Managing savegames for Steam games
question
I want to replace a save file for a game. I disable steam cloud, use protontricks to find the prefix for the game, find the savefile I want to replace, delete it, put the new one one in its place, and run the game.
Everytime, Steam somehow creates the old existing savefiles out of thin air. When I close the game, the old game saves are back in the folder. Even if I delete the entire save folder, steam somehow recreates the files.
It's as if the launch process for Steam games on linux somehow replicates a cached folder for saves on startup.
For reference, most recent example: the game is The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. The proton prefix contains the saved games in .../Steam/steamapps/compatdata/250900/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/Binding of Isaac Repentance/ as 20251228.rep_persistentgamedata3.dat
I delete the entire folder, put in a savefile I downloaded named "20251228.rep_persistentgamedata3.dat" or "persistentgamedata3.dat" (tried both). After game startup, the game contains my old cloud synced saves (with steam cloud disabled!!) and when I refresh the folder, it contains the new backup files for said saves ("20251228.rep_persistentgamedata3.dat").
This is not a BoI-specific issue either. i had the same problem with Absolum and similar problems with Lies of P (altough I managed to get it to work there, I don't know why).
I am now running into this for the second time and there must be something I am fundamentally misunderstanding, but i do not find anything related on the internet. It is as if no one ever had that problem before.
Everytime, Steam somehow creates the old existing savefiles out of thin air. When I close the game, the old game saves are back in the folder. Even if I delete the entire save folder, steam somehow recreates the files.
It's as if the launch process for Steam games on linux somehow replicates a cached folder for saves on startup.
For reference, most recent example: the game is The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. The proton prefix contains the saved games in .../Steam/steamapps/compatdata/250900/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/Binding of Isaac Repentance/ as 20251228.rep_persistentgamedata3.dat
I delete the entire folder, put in a savefile I downloaded named "20251228.rep_persistentgamedata3.dat" or "persistentgamedata3.dat" (tried both). After game startup, the game contains my old cloud synced saves (with steam cloud disabled!!) and when I refresh the folder, it contains the new backup files for said saves ("20251228.rep_persistentgamedata3.dat").
This is not a BoI-specific issue either. i had the same problem with Absolum and similar problems with Lies of P (altough I managed to get it to work there, I don't know why).
I am now running into this for the second time and there must be something I am fundamentally misunderstanding, but i do not find anything related on the internet. It is as if no one ever had that problem before.
