Troubleshooting & FAQ

Where are my backups?

In your configured backup_dir (set under Settings or savevault-cli config set backup_dir <dir>). List them any time on the Restore page or with:

savevault-cli backups

Live snapshots are under <backup_dir>/snapshots/ unless you’ve set live.snapshot_dir.

A game wasn’t detected

SaveVault detects games from the community-maintained PCGamingWiki / Ludusavi save-path database, so the most durable fix is one that helps everyone:

1. Rescan first. After installing a new launcher, run savevault-cli roots rescan (or Settings → Game Scanning → Additional Install Roots → Rescan & Add Roots) and confirm the game’s folder is covered by an install root.
2. Add or update the game on PCGamingWiki. If the title is missing, or its Save game data location is wrong or incomplete, edit that section on the game’s wiki page. Those paths feed the Ludusavi manifest that SaveVault uses — so once your edit is published, every SaveVault user detects the game, not just you. Then pull the refreshed database with savevault-cli manifest update (or the Update Game Database button on the Backup page). The manifest is regenerated periodically, so allow a little time after editing.
3. Add a custom game as a fallback. For an instant local fix — or for private and unlisted titles — add a custom game pointing at the save path. Even then, contributing it upstream in step 2 is worth it: it survives reinstalls and follows you to new machines.

To see why a game’s paths didn’t resolve on your machine, run diagnose (below).

My save isn’t being backed up

Run the diagnostic for that game. It shows every path template the database lists, what each resolved to (or why it didn’t), the exclusions in force, and the exact backup plan:

savevault-cli --verbose diagnose "Game Name"

Common causes: the file is matched by an exclusion (check the excluded-by column in backup-preview), the game stores saves in a Proton prefix that isn’t an install root, or the game simply hasn’t written a save yet.

Reporting a problem

Before filing an issue about a game not being detected, backed up, or restored correctly, run:

savevault-cli --verbose diagnose "<game name>"

and paste the output into the issue. It’s a one-shot support report: SaveVault version and edition, OS, config and log paths, how the game was detected, every path template and what it resolved to, the backup plan, exclusions, Live Protection status, and the last few backups. Nothing about diagnose writes to disk, so it’s safe to run anytime. Add --json for a structured version.

Report bugs as an issue on GitHub. For anything else (questions, purchases and downloads, feedback), use the contact form.

Logs

One shared, rotating log receives entries from the GUI, savevault-cli, savevault-wrap, and savevault-scheduled:

Platform	Log file
Windows	%APPDATA%\SaveVault\logs\savevault.log
Linux	~/.local/share/SaveVault/logs/savevault.log
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/SaveVault/logs/savevault.log

It’s the one place to check “did last night’s scheduled pass run?” regardless of which part of the app fired. savevault-cli schedule history summarizes recent passes too.

Is restoring safe?

Yes — preview anything first with savevault-cli explain <archive> or restore --dry-run, which write nothing, and every real restore first archives what it’s about to overwrite as a pre-restore safety backup you can restore to undo. See Restoring.

Restore warns that a backup misses another device’s progress

Another device made a backup of newer progress, and the one you picked doesn’t descend from it — typically a PC that backed up an old save after a Steam Deck session. Pick the other device’s backup instead (filter by device on the Restore page, or savevault-cli backups --device "<name>"), or go ahead if you really want the older save. See multiple devices.

A restored save got overwritten

The game probably uses launcher cloud sync (Steam, GOG, Epic…). Close the launcher or disable that game’s cloud before restoring; SaveVault warns when this risk applies.

Cloud backup says rclone is missing

You’re on a Lite build — use Download & Install in the Off-site backup section of Settings (or savevault-cli cloud install), or point SaveVault at an existing rclone. Full builds bundle it. See Cloud backup.

Do scheduled backups run when the app is closed?

Yes. schedule enable registers a job with your OS scheduler: Task Scheduler on Windows, a systemd timer on Linux, or launchd on macOS. On Windows the job fires the silent savevault-scheduled binary; on Linux and macOS the scheduler runs savevault-cli schedule-run directly. See scheduled backups.

How do updates work?

The Direct (DRM-free) build and the free GitHub builds check for updates in-app on the interval you choose under Settings → App Updates (and at the end of scheduled passes). On Windows, macOS, and Linux AppImage installs the update installs with one click. A Linux .deb install shows a Download Update link instead (there is no apt repository), and you install the new package yourself. The Steam edition updates through Steam. Features are the same across editions, except that Steam achievements and Steam Workshop (themes and translations) are Steam-edition only.

It’s open source — can I build it myself?

Yes. SaveVault is GPL-3.0. Free, unsigned builds are published on GitHub Releases with the same in-app updater as the Direct build, or you can build from source. Buying the Steam or Direct edition gets you signed Windows and macOS installers (or Steam’s install and update handling) and supports development.

Verifying integrity

Every backup carries BLAKE3 checksums, verified on creation and restore. Verify any archive — or all of them — manually:

savevault-cli verify path/to/backup.zip
savevault-cli verify --all

Known issues

Controller chord in the background on Linux

Applies to: Linux only, the controller chord for the checkpoint shortcut, only while SaveVault is minimized or in the tray. Windows is not affected.

What you might see: the chord (for example the default L3+R3) works while you’re looking at SaveVault, but pressing it while a game is fullscreen and SaveVault is minimized does nothing.

Why: with the window open, the in-app watcher uses the browser Gamepad API. In the background, SaveVault uses a lightweight poller that reads controllers through evdev, which requires your user to be in the input group. Without it the poller simply sees no controllers. Steam Deck / SteamOS’s default user already has this membership.

Fix: add your user to the input group and log out and back in:

sudo usermod -aG input $USER

macOS: the controller chord is built in but hasn’t been verified on macOS hardware yet.

The checkpoint shortcut with nothing running pins every monitored game

By design. When a game is running (or a wrapped game is in session), the shortcut checkpoints only that game. A press with nothing running is treated as a deliberate “insurance press” — you’re about to do something risky and want everything protected first — so it takes a pinned snapshot of every monitored game. With 20 games under Live Protection that’s 20 pins.

If that’s more than you wanted, unpin or delete the extras from the Restore page’s snapshot list, and keep your monitored list curated (Live Protection is per-game, on the Backup page).

Steam edition: reset achievements don’t re-sync until the next Steam launch

Applies to: the Steam edition, only when SaveVault is started directly (its executable, OS autostart, or a notification) rather than through the Steam client.

What you might see: if you reset SaveVault achievements on Steam with a third-party tool while using SaveVault outside of Steam, they may stay locked on your profile even though SaveVault shows them as earned.

Why: launched directly, SaveVault deliberately stays invisible to Steam — it connects only for a few seconds when there’s genuinely new achievement progress, so you’re never shown as “playing SaveVault” while it sits in the tray. SaveVault re-syncs your full achievement state on each of those brief connections, but an achievement it already considers earned creates no new progress to report.

Workaround: launch SaveVault through Steam once (the normal Launch button); a Steam-launched session syncs everything at startup. The next new achievement earned anywhere also triggers a full re-sync.

Steam Properties shows a Steam Cloud entry, but SaveVault never syncs saves to Steam Cloud

By design. SaveVault does not use Steam Cloud for game saves or its own data — your backups live where you put them, and optionally in your own cloud via rclone. The small Steam Cloud allotment exists for one thing: uploading the preview image when you publish a theme or translation to the Steam Workshop. Subscribing stores nothing there.

Subscribed Workshop items don’t download while SaveVault is running via Steam

Applies to: the Steam edition, when SaveVault was launched through Steam at the moment you subscribe.

What you might see: you subscribe to a theme or translation, but it never appears in SaveVault, and Steam’s Downloads page shows “SaveVault - Workshop content” stuck at Scheduled.

Why: Steam doesn’t download content for an app it considers running — the same rule that blocks game updates mid-play.

What works: quit SaveVault briefly (the download starts within seconds and the item appears on the next launch, or immediately via Refresh next to the Workshop group on the Themes or Translations page), or subscribe while SaveVault runs outside of Steam. If a queued item stays stuck even with SaveVault closed, restarting the Steam client clears it.