3 Easy Ways to Recover Steam Cloud Saves

Suffering a hardware failure, operating system crash, or getting a new computer isn’t good news for your game saves. Luckily, with the affordability of storage and the various services offering cloud backup, what would be disastrous is just an inconvenience. Even better, cloud storage is usually free, enabled by default, many game developers support it. Without a doubt, it’s a life-saver for gamers who never think it’ll happen to them until it does. And while they need to make regular backups a habit regardless, at least they don’t have to continue from scratch nowadays. In a similar situation? Let’s show you how to recover Steam Cloud, then.

Table of Contents

1. Recover Steam Cloud saves automatically

The saves from the Steam Cloud are downloaded automatically as soon as you install and launch the game for the first time. For this to happen, two things need to be enabled:

Verify that Steam Cloud Sync is turned on

This is how to turn on Steam Cloud syncing for all games:

Click on Steam in the top left corner of the app.
Select Settings from the drop-down list.
From the sidebar on the left side, click on Cloud.
Toggle the switch next to Enable Steam Cloud Sync to enable it.

Make sure the game supports Steam Cloud

Here’s how to turn on Steam Cloud synchronization for a specific game:

Find the game in the Steam Library on the left.
Right-click on it and select Properties.
Switch over to the Updates tab.
Under Steam Cloud at the bottom, put a checkmark in front of Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for [game name].
Clarification: If the Steam Cloud option isn’t there, the game developer uses a dedicated launcher or hasn’t implemented Steam Cloud for the game.

2. Download Steam Cloud saves in browser

This method is for people who play cross-platform or don’t want to download a game immediately. It’s also a great choice for traveling since you can continue your in-game progress on a computer without Internet access. Follow these steps to access Steam Cloud save via browser:

Open the Steam Cloud page.
Sign in with your Steam account.
If you are having trouble, we also demonstrated how to recover a Steam account.
Under Home > Account > View Steam Cloud you’ll see a list of game names, the number of available saves, and their size.
Tip: Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard to search for a specific name.
Click on Show Files for a game you want to restore Steam Cloud saves for.
If you played the game on PC, Mac, or Linux, Steams will present you with separate game saves for each of the platforms. Also, you can see the date the Steam Cloud last made an update.
Click on Download on the right to download a file.

Where does Steam Cloud store saves?

Here are default locations for Steam Cloud saves based on the platform:

Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata
Mac: [Primary Drive Letter]/Library/Application Support/Steam/userdata
Linux: [Primary Drive Letter]/.local/share/Steam/userdata

Placing a Cloud save when using multiple Steam accounts

Some gamers share a computer with others, which makes things a tad more complex. Here’s where to paste a Steam Cloud save based on a Steam account:

Open the default location for a platform of your choice.
You’ll see folders with numbers that represent unique SteamIDs for all accounts signed on that computer.
SteamID represents a long string of numbers in your profile URL within the Steam app. Look for the address bar that resembles one in a browser. If you don’t see it, here’s what to do:
1. Click on Steam in the top left corner.
2. Select Settings (Windows) or Preferences (Mac).
3. Click on Interface in the menu in the left sidebar.
4. Put a checkmark in front of Display Steam URL address bar when available.
5. Click on OK.
After you open the appropriate folder, you’ll see a list of more folders with numbers. Those represent all the games you’ve installed, and each has a unique appID.
Do a quick Google search for your game’s appID (Tip: Use SteamDB’s Apps page) and place the Steam Cloud saves inside.
That’s all! Launch the Steam game and continue where you left off.

Bonus: Steam client Cloud files

On the Steam Cloud download page mentioned above, you can also download settings unique to your Steam account. That way, you don’t have to configure things again if method 1 doesn’t work or you don’t have access to the Internet. After downloading, place them in the Steam Cloud default location/[steamID]/7/ folder.

3. Recovering Steam Cloud Saves on a Virtual Machine or Emulator

To recover your Steam Cloud saves on a virtual machine or emulator, follow these steps:

Find the Steam Cloud Save Folder: First, locate the default save location for Steam Cloud saves on your operating system. The default locations are as follows:
- Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata
- Mac: [Primary Drive Letter]/Library/Application Support/Steam/userdata
- Linux: [Primary Drive Letter]/.local/share/Steam/userdata
Copy the Steam Cloud Save Files: Next, copy the Steam Cloud save files from your virtual machine or emulator to a location on the host machine that you can access.
Install Steam on your Host Machine: Install Steam on the host machine if it’s not already installed.
Paste the Steam Cloud Saves: Navigate to the Steam Cloud save folder on the host machine using the default save location mentioned in step 1. Then, paste the copied Steam Cloud save files into the appropriate game folder within the userdata directory.
Launch the Game: Launch the Steam client on the host machine and start the game associated with the recovered Steam Cloud saves. The game should recognize the saves and allow you to continue your progress from where you left off.

It’s important to keep in mind that certain virtual machines or emulators may have specific configurations or limitations that could impact the Steam Cloud sync process. Make sure your virtual machine or emulator is properly configured and has internet access for seamless Steam Cloud synchronization.