When 'save to Steam Cloud' is on, does a game not also create an offline save file on your device?

[Victory1301]

So I was playing ETS2 on a different device then I normally do for about a week and at the end of the week I started up the game again back on my old device. Steam told me that there was something wrong with the synchronization of my data so I had to choose an option for which data I wanted to use. You can choose to upload the data to the Steam Cloud of the device you are currently on and play further on that (in this case that was the old data, before my week of gameplay) or you can choose to download the data from the Steam Cloud on to the device (which was the recently updated progress I had made during that week).
My dumbass accidentally pressed on the first option and lost one week of progress. So at first, I panicked but then I realized that I must be able to retain the progress from the device I had played on for the last week. I looked trough the files and I can't find anything of that week. They're all steam related save files that date from before that week or after when I accidentally opened up the wrong data .
So now I'm just confused. Synchronization with the Steam Cloud is toggled on. But I would have still expected it to have an offline save file on my computer (as back-up, idk). Does it not do that, does it fully rely on the Steam Cloud?
I have made peace with the loss of progress but I still need answers. Where did the data go? I can't sleep.

[cinedine]

You still have an offline save file. It will be uploaded to Steam cloud once you exit a game.
But when you start a game on old progress and exit it, the new file with the old progress will be uploaded.

[Victory1301]

So you are saying that the new progress that isn't on my Steam Cloud should still be somewhere on my computer? Or did that also get removed once I started en exited the game on the old progress?

[Nx Machina]

You play off the local save file and upon exiting the game Steam uploads to cloud as a backup of the local files.

When you play on another PC Steam downloads the files from the cloud so your PC's are in sync with each other and repeats the process when you swap PC's again.

Please note: not all games support cloud.

Use GameSaveManager to backup all your local saves to a external device (USB stick) in case your hdd, ssd fails.

[Cathulhu]

Originally posted by Victory1301:

So you are saying that the new progress that isn't on my Steam Cloud should still be somewhere on my computer? Or did that also get removed once I started en exited the game on the old progress?

You always have a local copy, you just sync it online when you exit the game. If you lose the local data somehow, you can restore it through the cloud backup copy.

[Victory1301]

But if I can't find the local file and it's also not in the cloud then I guess it is somehow gone forever :(

[cinedine]

Originally posted by Victory1301:

But if I can't find the local file and it's also not in the cloud then I guess it is somehow gone forever :(

It's an issue with ETS 2. For some reason the current profile is always empty. Ask in their forums, maybe somebody over there knows more.

[Victory1301]

Okay, so I contacted ETS 2 support and this is one of the things they told me in their mail "While Steam cloud is used, the data will not be stored in regular profile folder, however the folder can still be used to drop backups there so they are picked up by the game." I think this means that there is no strictly local save file when Steam cloud is turned on (only the local save file that constantly gets updated by the cloud). This explains why I can't find anything back of the progress as the only data for that was replaced with the old progress when I started up the game. I think I might have been able to still recover the data if I would have gone trough the local files before starting up te game. Is that correct?

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Victory1301:

Okay, so I contacted ETS 2 support and this is one of the things they told me in their mail "While Steam cloud is used, the data will not be stored in regular profile folder, however the folder can still be used to drop backups there so they are picked up by the game." I think this means that there is no strictly local save file when Steam cloud is turned on (only the local save file that constantly gets updated by the cloud). This explains why I can't find anything back of the progress as the only data for that was replaced with the old progress when I started up the game. I think I might have been able to still recover the data if I would have gone trough the local files before starting up te game. Is that correct?

Based on:

Originally posted by Victory1301:

"While Steam cloud is used, the data will not be stored in regular profile folder, however the folder can still be used to drop backups there so they are picked up by the game."

No local backup while cloud is used. Local saves are created if cloud is turned off.

Try the linked article to get the files from the cloud and create local copies.

https://www.howtogeek.com/428491/HOW-TO-DOWNLOAD-YOUR-SAVE-GAMES-FROM-STEAM-CLOUD/

If this works turn off Steam cloud for ETS 2 if you prefer local saves.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Shogun Blade:

Originally posted by Victory1301:

Okay, so I contacted ETS 2 support and this is one of the things they told me in their mail "While Steam cloud is used, the data will not be stored in regular profile folder, however the folder can still be used to drop backups there so they are picked up by the game." I think this means that there is no strictly local save file when Steam cloud is turned on (only the local save file that constantly gets updated by the cloud). This explains why I can't find anything back of the progress as the only data for that was replaced with the old progress when I started up the game. I think I might have been able to still recover the data if I would have gone trough the local files before starting up te game. Is that correct?

Based on:

Originally posted by Victory1301:

"While Steam cloud is used, the data will not be stored in regular profile folder, however the folder can still be used to drop backups there so they are picked up by the game."

No local backup while cloud is used. Local saves are created if cloud is turned off.

Try the linked article to get the files from the cloud and create local copies.

https://www.howtogeek.com/428491/HOW-TO-DOWNLOAD-YOUR-SAVE-GAMES-FROM-STEAM-CLOUD/

If this works turn off Steam cloud for ETS 2 if you prefer local saves.

Agreed.

And keep in mind that it is the developer who set it up that way, not Steam/Valve. Most games still have a local save file that gets uploaded when you exit the game.

Also, going by what they said, if you turn off the Steam Cloud, then it should still create a local save file.

And, OP, if you need to, you may be able to download the save from https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

[Victory1301]

Alright, thanks for all the comments. Things have been cleared out now. The progress is sadly gone (couldn't find it via the link of the last comment either). But I'm glad I can just understand how the process works. I can die in peace now.