Cloud Saves Not Stored Locally? If So, How To Restore To Game Directory?

[xZaCloudx (she/her)]

Hello. I want to try out a modding utility for Terraria, so I want to manually back up my character/world data locally just in case; I have it syncing with Steam Cloud storage, but of course if a faulty overwrite happens, I'm worried it'll overwrite the cloud save.

The cloud system seems VERY user-UNfriendly to me.

-There's no simple link to access your cloud/download its data, as far as I can tell. If there is, it needs to be made WAY more obvious.

-Upon opening my Terraria directory in My Games, it has files and backups for my currently unused characters/maps... but the folder for my current Player is EMPTY, and it only has a .plr.bak file from several months ago, no current .plr file. So in trying to do a local back-up, somehow there's NO local copy at all of my character! Same with my current World, just an old .bak file from months ago, no local up-to-date save.

-Supposedly, after digging around in Help files trying to find the solution on my own, supposedly there ARE local saves of Cloud saves in the \userdata directory... Except, they're in just plain numbered folders, which contain other numbered folders. How the heck are we supposed to find what we need? Why the arbitrary ID number system, instead of the actual names of the games, and properly labeled subfolders thereof? I should NOT be expected to just click on 852487584 and try folders 874873 and 29853 and 26987928 in a scrambled process of elimination. And even then, the only files I find are .vdf. The Help article doesn't even say what we're supposed to DO with those!

Ugh... So please, how do I find the hardcopy of my Terraria character/world saves, so I can back them up manually? PLEASE tell me there's an easier way to go about this? Thanks.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

If it uses the Cloud storage, that is here...

https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

And a handy tool... https://www.gamesave-manager.com/

[xZaCloudx (she/her)]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

If it uses the Cloud storage, that is here...

https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

And a handy tool... https://www.gamesave-manager.com/

:qr:

Thank you. I'm still not 100% sure how to implement those files into the directories, what will overwrite what, etc. Still nervous about corrupting my character and/or world via local/cloud conflict. :S For now, I renamed the copy of the character and world files, and used Notepad++ to change what's (hopefully) the game name for it to display on my save selection as a copy world.

[Satoru]

Terraria uses native Steam Cloud saves meaning your saves are locally stored in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<numbers>\<appid>


Native steam cloud has advantages because steam saves are PER steam account, meaning they will not wipe eachother out if multiple users log into the same computer. Unlike normal saves which wil save to "my documents" meaning if you log into diffrent steam accounts in the same windows session your saves wil get obliterated on each account logon

[xZaCloudx (she/her)]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Terraria uses native Steam Cloud saves meaning your saves are locally stored in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<numbers>\<appid>


Native steam cloud has advantages because steam saves are PER steam account, meaning they will not wipe eachother out if multiple users log into the same computer. Unlike normal saves which wil save to "my documents" meaning if you log into diffrent steam accounts in the same windows session your saves wil get obliterated on each account logon

Ugh, but yeah, those numbers and stuff are too hard to figure out. They should simply have different folders in the main directory, named after each user, and inside have each user's saves.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The first set of numbers is your Steam3 number 144390931, which can be found here[steamid.uk]. The second is the appid 105600.

For this account, your save location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\144390931\105600

[xZaCloudx (she/her)]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

The first set of numbers is your Steam3 number 144390931, which can be found here[steamid.uk]. The second is the appid 105600.

For this account, your save location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\144390931\105600

:qr:

Thank you very much. The actual .plr files are indeed there.

What a terrible mess to ask of us users though, for just wanting to do what SHOULD be a simple periodic routine of backing up our files. Imagine trying to walk an old person or kid through this, heh.

I can only hope this process gets improved sometime.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Useful tool... https://www.gamesave-manager.com/

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by xZaCloudx:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

The first set of numbers is your Steam3 number 144390931, which can be found here[steamid.uk]. The second is the appid 105600.

For this account, your save location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\144390931\105600

:qr:

Thank you very much. The actual .plr files are indeed there.

What a terrible mess to ask of us users though, for just wanting to do what SHOULD be a simple periodic routine of backing up our files. Imagine trying to walk an old person or kid through this, heh.

I can only hope this process gets improved sometime, but I doubt it. Can't post about it in the Suggestions/Ideas forum cuz that got me temp-banned for redundancy. (How dare I ask for help for a problem but ALSO want the problem itself to be fixed? We're only allowed one or the other...)

And that's why the utiltity that Hotsauce keeps recommending is vital for you.

Game Save Manager basically collates all your games in a list and you click which ones you want to backup the save for. Simples - it does it itself so no messing around in directories for you!

I use it thus.

I game on a laptop. In the past I've used a few PCs between work and home, and so I'd use external hard drives and cart them around with me. Obviously cloud saves helped here.

But if I needed a save, I could use GSM and simply copy it to a memory stick. Take the hard drive to work with it and bang - game on.

Nowadays I'm retired so every few days of gaming, I will run GameSaveManager and backup the saves for all the games I've played since the last time, onto another memory stick.

At the end of the week or month I will take that memory stick and past those contents over to a master hard drive which has saves from various platforms going back years. in other words a son/father/grandfather setup.

So this will absolutely save your bacon.

[xZaCloudx (she/her)]

I'm a bit leery about trusting an external program with my library, but I guess I'll look into it and give it a go, as a bandaid solution. Still hope Steam makes backups/cloud saves more accessible someday, though I guess I won't hold my breath. Thanks.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by xZaCloudx:

I'm a bit leery about trusting an external program with my library, but I guess I'll look into it and give it a go, as a bandaid solution. Still hope Steam makes backups/cloud saves more accessible someday, though I guess I won't hold my breath. Thanks.

You're absolutely right to worry about external things.

BUt here's the thing - it IS as safe as can be. There is nothing to worry about as anyone on these forums will tell you.