Syncing Your Game Saves Using a Cloud Service

If you’re a PC gamer, the thought of being able to play games across multiple computers is quite appealing. However, the issue with this is that your saved game files are typically not automatically transferred. If you want to play on a different computer, you may be forced to start over. Thankfully, this issue will no longer be a problem once you sync your games through a cloud service using these instructions. All you will need to complete these instructions is two computers and a bit of time.

Note: Section 1 of this table of contents describes getting Dropbox to use as your cloud service. If you are already familiar with Dropbox or you wish to use a different cloud service, you should skip this section. Additionally, you should only use either section 2 or section 3 depending on which operating system you use.

• Section 1: Get Dropbox
  • Step 1: Navigate to Dropbox Website
  • Step 2: Sign up for Dropbox
  • Step 3: Install Dropbox
  • Step 4: Finish Up
• Section 2: Sync Game Saves with Windows
  • Step 5: Create a Cloud Synced Folder
  • Step 6: Locate the Game Save Files
  • Step 7: Copy the Game Saves to Their New Location
  • Step 8: Open Command Prompt as an Administrator
  • Step 9: Create the Symbolic Link
• Section 3: Sync Game Saves with Linux
  • Step 10: Create the Cloud Synced Folder
  • Step 11: Locate the Game Save Files
  • Step 12: Copy the Game Saves to Their New Location
  • Step 13: Create the Symbolic Link
• Section 4: Wrapping Up
  • Step 14: Test the Cloud Sync

1. Open your web browser.
2. Navigate to Dropbox.
3. Ensure that you are on the official website by looking at the address bar, where a verification note should appear in green text.

1. Click the option to sign up when the site is loaded and enter your information when several new lines appear requesting it.
2. Check the terms and conditions box and submit.

3. Choose a plan for the your usage of Dropbox.

Tip: The basic plan is free, and will be acceptable for the scope of this project.

1. Download the Dropbox application when directed to the new page after choosing your plan.

2. Follow the directions to complete the installation.

1. Finish installation and enter your information once more when prompted.
2. Choose to use the default instructions, unless you wish to set up your Dropbox folder outside of your current user account.
3. Ensure that the Dropbox folder was automatically created by checking your sidebar (as pictured).

1. Navigate to your cloud synced folder
2. Create a new folder to hold your game saves

Note: Some recommended services to handle this are Dropbox (pictured here), Microsoft OneDrive, and MediaFire, though any cloud service will do. Also, make sure that wherever you create the folder has enough space to hold all your game saves.

1. Find the location of the save files you wish to copy

Tip: Many games have their save files stored either in “C:\Users\YourNameHere\Documents\My Games” or “C:\Users\YourNameHere\Local\AppData”, but if in doubt or you are unable to find the file, a quick Google search should show where to look.

Note: For our purposes, we are going to share the e ntire “My Games” folder across computers, as it contains many only game saves and a large quantity of saves are stored there.

Caution! Do not share any folders containing files which yo u do not know what they are. This includes “AppData”, as sharing that folder between computers could cause numerous errors. Instead, if there are game files which you want to share which don’t have their own folder, link each file individually.

1. Copy the game save files you want to upload to the cloud
2. Paste the files into the folder you made earlier for holding game saves

Tip: A good idea would be to create a folder specifically for game saves and then a subfolder for each game, but this is not actually necessary.

1. Open the Start menu
2. Type "cmd" into the search bar but don't hit Enter
3. Right click on the "cmd" program
4. Choose the "Run as administrator" option

Tip: If you don't see the "Run as administrator" option, then your account does not have administrative privileges. Ask the administrator of your machine for help opening Command Prompt as an admin.

1. Type the following line into Command Prompt, replacing the file paths with their corresponding path names:
   

   mklnk /D “C:\Users\YourNameHere\Documents\My Documents\My Games” “C:\Users\YourNameHere\Dropbox\Game Saves\My Games”

Note: The first file path was the original location of the game saves, and the second is the location of where the game saves have been moved.

Note: If you receive an error saying the file already exists, then go back and rename the original file so that it has a "." in front of the file's original name. For example, we could rename "My Games" to ".My Games" in its original location. Afterwards, try Step 9 again.

1. Navigate to your cloud synced folder
2. Create a new folder to hold your game saves

Note: Make sure that wherever you create the folder has enough space to hold all your game saves.

1. Find the location of the save files you wish to copy

Note: A quick Google search should show where to look, Linux games tend to each receive their own individual folders so it may be different for every game.

Note: For our purposes, we are going to share the data from the game Super Hexagon across computers, as it is a typical example of where a Steam game may store it’s save data.

Caution! Do not share any folders containing files which you do not know what they are. Instead, if there are game files which you want to share which don’t have their own folder, link each file individually.

Furthermore! Not all game saves can be shared between different operating systems, in fact most can’t without further alterations. If you are attempting to sync the game save with a non-Linux machine, these instructions will not cover all necessary steps.

1. Copy the game save files you want to upload to the cloud
2. Paste the files into the folder you made earlier for holding game saves

Tip: A good idea would be to create a folder specifically for game saves and then a subfolder for each game, but this is not actually necessary.

1. Type the following line into Terminal, replacing the file paths with their corresponding path names:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/GameSaves/SuperHexagon/suphex.dat ~/.local/share/Steam/userdata//221640/remote/suphex.dat

Note : The first file path was the original location of the game saves, and the second is the location of where the game saves have been moved.

Note: If you receive an error saying the file already exists, then go back and rename the original file so that it has a “.” in front of the file’s original name. For example, we could rename “suphex.dat” to “.suphex.dat” in its original location. Afterwards try Step 13 again.

After completing either section two or three, your sync should be ready to go. The final step now is to test that this is truly the case. If you are able to save on one computer and to access it from the other, then congratulations! You have now set your game saves up to sync across multiple computers. Have fun gaming!

Otherwise, it is recommended that you review either the Windows or Linux sections in order to ensure that you followed the steps properly.