How to backup game saves on PC? Why do you need to back up? You can find reasons and 3 workable solutions in this post. Please keep reading to get more details!
I'm playing Stardew Valley on my PC, and I want to backup Stardew Valley saves, just in case. But I don't know how to find saved game files on PC and backup game saves easily? Any easy ways to back up my saves without messing with the game files too much? Any software recommendations or built-in Windows ways? Thanks a bunch!
- Question from Reddit.com
As a Windows user, you can locate most of your game saves by accessing File Explorer and then navigating to %homepath%\AppData\LocalLow directory. Subsequently, you could be able to locate a specific folder with the developer's name for your game, like, PolyknightGames for Innerspace. This post will offer you 3 different ways to help you solve how to backup game saves on PC. Please read on!
You might wonder why you need to back up game saves on PC, like backing up Stardew Valley saves. We all know that any data held on the disk is susceptible to loss. Reports from players indicate instances where locally stored game save data has been lost due to system updates, game updates, computer viruses, failing hard drives, or other unforeseen circumstances.
By the time all game saves are lost, it is hard to restore and becomes too late to initiate a backup. So, from now on, let's solve how to backup game files on PC.
In this post, we will provide you with 3 workable ways to help you solve how to backup PC games manually and automatically. Let's see how they work in detail.
You can use the traditional way of manual copying to back up your saved game files. You can accomplish this by employing the Copy and Paste commands. Here are the detailed instructions:
Step 1. Locate the game file folder that you intend to back up.
Step 2. Right-click on the file and choose the Copy option.
Step 3. Navigate to the backup destination, then right-click and select the Paste option.
File History, a backup utility initially introduced in Windows 8, allows users to back up various file types, including documents, music, videos, pictures, and desktop folders. After setting it up and successfully turning it on, it will automatically backup your data to a connected external hard drive or a network location, like making File History backup to OneDrive. Here are the detailed steps to backup saved game files using File History:
Step 1. Type File History in the Windows Search box, and press Enter.
Step 2. Go to Backup tab > Add a drive and choose your backup destination, and then click Run Now to backup.
β€Tip: If you want to backup to an external hard drive, you need to plug it into your device in advance.
Step 3. Click on More options to customize backup needs. Click Add a folder and select the subfolders that contains your saved game files. Then, click on Back up now. It will begin to back up files to your destination.
β€Tip: You can choose the backup frequency by clicking on the inverted triangle icon under Back up my files. Also, you can select the length of time to save the backups by clicking the drop-down icon under Keep my backups. With those functions, you can easily solve how to backup game saves on PC.
If you prefer to auto backup game saves, like how to back up save files on Steam on PC automatically, you can rely on a free cloud backup service such as CBackup. This professional backup tool offers the capability to back up PC files from any location to various clouds including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and other public clouds at no cost.
It also provides you with other useful functions:
β€Tip: If the game supports Steam Cloud, your save files may be stored on the Steam Cloud servers. In this case, you need to restore your files from Stream to local place.
Simply initiate the Steam application, navigate to Menu > Steam > Backup and Restore Games > Restore a previous backup. This action guides you through the process of restoring a saved Steam backup. You have the flexibility to choose the location of the backup storage.
The following guide outlines the steps of how to backup game saves on Steam automatically on PC using CBackup:
Step 1. Install the CBackup client app on your computer and launch it. Create an account for CBackup and sign in.
Step 2. Click Storage on the left panel and select a cloud drive to click Authorize Now, then follow the guide to grant access to your cloud for CBackup.
Step 3. Select Backup and click on Backup PC to Public Cloud.
β€ Tip: You can choose Backup PC to CBackup Cloud to enjoy the free 5GB storage space. And you can choose upgrade to 1TB or 5TB cloud storage when you need more backup space.
Step 4. Choose your game saves on your PC you need to back up, and select the targeted cloud as the backup location.
Step 5. Hit Settings > Scheduler and then choose the backup frequency according to your needs. After that, tap on Start Backup to backup game saves to the cloud.
β€ Tip: This powerful tool also allows you to sync files to cloud, like syncing files to Dropbox. What's more, it is a one-way sync mode, which provides better control over data changes - guarantees the preservation of the source data, ensuring it remains unaltered in the target location.
This is all about how to backup game saves on PC. It is always crucial to backup your data due to various accidents. If you plan to backup game saves on PC with ease, you can try CBackup, an excellent scheduled backup software that can help you backup game saves to Google Drive, OneDrive, and multiple cloud drives.
What's more, you can choose to contain or exclude special file types with its File Filter feature according to your needs that can help you select certain files to upload which can save your cloud storage. It is worth a try!