Moving where steam saves game saves (e.g. quicksaves)

[ratlast]

At the moment, steam is moving all my saves to OneDrive, normally this wouldn't be to much of a problem, except my OneDrive storage is full, and I despise OneDrive with every fiber in my being. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it!

[Aluvard]

Go to OneDrive settings and either disable it completely or turn off sync for game folders.

[ratlast]

Sorry for the confusion but I mean it is sending the saves to a file that is only in onedrive, I am unsure where it would save the files, and if previous saves would still exist (although I already backed them up in a separate drive)

[Satoru]

save games are determined by the game and cannot be changed

Note steam is not 'moving' saves to one drive. One drive is doing that. Because OneDrive is hijacking "my Documents" and as such your My Documents foldres are all on OneDrive

[JPMcMillen]

Originally posted by Satoru:

save games are determined by the game and cannot be changed

Note steam is not 'moving' saves to one drive. One drive is doing that. Because OneDrive is hijacking "my Documents" and as such your My Documents foldres are all on OneDrive

And that doesn't include all the save games that get stashed in the hidden AppData folder.

What's so stupid is that Windows has had a "Saved Games" folder for ages, yet most devs won't use it. Which makes backing up saves a complete nightmare as they get scattered in multiple different locations.

[nullable]

As the first post mentioned, disable One Drive.

As the third post mentions, save games are determined and managed by the game, not Steam. Although some small minority of games the save path is configurable, that's an exception not the rule though.

Steam is a launcher, it doesn't exert a lot of control over or override the decisions the game's developer has made, like where save games go.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

And that doesn't include all the save games that get stashed in the hidden AppData folder.

What's so stupid is that Windows has had a "Saved Games" folder for ages, yet most devs won't use it. Which makes backing up saves a complete nightmare as they get scattered in multiple different locations.

Note that Microsoft has told developers basically to put save file in any of a dozen different places depending on when you talk to Microsoft. In fact the current methodology is to NOT put saves in My Documents. This is because they state that stuff in My Documents must explicitly be saved by the user. As such putting save files in Appdata is actually the 'current Microsoft approved' methodology because save files are not put there by the user, they're put there by the game and thus is an 'application' file

[JPMcMillen]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

And that doesn't include all the save games that get stashed in the hidden AppData folder.

What's so stupid is that Windows has had a "Saved Games" folder for ages, yet most devs won't use it. Which makes backing up saves a complete nightmare as they get scattered in multiple different locations.

Note that Microsoft has told developers basically to put save file in any of a dozen different places depending on when you talk to Microsoft. In fact the current methodology is to NOT put saves in My Documents. This is because they state that stuff in My Documents must explicitly be saved by the user. As such putting save files in Appdata is actually the 'current Microsoft approved' methodology because save files are not put there by the user, they're put there by the game and thus is an 'application' file

Then why did Microsoft start putting a "Saved Games" folder in the user directory, a folder that some games actually use for their saved games?

The issue with putting saves in the AppData folder is that it gets mixed up with everything else other installed programs put in there. Plus, game saves get spread across the local, locallow, and remote directories inside AppData.

Nobody should have to either:

• Spend tons of time trying to manually track down where each games save directory is located AND have to make a note of where it goes in case they have to restore it or copy it to a new machine
  
• Download a 3rd party game save manager that can automate all that, and trust that that's all it does.*

Game saves, unlike most other application data stored in AppData, are something that people are likely to want to back up and/or copy to new machines. You can't always count on games having cloud saves.

* And seriously, why hasn't someone released one you can get directly on Steam? They sell more than just games on this platform.

[Satoru]

Again this is part of the “Microsoft will give you a different answer depending on how and when you ask”. Microsoft will do stuff then abandon it later due to various factors. One notable one is if a game such as “Prey” makes the same save directory functionally obliterating the previous saves just because the names are the same. Per app save games in its own unique appdata ensures things like that don’t happen. Which is why Microsoft requires MyDocuments to be explicitly saved by the user and not saved by the game

There are always weird and conflicting ways in which this is done or recommended due to various factors

It’s why the native steam cloud saves its files using the userID per user, and then via the appID for the game. Which ensures users nor games can accidentally overwrite another games files

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

Originally posted by Satoru:

save games are determined by the game and cannot be changed

Note steam is not 'moving' saves to one drive. One drive is doing that. Because OneDrive is hijacking "my Documents" and as such your My Documents foldres are all on OneDrive

And that doesn't include all the save games that get stashed in the hidden AppData folder.

What's so stupid is that Windows has had a "Saved Games" folder for ages, yet most devs won't use it. Which makes backing up saves a complete nightmare as they get scattered in multiple different locations.

I know a company that stores save games in Program Files. You've probably heard of Valve.

[JPMcMillen]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

And that doesn't include all the save games that get stashed in the hidden AppData folder.

What's so stupid is that Windows has had a "Saved Games" folder for ages, yet most devs won't use it. Which makes backing up saves a complete nightmare as they get scattered in multiple different locations.

I know a company that stores save games in Program Files. You've probably heard of Valve.

They aren't the only ones that put stuff in the steam/userdata folder. Honestly, at least if they do that then saves are separated by Steam user so if you switch accounts you only see that users save games. Plus it would make backing them all up really easy.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

I know a company that stores save games in Program Files. You've probably heard of Valve.

They aren't the only ones that put stuff in the steam/userdata folder. Honestly, at least if they do that then saves are separated by Steam user so if you switch accounts you only see that users save games. Plus it would make backing them all up really easy.

No, I'm not talking about Steam Cloud. I'm talking about Source Engine.

[JPMcMillen]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

They aren't the only ones that put stuff in the steam/userdata folder. Honestly, at least if they do that then saves are separated by Steam user so if you switch accounts you only see that users save games. Plus it would make backing them all up really easy.

No, I'm not talking about Steam Cloud. I'm talking about Source Engine.

I'm not either. There is a place where games can store their own info, including saves, within the Steam clients install folder. It's the userdata folder. The problem is that most games don't use it as it's specific to Steam and would require altering their games code if they wanted to sell the game on a different platform (GOG, EGS, etc...). It also means it wouldn't get backed up when backing up a persons user folder. But there have been non-Valve games that have used it.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

No, I'm not talking about Steam Cloud. I'm talking about Source Engine.

I'm not either. There is a place where games can store their own info, including saves, within the Steam clients install folder. It's the userdata folder. The problem is that most games don't use it as it's specific to Steam and would require altering their games code if they wanted to sell the game on a different platform (GOG, EGS, etc...). It also means it wouldn't get backed up when backing up a persons user folder. But there have been non-Valve games that have used it.

The userdata folder is Steam Cloud.

[JPMcMillen]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

I'm not either. There is a place where games can store their own info, including saves, within the Steam clients install folder. It's the userdata folder. The problem is that most games don't use it as it's specific to Steam and would require altering their games code if they wanted to sell the game on a different platform (GOG, EGS, etc...). It also means it wouldn't get backed up when backing up a persons user folder. But there have been non-Valve games that have used it.

The userdata folder is Steam Cloud.

There is a local userdata folder in the Steam install folder.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

The userdata folder is Steam Cloud.

There is a local userdata folder in the Steam install folder.

Yes, that folder on your computer is Steam Cloud. It gets backed up to a server, but that is where the Steam Cloud files are stored.