Losing a save file to a dead drive or a Windows reinstall can wipe out hours of progress. Cloud saves help a lot, but they don’t cover every game.

Where cloud saves and backups help

Steam Cloud syncs supported games. Not every Steam game supports it, so look for the Steam Cloud logo on a game’s store page. To check a game you own, right-click it in your library, open Properties, and make sure the option to keep its saves in the Steam Cloud is ticked.

Epic and GOG offer cloud saves for some games. Epic’s launcher and GOG Galaxy can sync saves too, but support depends on the game, so check each one instead of assuming it’s covered.

Ludusavi covers the games the clouds miss. Ludusavi is a free tool that backs up PC game saves, using data from PCGamingWiki to find where each game stores its files. It supports Steam and other game libraries, and it can make full backups and differential ones, which copy only what changed. Point it at an external drive for a simple second copy.

PCGamingWiki shows where saves live. If you’d rather copy files by hand, PCGamingWiki is a community wiki that documents save locations for many games, and it’s the source of Ludusavi’s data.

Where it falls short

Cloud sync isn’t the same as a backup. A sync service copies your latest state, so a damaged save, or a wrong choice when Steam or Epic asks which version to keep, can overwrite a good one. Read the dates carefully before you choose. Some games also sync only settings, so don’t assume your progress is safe just because a cloud icon appears.

Staying safe

Download Ludusavi only from its official GitHub page, and keep your backups somewhere separate from your game drive. Back up before big changes like installing mods, updating an emulator or reinstalling Windows.

A good starting point

Open your favorite game’s Steam store page and look for the Steam Cloud logo. Then check its Properties and confirm the cloud setting is on. If there’s no logo, look up its save folder on PCGamingWiki and copy it to an external drive.