How to move save games from Mac to Windows (including hidden game file locations)

[dmend8]

This is probably a very obscure solution to a very specific problem, but in case it would be helpful to anyone else out there I figured I'd post my findings.

I spent some time away from my PC recently and decided to see what games I could play on my Intel Macbook Pro. Unsurprisingly, the selection was lamentable but this game still was compatible all these years later. Obviously the graphics and rates were terrible even on Low so once I got back to my PC I hoped to move my game files over. I believe it's been a long understood issue that Steam doesn't not cloud sync game files over between Mac and Windows systems (only between two Macs or between two PCs) because my saved world was not present after hopping back on my PC. All that I was prompted for was to import a world from ages ago back from when the game files were located in the Documents folder.

Needless to say, I had to try to transfer over everything manually. I assumed that the file and data structures would be the same if I could locate the world files folder. This is the folder that houses the data specific to your saved worlds including item data, location data, build data, etc. It is NOT the same as the folder in steamapps/Common that houses the application files.

On Mac, the world files are located at Macintosh HD/Users/[your_name]/Library/Application Support/com.BeamTeamGames.StrandedDeep/Data

The Library folder is hidden and can be accessed by using the "Go to Folder" feature and typing ~/Library

Once in the Data folder, there will be 5 folders: Maps, Slot0, Slot1, Slot2, Slot3 and an Options.json file that houses your in-game Settings. Each of the slots represents a game save slot with slot0 being Slot 1, slot1 being Slot 2, and so on 1-4. Copying the slot folder will copy over all of the world-specific game files and player data for a singleplayer world. This is what I overwrote the empty slot folder on my windows computer with.

On Windows, the world files are located at C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Beam Team Games\Stranded Deep\Data

You may find that the AppData folder is hidden from your user folder. In that case, you need to go to the View options and select "Hidden Items" under the Show submenu. That is what did the trick for me to navigate to this folder. Because of the shocking small file sizes involved, I was unsure what would happen when I fired up the game but to my surprise everything transferred over fine. I am confident that this method would work in reverse from PC to Mac or (in case Steam sync failed for some reason) between two computers on the same OS.

I bet not a ton of people are still playing this game in 2025 but hopefully this helps somebody avoid some headache.

Dmend8

[Scott]

+ for Linux/Steam Deck, the directory would be /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Beam Team Games/Stranded Deep; data should be stored the same as it's stored in Windows and Mac, and should be cross-compatible

++ this game should REALLY just have cloud saves so this isn't necessary