Had game on old pc. Got new pc. How to get cloud save file?

[anakinv08]

Hi all - so haven't played in forever. Did on an old pc that died. Have a new one. I see where the cloud game saves are. Downloaded the last one. But putting it in the .....locallow/mobiusdigital/outerwilds/steamsaves folder didn't work. I still only have 'new expedition' as an option for startup. Is it just not possible because of how steam and outerwilds work?
Should add I checked syncing and not only is it on, it flashed as I launched saying 'files synced'
Appreciate guidance!

[Perseus]

Originally posted by anakinv08:

I see where the cloud game saves are. Downloaded the last one.

Just to confirm, did you get them from here?
https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorageapp/?appid=753640
(If you did, do you happen to know of any way to reach this page directly through Steam instead of having to use a link posted by someone?)

There's four different files for every profile (save file) :

[profilename].owprofile
[profilename]/data.owsave
[profilename]/input.owsett
[profilename]/player.owsett

Which one did you download?

-I'm not sure what the first file's purpose is.
-None of the other files are located within "SteamSaves" directly, they are instead located in a folder named after your game profile (save file).
-The second file is probably the actual save data.
-The third file is likely the settings file for that profile.
-I have no idea what the fourth file is for.

Originally posted by anakinv08:

Should add I checked syncing and not only is it on, it flashed as I launched saying 'files synced'

That could honestly mean anything. While it could mean that it downloaded your Cloud saves, it's not impossible it instead deleted all Cloud saves by replacing them with your local files (being the one you downloaded).
If You Cloud Saves all still exist, i'd recommend downloading them all and making local backups of them, to avoid accidents with Steam Cloud.

[anakinv08]

Hey - thanks for chiming in!
Yes that's where I downloaded from and that's the only way I know to get them.
I took the second file that I also assumed was the saved file - the date is certainly correct (my save file is listed as Dec 21.) Which makes me wonder how a delete/overwrite could even be a thing...because while I tried launching the game before downloading the file (cuz I assumed it would sync with those saved in the cloud..??) But I didn't actually launch the game in that I just got to the launch page where it has "new expedition", "options" etc. When I didn't see "load previous" I quit out and started searching. If just that was enough for it to start a new file that sux.
Also kinda doesn't make sense that it would do it backwards like that. I mean the sync toggle says right on it "keep your gameplay consistent across your pcs" or somesuch...which suggests the point is that no matter where you launch your game it'll pull the save from the cloud. Or am I not looking at this the right way. :(
Super confusing and super depressing cuz I'd played quite a lot of it.

[Perseus]

I never said that you'd lost your save file, and if you have the data.owsave file, you can probably still get back your save file. (If you do have that file, please make a backup of it.)

But if you want more help, i need to know if your Cloud storage still has the other files. (If they do, i'd recommend downloading them.)

Originally posted by anakinv08:

But I didn't actually launch the game in that I just got to the launch page where it has "new expedition", "options" etc. When I didn't see "load previous" I quit out and started searching. If just that was enough for it to start a new file that sux.

I'm not sure what happened exactly, but did you try the option "change profiles"?
If it doesn't help, could you list all the files present in the "SteamSaves" folder?

Originally posted by anakinv08:

Which makes me wonder how a delete/overwrite could even be a thing...because while I tried launching the game before downloading the file (cuz I assumed it would sync with those saved in the cloud..??)
[...]
Also kinda doesn't make sense that it would do it backwards like that. I mean the sync toggle says right on it "keep your gameplay consistent across your pcs" or somesuch...which suggests the point is that no matter where you launch your game it'll pull the save from the cloud. Or am I not looking at this the right way. :(

Basically, Steam Cloud is unreliable, even when playing on only one device.
If syncing fails one way or the other, but succeeds at some other point, that's when issues starts arising.
There's a game i have where Steam Cloud kept overwriting my current save data with old save data, and i never even changed devices. I ended up disabling Steam Cloud for the game, and thankfully the game made backups that were unaffected by Steam Cloud.

Originally posted by anakinv08:

Super confusing and super depressing cuz I'd played quite a lot of it.

Even if you do end up losing your save file, Outer Wilds does have the benefit of being mostly knowledge-based, so you wouldn't really lose anything besides log progress.