja]

Don't search for it, just type where the path is or directly in the startmenu: %appdata% (Or Windowsbutton+R) and it will open the appdata of the current logged on user.

If you enable hidden files in windows explorer settings you should see the folder under your user account. The Path for navigating manually is: C:\%username%\Appdata

If you would like to move the Appdata folder, open properties and under the Location-tab you can choose a new place on your HDD. (Unfortunately it only works for Roaming, and not the other 2 folders also in Appdata)

But i wouldn't recommend it as it will be for all programs.
(Some programs may not like it, and perhaps needs a reinstallation or even worse)
And you defeat the purpose of the SSD, basically only starting up Windows will then be faster.
But if you still want to do it, definitely make a backup first!

Another solution would be to save frequent backups of your savegames on a HDD and only keep your actual savegames in Appdata.

I know i also don't like the behaviour for most softwares, but it's the "common" windows way, and since you can only relocate the "Roaming" folder in Appdata and the "Local" and "LocalLow" not, it will still be a mess, since some programs using multiple paths.
Like Cities Skylines saving in %localappdata% now that's stupid ;)

What else you could do is add a second small SSD and move the Roaming folder to there..

[EmberStar]

The purpose of this SSD is to hold Windows. That's it. I don't care if other things using it would be slightly faster, because they *shouldn't be using it.* It's barely big enough for Windows. And it seems like a lot of programs use it as a generic dumping ground for anything they feel like doing. As I was poking around I tripped over a folder that apparently contained almost 15gb of obsolete and inactive NVidia driver installation files. Apparently the installer unpacks itself and then just leaves the mess lying around afterwards.

Thank you for the instructions. I'll take a look at moving the folder later when I have more time.

[Dan2D3D]

Not cool when no space, I use th C: a lot for ....

I am waiting before chaging, I still use 2 Tera Hard Drives, 1 Tera for the C: because I create a lot and now have +5000 Blueprints and about 2000 saves (more in backups) and why I need a huge C: Drive, well I prefer.... Waiting for a good deal on 1 Tera SSD.