Cloud saves lost with a native Linux game release

[flibitijibibo]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Oct 28 2020, at 23:35:02
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): N/A
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

For Windows-only games, the Steam client will correctly assume Proton as the compatibility tool. This is fine until a native Linux version is made available, where the client will keep the Windows depot but use the launch options cloud saves from the native client, resulting in 'missing executable' errors and potentially lost save data since the saves get lost in the Wine prefix and are not transferred to the proper location.

While Linux native releases post-launch are not an everyday occurrence, this still adds a tremendous burden on developers by introducing tons of bug reports that include save data being completely lost, all due to an issue that the developer has nothing to do with and cannot control.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

Reproducing requires having a Steam app as a developer, with cloud saves implemented via Steam Auto-Cloud:

1. Install a Windows-only game, run it once
2. Create/Upload a Linux depot, launch options, and an autocloud root override
3. Add the Linux depot to the package used by the Steam client from step 1
4. Run the game, missing executable
5. Manually tick and untick the 'Force compatibility tool' box to download the depot
6. Run the game, observe missing savedata

[kisak-valve]

Hello @flibitijibibo, the majority of this issue is already being tracked at #7023 / #5736. Let's use this issue report to focus on the lost cloud saves.

[blastermaster77]

yes i have tha same problem

[Draknek]

Someone has just reported this same issue to me. To elaborate on "missing savedata": they reported that the new savefile created by the newly added native Linux version has overwritten the Cloud savefile created by the Proton version.

Is there a known workaround? Would uninstalling the Proton version and then installing the Linux version work better than toggling the "Force compatibility tool" option?

[flibitijibibo]

Sadly the way Steam currently mixes up the depots makes it hard to work around consistently - generally the way I tell customers to safely transition to native is by backing up the save data and manually poking it into the right spot, and thankfully PCGW makes it easy to look at both paths on a single screen (example).