Buzz
Wouldn't it be amazing to start playing on one PC, save your progress, and then resume on another? Here's how you can sync all your game saves with Dropbox.
Why Not Just Use Steam Cloud?
Steam Cloud offers a built-in feature for syncing saves, but it doesn't support every game on the Steam platform—only a select few. Even for those it claims to support, it doesn't always function reliably. In cases where Steam Cloud fails, Dropbox provides a dependable alternative: it's simple to set up and works seamlessly.
How to Sync Game Saves with Dropbox (or Any Other Cloud Service)
When your game loads your saved progress, it typically searches in a default location, often within My Documents. To sync your saved files, we’ll move them to Dropbox and set up a symbolic link from the original save folder to Dropbox. This way, when the game looks for a save, it will be directed to the synced files in Dropbox.
Step One: Find Your Game Save Location
The first step is simple: identify where your game stores its save files. This varies by game, but most save their data in My Documents (either in the folder itself or in a "My Games" folder inside it). If you’re unsure, just look up the save location for your specific game.
Step Two: Transfer Your Save Folders to Dropbox
For instance, let’s say you want to move the save files for Darksiders, which are located at C:\Users\Whitson\Documents\My Games\Darksiders. Create a folder in Dropbox specifically for game saves and copy the "Darksiders" folder into it. It will quickly sync with Dropbox, ensuring that your saves are accessible from any of your computers.
Step Three: Set Up Symbolic Links on All Your Devices
Next, we need to direct each computer to the Dropbox folder for your saved games. First, rename or delete the original game save folder (since it’s now in Dropbox). Then, open a Command Prompt as an administrator and run this command:
mklink /D "C:\Users\Whitson\Documents\My Games\Darksiders" "C:\Users\Whitson\Dropbox\Game Saves\Darksiders"
Make sure to replace the first file path with the original save folder location for your game, and the second file path with the location of your new Dropbox save folder.
Hit enter, and the symbolic link should be created. To confirm, return to the original save folder and you’ll see a shortcut pointing to the new Dropbox location. You can also check out the video at the top of this post for a visual guide to this step.
Repeat this process on all your devices, ensuring that whenever you launch the game—no matter which PC you’re using—it will always point to the save files in your Dropbox folder.
Note: Mac and Linux users can follow the same steps, though the commands will differ slightly. For more details, check out this post.
Step Four: Time to Play
Once everything is set up, give it a try! Start the game on one PC, save it in a random spot, and then launch the game on a second computer. If everything’s working correctly, you should be able to load the most recent save from the first computer!
Video music by Eric Skiff. Title image remixed from vectorlib.com.
