Live Protection

Live Protection watches running games and takes rolling snapshots as you play, so you can roll back a corrupted or unwanted save in seconds.

How it triggers

Filesystem changes — when a monitored game writes its save, SaveVault waits a short quiet period (live.debounce_seconds, default 3 s) and snapshots it. Config files are watched too if live.watch_configs is on.
The checkpoint shortcut — a keyboard hotkey (default Ctrl+Shift+S) or a controller chord (default L3+R3). Checkpoints are pinned, so they survive automatic cleanup.

Turn it on

Toggle Live Protection per game on the Backup page, or enable it in Settings → Live Protection. The system tray menu has a Live Protection check item too, but it only appears while live protection is enabled in Settings. From the CLI:

savevault-cli live enable "Elden Ring"
savevault-cli live enable-all
savevault-cli live status

# Run the engine from a terminal instead of the GUI (Ctrl+C to stop)
savevault-cli live start
savevault-cli live start --game "Elden Ring"

With an empty monitor list, live start watches every detected game. The GUI engine does not do this: it refuses to start with “No monitored games found” until you enable Live Protection for at least one game.

To turn a game off again, or everything at once:

savevault-cli live disable "Elden Ring"
savevault-cli live disable-all      # empties the monitor list; live.enabled is left as it was

live enable-all replaces the monitor list with every detected game and also sets live.enabled to true.

Rolling snapshots

A per-game limit (live.rolling_snapshot_limit, default 10; a game can override it under [live.per_game_overrides] in config.toml, which has no GUI or config set surface) keeps the most recent snapshots and drops older unpinned ones. Snapshots default to <backup_dir>/snapshots/<Game>/, overridable with live.snapshot_dir. They’re listed alongside backups on the Restore page and restore the same way. When the list holds both, a Type filter lets you narrow it to Backups only or Snapshots only. Snapshots stay on the device that took them: the snapshots folder is excluded from cloud sync.

The other live settings are also available from config set, matching the controls under Settings → Live Protection: live.enabled (Enable Live Protection), live.rolling_snapshot_limit (Rolling Snapshot Limit), live.debounce_seconds (Debounce (seconds)), live.watch_configs (Watch Config Changes, off by default because settings are tweaked far more often than progress is saved), and live.snapshot_dir (Snapshot Directory). The monitor list is managed with the live enable / live disable commands instead. live.auto_resume is internal: the app sets it so live protection restarts on launch if it was running when you last closed the app.

savevault-cli live snapshot --label "before the mod install"
savevault-cli live list --game "Elden Ring"
savevault-cli live pin 3f9c2a1e --label "keep"  # the short id from `live list`
savevault-cli live unpin 3f9c2a1e
savevault-cli live delete 3f9c2a1e --force

The checkpoint shortcut

One action, two triggers. What it checkpoints depends on what’s happening:

Situation	Result
A monitored game is running	A pinned snapshot of that game.
A game is running through the launch wrapper	A pinned backup archive of that game, labeled “Hotkey checkpoint”. Works whether or not Live Protection is enabled.
Nothing is running	An “insurance press”: a pinned snapshot of every monitored game, so whatever you’re about to do (install a mod, let a cloud sync run) is covered. This is by design; with many monitored games it leaves many pins.

Repeated presses within a few seconds coalesce into one checkpoint. Change the triggers under Settings → Live Protection → Checkpoint Shortcut or:

savevault-cli config set live.hotkey "Ctrl+Alt+S"
savevault-cli config set live.controller_hotkey "Select+RB"
savevault-cli config unset live.controller_hotkey      # disable the chord

Chord buttons: A B X Y LB RB LT RT Select Start L3 R3 DPadUp DPadDown DPadLeft DPadRight, joined with +. Names are case-insensitive, and a few synonyms are accepted: Back for Select, and DPad_Up or DUp (likewise for the other three directions). Pick a chord your games don’t use — L3+R3 and Select+RB are good choices for that reason. On Windows the chord works with Xbox and PlayStation controllers alike, regardless of window focus. On Linux, hearing the chord while SaveVault is minimized needs your user in the input group (already true on Steam Deck); see known issues. On macOS the chord is built in and started (through the system’s IOKit game-controller support), but it hasn’t been verified on macOS hardware yet.

Steam Deck Game Mode

The GUI’s watcher isn’t running in Game Mode, but the launch wrapper is: add savevault-wrap -- %command% to a game’s Steam launch options and the controller chord checkpoints that game natively from inside its launch container. See the Steam Deck guide.