Mass disabling of cloud saves?

[Itharus]

I don't want any of my games to save to cloud. They never used to unless I told them to. But apparently at some point now they DEFAULT to saving to cloud.

I really don't like that or want that. Is there any way to disable that feature completely? Right now it looks like I have to go into the settings for each individual game and shut it off. That's bad. It should not default to on.

I dont even remember getting a notification of this change. Manhandling someone's data in a stealth TOS update is pretty gd shady, Steam.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Never had any of my cloud save settings change, ever.

[Itharus]

What? No, I don't want my saved games on a cloud *at all* is my problem. I want to know if there is a way to disable it all at once or if I REALLY have to go do this for each individual game - that's a hell of a lot of clicks. And I'm upset that this started happening in the first place. I have no idea what steam update started it, but it's really irritating.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Each, 1 by 1. You're luck to have less than 300 games though.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by Itharus:

What? No, I don't want my saved games on a cloud *at all* is my problem. I want to know if there is a way to disable it all at once or if I REALLY have to go do this for each individual game - that's a hell of a lot of clicks. And I'm upset that this started happening in the first place. I have no idea what steam update started it, but it's really irritating.

unfortunately AFAIK it has to be done game by game.

[Itharus]

Geez... >.<

Well, Steam peeps, if you're reading this - please include a mass disable cloud saving option as a QOL upgrade.

[xarvn]

I thought you could disable Steam Cloud altogether via Settings/Cloud and by unchecking "Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for applications which support it."

See also the section "Enabling & Disabling The Steam Cloud" on the following page:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6736-QEIG-8941

[Itharus]

Doesn't cloud itself do other things too like achievements and unlocks?

[Iceira]

Ask suggestion.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Itharus:

Doesn't cloud itself do other things too like achievements and unlocks?

No. Not that "Steam cloud" anyway.

[xarvn]

To my understanding, Steam will indeed pull data from the cloud for the purpose of maintaining continuity of settings, stats, game saves, etc. when the user logs onto the same account on different machines. But if you game on only one machine, then disabling Steam Cloud should not have any effect on achievements and unlocks. With Steam Cloud disabled--either individually (for a specific game) or globally--game progress will not carry over when you switch between machines. If you made progress toward an achievement during a session on your desktop, then you will find that that progress is not there when you play the game on the laptop. However all achievements made during game play, assuming your account was online, will persist and remain tied to the account; you will not lose any achievements once earned when you switch to another computer.

[Itharus]

Right on. Yeah I only play on one machine for like 99% of my games.

[crunchyfrog]

I can't much here, but I will say this. First off, don't go down the route of saying that this is a gross misuse of personal data.

It isn't. Personal data, in the context you're aiming for, is stuff that contains stuff that can be used to personally identifiy you. This is not the case here, so that doesn't apply. I get you're miffed, but that's a silly route to take as it will get you nowhere, as you're basically doing the same as trying to reject a speeding ticket by quoting consumer law.

Just to verify here - Steam Cloud is ONLY saves here. Achievements MAY unlock while being online but they are not cloud saved in this sense.

One thing you could try is to basically ignore the cloud saves. I know this isn't as straightfoward as it should be, but bear with me.

If you have ANY number of games on Steam, I always recommend users download GameSaveManager. It's a neat little utility that does a few things, but primarily will collate alll your game saves together and make them easy to back up. JUst click which ones you want and boom.

I do this as I use a whole range of platforms and so I can often go months between playing a game; backing up is essential.

SO doing this can mean you can simply overrule the cloud save should it be an issue.

As I said, not perfect, but it might be the easier less time-consumig option for you.

[xarvn]

Steam Cloud has a few benefits that you should consider before deciding to disable it. For example if you get a drive failure then you will not only lose all your game saves and settings but also the Steam "collections" you made to organize your library. If you have a large number of games, then reorganizing them might be tedious.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by xarvn:

Steam Cloud has a few benefits that you should consider before deciding to disable it. For example if you get a drive failure then you will not only lose all your game saves and settings but also the Steam "collections" you made to organize your library. If you have a large number of games, then reorganizing them might be tedious.

Easy workaround...

Use... https://www.gamesave-manager.com/

And save your config.vdf file in your Steam folder.

Backup both on a USB or external drive.