3.2 Profile Specfic Saves

Profile Specfic Saves

It is important to disable Steam cloud saved when using the following methods, Otherwise steam will keep downloading cloud saves on every launch

Option 1 - Bethesda games only

Most Bethesda games have a setting called "Use profile specific saves". This will skip the complexity of the below option 2

When this option is enabled a saves folder will be created in the profile folder. To find it use the profile dropdown and open > Profile saves folder

In this folder you can place loose .ess or .fos save files.

When deploying the saves folder will be symlinked to the mygames folder, New saved created while playing will end up in the profile folder since the folder itself is symlinked and not the individual save files.

Any current saves that were already in the my games folder will not show up while playing but will be backed up when restoring

Option 2 - Other games

This will expand upon the custom deploy location in the previous section and how to use this feature for profile specfic saves

This example will be for Skyrim SE but the same can be applied to any game as long as you know where the saves belong.

• Create a separator and name it whatever you wish

• Right click the separator and create an empty mod within it, Call it whatever you like again

• Right click the empty mod and click open folder to open it in the file browser
• Here you can add the Saves folder so it belongs next to the meta.ini file

• Go back to the manager and right click the separator and select separator settings

• In the deployment location, this is where you need to set the target location for the saves folder
• For me it would be /home/<user>/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/489830/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition/
• Toggle ignore deployment rules on
• Set it to symlink, This is important as we need the Saves folder to symlink if you want new saves to be sent back to the staging folder automatically
• Make sure merge folders is off
• Press save

• Now when we deploy the saves folder will be symlinked to the location, When the game creates new saves they will be added to the staging directory

• If a saves folder was already present, It will be backed up and moved back when restoring

• Important, The Saves folder in the staging directory will not symlink under a few conditions

• If the saves folder in the staging directory is empty, it will not symlink. Add an empty text file if you need to symlink it empty

• If there are multiple mods in the separator with the same top level saves folder it will not symlink, You cant have a symlink point to two locations

• If merge folders is toggled on, the folder wont symlink

• You can repeat this process for other profiles and other games. This way if you want to, you can keep saves specfic to that profile. Just make sure you don't put other mods in this saves separator, otherwise they will also be deployed to the custom location.