Syncthing instead of Steam Cloud saves?
Syncthing instead of Steam Cloud saves?
I have seen several mentions and articles about using this app to sync game saves for non-steam games. But I have yet to see anyone mention using it instead of Steam's own cloud based save game solution.
The reason I ask is I've been having so many sync errors between the deck and my Linux gaming PC and it's driving me crazy. For example, I just started Cyberpunk2077 for the first time now that 2.0 and Phantom Liberty are out. Put a few hours in from the desktop, then later wanted to play on the couch so I grabbed the SD and fired it up. Only one save had synchronized and it was very early in the prologue. So i went back to the desktop and tried the resync and same thing, will not sync. I read about how too many saves can cause a problem, but I literally just installed and started this game. Maybe 3 or 4 at the time? Up to 6 I think now. So this should be well within any arbitrary sync limits I would think. It's not just this game either. Starfield and Dave the Diver are two others having repeated issues with cloud saving.
Does anyone else use this instead of or in conjunction with steam cloud saves?
EDIT: I already replied to @Molecular0079 below, but behold my shame!
So....you're gonna love this.... It was my effin' AdguardHome instances blocking some domain required for the Cloud backup to work. Found that by accident while having my Linux desktop connected via NordVPN, which as you may know has no UI so I just plan forgot to disconnect. Played the game, realized it saved, but went to try to play on SD, but nope. Still won't pull the latest save. So i disabled my primary and secondary AGH instances, tried again, and everything is sunshine and lollypops.
So I added the following to AGH custom filtering rules in order to allow all of these:
@@||steampowered.com^
@@||steamcommunity.com^
@@||steamgames.com^
@@||steamusercontent.com^
@@||steamcontent.com^
@@||steamstatic.com^
@@||akamaihd.net^
I feel a bit dumb now....
The only problem I foresee in doing this is adding every possible save location for games. They seem to save all over the place, so finding out the right directory to sync for each game is extremely time consuming.
I wanted to do this before, but gave up. If you want to only sync the game saves and not a ton of unrelated data, it's a chore.
Even tools like ludusavi don't have directory's added by default for anything non Steam due to this.
If anyone has a good solution to this, I'd love to hear it!
Yeah, that is very true. For some reason I had in my mind that they were all in vaguely the same place. But then remembered 2 of the 3 games I mentioned in my original post are Windows only so the proton layer adds yet another location to consider to the mix. I'll have to think on it more. I tend to focus on one of two games at a time until I'm done with them, so might not be too bad to sync just those titles then reconsider when another games strikes my fancy....
You can use Syncthing to sync any files you want. Just be sure to disable the Steam cloud sync to avoid conflicts.
Won't hurt to try, eh? Damn saves aren't copying at all now, so its useless atm.
Neat idea! Although, it would probably be more practical to use a centralized model since if one peer is offline, then the syncing would not occur. That is, if my assumption is correct that you are thinking of directly syncing between 2 devices.
I use an old phone for syncthing. It uses almost no power (or space) so it can be online always. Ready to sync!)
I use it for notes, though. Not steam saves
Yeah, that was the original idea. Peer to peer, which is Syncthing's selling point. I certainly could link my server into play as well just to keep an always online device in the mix. Though I never turn my PC off either :)
I certainly could link my server into play as well just to keep an always online device in the mix
Yep! That should work perfectly fine.
Using syncthing feels like a cludgy solution IMHO. Better to figure out what's wrong with Steam Cloud saves in the first place. Out of curiosity, what filesystem are your game saves on?
The game is installed on Pop!_OS, ext4 file system. Windows came, so proton has the save games in a weird spot. I did notice it's different than the location of steam deck.
Pop!_OS:
~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1091500/pfx/drive_c/steamuser/Saved Games/CD Projekt Red/Cyberpunk 2077Steam Deck:
~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Saved Games/CD Projekt Red/Cyberpunk 2077What's weird is that it synchronized at least some saves form early in the game. But now it is continually failing to sync. I fired up a few indie games just last night and those synchronized just fine. Fates of Ort and Void Scrapper, if it matters ;)