GOG’s biggest appeal is DRM-free games you own forever. The catch: GOG Galaxy’s cloud save support is inconsistent. Many older and indie titles don’t sync at all. Reinstall Windows without backing up and those saves are gone — there’s no server-side recovery.

Here’s how to find and protect your GOG saves before something goes wrong.

Does Your GOG Game Have Cloud Saves?

Open GOG Galaxy and look at your library:

  • A cloud icon next to a game means cloud saves are active for that title
  • If there’s no cloud icon, saves are stored locally only

Even for cloud-enabled games, a local backup is worth keeping. GOG’s cloud sync occasionally fails to push the latest save, particularly after a crash or unexpected shutdown.

Where GOG Saves Are Stored on PC

GOG doesn’t use a single save folder. Check these locations:

Most common:

  • %APPDATA%\[GameName]\
  • Documents\My Games\[GameName]\

GOG Galaxy-specific path:

  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\GOG.com\Galaxy\Applications\[AppID]\

Also worth checking:

  • %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\[GameName]\
  • The game’s own installation folder (older DRM-free games sometimes write saves next to the executable)

Press Win + R, type %APPDATA%, and press Enter to open AppData directly.

How to Back Up GOG Saves

  1. Identify the save folder using the paths above (sort by Date Modified to find recent changes)
  2. Copy the entire folder to an external drive or cloud storage
  3. Label it: [GameName]-gog-saves-[date]

Copy the folder, not individual .sav files. GOG games often write multiple companion files — config, profile data, checksums — that must travel with the save to load correctly.

What If You Can’t Find the Save Folder?

  1. Make a new save in-game, then quit
  2. Press Win + R, type %APPDATA%, press Enter
  3. Sort by Date Modified — the game’s folder appears near the top
  4. If nothing shows up there, repeat in %LOCALAPPDATA% and Documents\My Games

For older GOG games (pre-2010 era), check the game’s installation folder directly: C:\GOG Games\[GameName]\saves\ or similar.

Restoring GOG Saves After Reinstall

  1. Reinstall the game via GOG Galaxy or the offline installer
  2. Launch it once to generate the save directory structure
  3. Quit immediately
  4. Navigate to the same save path
  5. Replace the contents with your backup folder
  6. Relaunch — your saves should load

What About the GOG Offline Installer?

If you use GOG’s DRM-free offline installers rather than Galaxy, the process is the same — the save location is determined by the game itself, not the launcher. Same paths apply.

Find the Exact Save Path for Your GOG Game

Not sure which folder your specific GOG game uses? Look it up directly.

Find your game’s save location →