You’ve put 80 hours into a game on your PC and just got a Steam Deck. You want to continue where you left off — not start over. For most Steam games this works automatically. For others, you need to move the files yourself.

Here’s the full process.

Steam Games with Cloud Save: Automatic

If a Steam game has cloud saves enabled and you’ve played on PC recently:

  1. Install the game on your Steam Deck
  2. Launch it — Steam will prompt you to use the cloud save or start fresh
  3. Choose Use Cloud Save

That’s it. Your progress transfers without any file copying. This works for most major Steam titles: RPGs, shooters, strategy games from the last decade.

Verify cloud sync is on before leaving your PC: Right-click the game → Properties → General → confirm “Keep game saves in the Steam Cloud” is checked and the Last Sync timestamp is recent.

Steam Games Without Cloud Save: Manual Transfer

Some older games don’t support Steam Cloud. You’ll need to copy the save files directly.

On your PC, find the save files:

  • %APPDATA%\[GameName]\
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\[GameName]\
  • Documents\My Games\[GameName]\
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\[SteamID]\[AppID]\remote\

On your Steam Deck, the equivalent paths are:

  • ~/.local/share/[GameName]/
  • ~/.config/[GameName]/
  • ~/Documents/My Games/[GameName]/
  • ~/.local/share/Steam/userdata/[SteamID]/[AppID]/remote/

Transfer method — using a USB drive or SD card:

  1. Copy the save folder from your PC to a USB drive
  2. Plug the USB drive into your Steam Deck
  3. Switch the Steam Deck to Desktop Mode (hold power button → Switch to Desktop)
  4. Open the Dolphin file manager
  5. Navigate to the matching path on the Deck
  6. Paste the save files
  7. Return to Gaming Mode and launch the game

Transfer method — using a network share or SSH:

  1. Enable SSH on the Steam Deck: in Desktop Mode, open Konsole and run passwd to set a password
  2. Use an SFTP client (FileZilla, WinSCP) on your PC to connect to the Deck’s IP address
  3. Transfer files to the matching path

Non-Steam Games Added to Steam Deck

If you added a non-Steam game (from Epic, GOG, etc.) via Heroic Launcher or directly, save paths depend on how the game is configured. Heroic Launcher on Steam Deck stores saves at:

  • ~/.config/heroic/GamesConfig/

For GOG games through Heroic, cloud saves can sync automatically if you’ve connected your GOG account.

Proton Prefix Saves (Windows-Only Games)

Games running through Proton (Steam Deck’s Windows compatibility layer) store saves inside a Proton prefix — a sandboxed Windows environment:

~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/[AppID]/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/

The Windows AppData equivalent is inside this path. If a game stores saves in %APPDATA% on Windows, look for them here on the Deck.

When copying from PC:

  1. Find the save in %APPDATA%\[GameName]\ on Windows
  2. Paste into the matching AppData\Roaming\[GameName]\ path inside the Proton prefix on the Deck

Find the Exact Save Path for Your Game

Not sure which folder your specific game uses on PC or Steam Deck?

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