Steam BKUPER

This script is designed to backup all Steam game save files automatically (optimized for Steam Deck).

Why this script?

I played a lot on my Steam Deck. One day, I left my console charging all night and when I wanted to get back in game, the OS refused to boot and I was stuck on BIOS. The SSD decided to stop working. I was a bit worried at first, but then I realised that my game saves should be safe in the Steam Cloud.

But, of course, I was wrong.

Why? Because some games do not provide Steam Cloud, like Just Cause 3.

I created this script to prevent this from happening one more time and loosing my saves once more.

Features

• Use Git for backup versioning
• While game is starting and when game is closed, do a backup
• Automatic

Prerequisites

• Tested on Steam OS 3.0 (Arch Linux) but could be working on other distros
• Git
• ...?

Usage

(Optional) Connect to your Steam Deck

If you want to easily access your Steam Deck from your main computer, follow these steps :

You have to create a password before you can access your console with SSH. First, switch to Desktop Mode, then open the terminal called Konsole. Type this command to define your new password :

passwd

Now start SSH service and type your password :

sudo systemctl start sshd

Enable the SSH service so it stays up even after a reboot of the Steam Deck (make it accessible while in Game Mode too!) :

sudo systemctl enable sshd

For more information, you can check this FAQ from Valve : https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/671A-4453-E8D2-323C

Download required files

Ludusavi

Tested with version 0.10.0 of ludusavi, may work with latest. Go to the exact path with cd then download and extract archive to get ludusavi binary :

cd /home/deck/Documents/bin
wget https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi/releases/download/v0.10.0/ludusavi-v0.10.0-linux.zip
unzip ludusavi-v0.10.0-linux.zip
rm ludusavi-v0.10.0-linux.zip

ludusavi binary exact location is now /home/deck/Documents/bin/ludusavi.

This repo

I suggest going to this exact path and clone the repo :

# If the path below does not exist, create it first with this command
# mkdir -p /home/deck/Documents/gitrepo
cd /home/deck/Documents/gitrepo
git clone https://github.com/AngeIo/steam-bkuper
cd steam-bkuper

Then copy the files to the right location :

cp my-steam-backup.sh git-sync /home/deck/Documents/bin/

Give execution permission to these files :

chmod -R 755 /home/deck/Documents/bin

Now we can delete the repo :

cd /home/deck/Documents/gitrepo
rm -rf /home/deck/Documents/gitrepo/steam-bkuper

Set up Git repo for backups

Create a new repo on GitLab, GitHub, or both. In my example, this repo is called steam-saves. Then, if you have multiple remote repos, you can link them to the main one like below if you want to store your backups on multiple locations (configured for 2 repos by default, one named origin and the other origin-new).

git remote add origin-new https://gitlab.com/AngeIo/steam-saves.git

/!\ Please use the same branch name as above origin-new so it matches with git-sync script or you'll need to modify it too. Check that the git remote repos are correctly setup :

git remote -v

The output should look like this if done correctly :

(deck@asundeck steam-saves)$ git remote -v
origin  https://github.com/AngeIo/steam-saves.git (fetch)
origin  https://github.com/AngeIo/steam-saves.git (push)
origin-new      https://gitlab.com/AngeIo/steam-saves.git (fetch)
origin-new      https://gitlab.com/AngeIo/steam-saves.git (push)
(deck@asundeck steam-saves)$

Apply script to games

Add to each game's "Launch Options" the command below :

Backup after game is closed (recommended)

%command% ; /home/deck/Documents/bin/my-steam-backup.sh

Backup while the game is starting

/home/deck/Documents/bin/my-steam-backup.sh ; %command%

Backup while the game is starting and after the game is closed

/home/deck/Documents/bin/my-steam-backup.sh ; %command% ; /home/deck/Documents/bin/my-steam-backup.sh

Make sure everything is working

Start a game with Launch Options configured. Close it. Check your remote Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, etc.) if the folder /home/deck/Documents/gitrepo/steam-saves/ludusavi-backup is populated with your save files then congratulations! You are now safe from any defects your Steam Deck/PC may encounter!

Final file tree

Here is what your folders should look like in /home/deck/Documents :

(deck@asundeck Documents)$ tree
.
├── bin
│   ├── git-sync
│   ├── ludusavi
│   └── my-steam-backup.sh
└── gitrepo
    └── steam-saves [Git repo containing your backups]
        ├── ludusavi-backup
        │   ├── Alien_ Isolation
        │   │   ├── drive-0
        │   │   │   └── home
        │   │   │       └── deck
        │   │   └── mapping.yaml

[...]

        │   └── Uno (2016)
        │       ├── drive-0
        │       │   └── home
        │       │       └── deck
        │       └── mapping.yaml
        ├── README.md
        └── typescript

XX directories, XX files
(deck@asundeck Documents)$

Roadmap

• Use variables/env to modify paths, script names, etc. and prevent users to modify script directly
• Create an all-in-one script so it's easier to install for users
• Find a way to loop through all game's Launch Options and add the command automatically

Contribution

I know this script is far from perfect (school projects takes a lot of my time), that's why you can create pull requests if you wish to improve this script. Thanks!

Credits

• Matthew Kennerly and contributors for ludusavi
• Simon Thum and contributors for git-sync
• Angelo