OpenSave keeps your game saves in sync across your devices, peer-to-peer. No accounts, no subscriptions. This guide walks through everyday use.
New to OpenSave? Start with Getting Started — it covers the same ground from a fresh install and explains the terms as it goes. This page is the reference for when you know what you are looking for.
When you open OpenSave the first time your library is empty. Two ways to add games:
- 🔍 Auto-scan — finds saves from Steam, emulators (RetroArch, Dolphin, Ryujinx, Yuzu, Citra, PCSX2, RPCS3, PPSSPP, Cemu, Xenia), Steam-emulator repacks (Goldberg, CODEX, RUNE, …), Epic, GOG, and Unreal games. Pick the ones you want and click Track selected.
- + Track folder — point OpenSave at any save folder or single save file manually.
Each result shows how many files the folder holds, how big it is, and when it was last written. That last one is the useful one: the same game is often detected in three or four places — the Steam folder, wherever the launcher put it, and one left behind by an install you have moved on from — and the one with a recent date is the live save.
One tile per game. When a game is found in several places you get a single tile with found in N folders underneath it. Click that to see them all, each labelled with what OpenSave thinks it is:
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| the save folder | the one to track — the freshest of the group |
| part of the same save | sits beside the save folder and holds another piece of it. Ticked by default, tracked as one game |
| another copy — probably an old install | the same game somewhere unrelated. Not ticked; tick it if it is the one you actually play |
| already inside the folder above | covered already, so it cannot be ticked |
Clicking a tile ticks the save folder plus anything marked part of the same save, and Track adds them as one game with extra locations — not as several games that share a name. Open the list to overrule any of it.
If OpenSave puts two folders in different tiles when they are really one game — it has nothing to match on when the names differ and there is no Steam AppID — tick both and use Track as one game at the bottom.
Folders holding no files are hidden, because Steam creates one for every game
you own whether or not saves go there; on a typical library that is a fifth of
the results. Tick Show N empty in the scan toolbar to see them, which is
worth doing if you want to track a game before it has saved for the first
time. From the command line, opensave scan --all does the same.
Tracked games appear in the sidebar and on the Home grid.
Some games keep their save data in one place and their settings or mods in another. Open the game, go to Configuration -> Save locations, name the extra folder and pick it. It is then synced, snapshotted and restored along with the main one.
Give the location the same name on your other devices. The name is what the two sides match on -- the folder itself lives somewhere different on each machine, so the path cannot be. A location whose name a device knows but has no folder for is shown as needing one, and is skipped until you choose it.
Removing a location never deletes its files; it only stops OpenSave covering them. From the command line:
opensave locations <gameId>
opensave locations add <gameId> config "C:/Users/me/Documents/Game"
opensave locations remove <gameId> config
Some games keep device-specific settings in the same folder as the save, and
copying those to another machine can break the game there. Open the game, go
to Configuration -> Files that shouldn't sync, and list them one per line,
like a .gitignore:
Config.gs # a file of that name, at any depth
/Config.gs # only at the top of the save folder
*.log # by extension
logs/ # a folder and everything in it
!keep.log # an exception to an earlier line
Matching ignores case. Set the same list on your other devices -- each applies its own, and a device without the list is unaffected.
You don't have to know the filenames in advance. Click Pick from your save
folder under the box to list what is actually in there, each file marked
syncs or won't sync. Tick one and the pattern is written for you,
anchored so it can only mean that file; untick one caught by a wildcard and an
! exception is added instead of the wildcard being thrown away. The verdicts
come from the same matcher the sync itself uses, and they update as you type,
so you can see a rule working before you rely on it.
A pattern applies to every one of a game's folders, so if the same filename appears in two save locations it is excluded in both.
Snapshots still capture these files, so a restore brings them back. Excluding something stops it travelling between devices; it never stops it being backed up. From the command line:
opensave ignore <gameId>
opensave ignore <gameId> add Config.gs
opensave ignore <gameId> test Config.gs # would this sync?
Every time a save changes, OpenSave takes a snapshot automatically (only changed blocks are stored, so history is cheap). Open a game to:
- Snapshot now — take a manual snapshot with a comment.
- Restore — roll the whole save back to any snapshot. Your current state is snapshotted first, so a restore is always reversible.
- Browse files — restore a single file out of a snapshot.
- Branches — keep parallel playthroughs (e.g.
mainandng-plus). When you create one you choose what it starts from: your current save (the default — switching to it changes nothing until you play) or empty, for a genuinely fresh run, where switching to it clears the save folder. Switching always snapshots the current save onto the branch you're leaving first, so it can be undone by switching back — and if that snapshot can't be taken, nothing is changed at all.
- Install OpenSave on both devices.
- Open Devices — they discover each other automatically over the LAN.
- Click Pair; approve the request on the other device.
- Paired devices sync tracked games automatically.
If discovery is blocked, use Devices -> Add by IP address with the other
device's LAN IP and port (default 8383), then Send pairing request.
- Open Internet Sync and either generate a room code or paste one shared by a friend.
- Both devices join the same room code — saves sync through the relay.
- No port forwarding needed. To self-host the relay, enable Host relay on this device under Settings → Sync and forward the relay port.
If the same save changed on two devices independently, OpenSave detects it from sync lineage (not clocks) and asks you to keep yours, theirs, or both (both creates a new branch). Nothing is overwritten without your choice.
Open Cloud Backup to mirror snapshots to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, a webhook, or a local/NAS folder. Sign in, flip the toggle, and every new snapshot uploads in the background. Use Browse cloud to explore and restore snapshots per game.
Google Drive uses shared built-in credentials from an app still in testing, so it can ask you to sign in again weekly. Open Use your own OAuth app under the provider and paste a Client ID from the Google Cloud console (redirect URI
http://localhost/callback) to stop that.OneDrive requires your own app registration before it works at all -- Microsoft does not allow a shared one. Selecting OneDrive shows the fields and links to the Azure portal.
Dropbox, WebDAV and a local/NAS folder need none of this.
- General — device name/type shown to peers, start-on-boot.
- Sync — auto-sync on track, bandwidth limit, relay URL, relay hosting.
- Storage — snapshot folder, pre-sync safety-backup folder, retention, extra scan folders.
- Updates — whether to be offered beta builds.
- Advanced — daemon port, cross-platform path translation rules (e.g.
rewrite
C:\Users\me\Saves→/home/deck/saves).
By default OpenSave only offers you published releases. Tick Offer me beta versions under Settings → Updates to be offered pre-releases as well, if you want to try what is coming and report on it.
If you are already running a beta, that happens automatically — you do not need to find this setting first, and you will still be offered the stable release the moment it is newer than your build. From the command line:
opensave config set update-channel beta # or stable
opensave update --check
Automatic and manual snapshots have separate allowances, so a game that saves often cannot push out a snapshot you took on purpose.
- Automatic snapshots to keep — how many of the backups taken as the game saves are kept, per branch. 0 keeps them all.
- Manual snapshots to keep — the ones you took yourself. 0 keeps them forever, and that is the default.
Both are set per game in its Configuration tab, or for newly tracked games under Settings → Snapshot history. From the command line:
opensave game <gameId> set max-snapshots 20
opensave game <gameId> set max-manual-snapshots 0 # 0 = keep forever
opensave config set snapshot-limit 20 # default for new games
opensave config set manual-snapshot-limit 0
Closing the window hides OpenSave to the system tray so syncing keeps running. Right-click the tray icon to reopen, sync all games, or quit.
- "404 Not Found" on launch — another program is using port
8383. Quit the other OpenSave (or app on that port), or change the port in Settings → Advanced. - Devices don't see each other — make sure both are on a Private network profile and OpenSave is allowed through the firewall; otherwise pair by IP.
- Cloud upload fails with "session expired" — reconnect the provider under Cloud Backup (see the Google note above).
- Steam Deck / Game Mode — a Decky Loader plugin lives in
opensave-decky-plugin/.
Still stuck, or want to ask for something? Join the OpenSave Discord → It is the quickest way to get an answer, and where new builds are discussed before they ship. Bugs are also welcome on GitHub issues.