Steam Cloud synches itself while being disabled and even removed save games

[Dynaw]

The Steam Cloud seems to enable itself again even while it disabled in the Steam settings.

I first noticed this when my Witcher 3 save seems to have disappeared. So after a little panic and some Googling I managed to restore my saves from this location C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<STEAMID>\292030\ac\WinMyDocuments\The Witcher 3\gamesaves.
I thought some weird bug had occurred and thought it was fine after this. However when I started up The Witcher 3 again today my saves were gone, again! So obviously I went to this folder to check and my saves weren't there anymore? I only have my most recent save as of right now, the rest is gone.

After some more digging it seems to have been the Steam Cloud which has removed all of my saves. I checked the log (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\logs\) cloud_log.txt and noticed this:
[2023-08-21 07:38:55] [AppID 292030] Need to delete file The Witcher 3/gamesaves/AutoSave_53db9_7e73a800_439e99e.sav
etc.

And this:
[2023-08-21 07:39:36] [AppID 292030] Running AutoCloud on launch. Looking for existing files to watch:

Which is very strange since my Steam Cloud is disabled. I double checked this. I have the Steam Cloud disabled globally. Also manually checked this (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<STEAMID>\7\remote) folder to make the cloud is set to '0' (disabled).

This seems to happend in both the normal Steam client and the beta version. I also noticed other games in these logs as well of which I have played recently like Kingdom:Classic.

Any clues? :(

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Is cloud remote saves enabled in Witcher 3 properties local files.?
Then Steam will automatically update everytime we click on the game in our library. You'll see a small icon appear when you click on a game cloud up to date.

There is no reason for either to actually delete our saves,
The only time this has happened to me when I saw a message that Steam cloud is out of sync - it says file mismatch use HDD saves.. They will just upload to Steam. If you select All Cloud Data it will remove your saves.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2914087096

This was a new feature with Steam as of March the 4th.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/3091163163094740757

[Dynaw]

That one is disabled as well: https://i.imgur.com/ryE1gNm.png
I never used the Steam Cloud expect way back in 2012. I have it disabled ever since.

Another thing I just noticed; Yesterday my friend logged in on my computer. All of my Witcher 3 saves files were transferred to this save file location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<MYFRIENDSSTEAMID>\292030\ac\WinMyDocuments\The Witcher 3\gamesaves
.. and of course the cloud is disabled for that account as well. :/ The cloud hasn't been ever used on that account.

[Anxiety]

Other game(s), same bug/feature, may be related: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/6490302633992403867/

This is extremely annoying.

[^1 hell]

wow

[Dynaw]

I think I figured out how to replicate this bug by using Witcher 3.

Step 1) have a Witcher 3 save game on account #1 on your PC
Step 2) Swap to another account (account #2) on your PC that does not have any Witcher 3 saves on your PC
Step 3) Play any game on account #2 that does have Steam Cloud as an option and save a game (Do not turn on the Steam Cloud for this; It should be off for the entire process)
Step 4) Log out from account #2 and return back to account #1
Step 5) Bootup Witcher 3 and your save games are gone

Solution: Recover the saves from either C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<ACCOUNTID#1>\292030\ac\WinMyDocuments\The Witcher 3\gamesaves OR C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<ACCOUNTID#2>\292030\ac\WinMyDocuments\The Witcher 3\gamesaves and put them back in the location in my documents.
Temp solution: Back up saves before switching accounts and playing games on that account with a cloud option (despite it being disabled.. )

I managed to replicate this with two accounts both of which don't have Steam Cloud enabled on a Windows 10 machine by using the current Steam client build (not the beta version!).