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SyncSave for Linux & Steam Deck

Sync your game saves flawlessly between your Windows gaming rig and your Linux Steam Deck over local Wi-Fi or secure internet relays.

🐧 Linux builds are fully supported! SyncSave features cross-platform path translation rules mapping Windows user profile save locations to Linux home paths automatically. Follow the guides below to get up and running.

📥 Download Linux Builds

Choose the archive type that fits your distribution. For the Steam Deck (SteamOS), the .tar.gz package is highly recommended.

RECOMMENDED

Tarball Archive (.tar.gz)

Highly optimized archive. Native Unix file permission preservation makes this ideal for SteamOS/Steam Deck.

📥 Download .tar.gz (v1.1.3)
STANDALONE

Zip Archive (.zip)

Standard zip format bundle containing all necessary execution assets. Run chmod on the executable after extraction.

📥 Download .zip (v1.1.3)

🎮 Steam Deck Desktop Mode Setup

Setting up SyncSave on SteamOS takes less than 2 minutes in Desktop Mode:

  1. Press the Steam button on your Steam Deck, select Power > Switch to Desktop.
  2. Open your web browser (e.g. Firefox) on the Deck, navigate to this page, and download the syncsave-1.1.3.tar.gz archive.
  3. Open Dolphin (file manager), go to your Downloads folder, right-click the tarball and select Extract > Extract archive here.
  4. Move the extracted syncsave folder to a safe long-term directory on your internal drive (for example: /home/deck/Applications/syncsave).
  5. Open **Steam** in Desktop Mode, click Add a Game in the bottom-left corner, and select Add a Non-Steam Game....
  6. Click Browse, navigate to your syncsave folder, select the main SyncSave binary (or SyncSave shortcut launcher), and click Add Selected Programs.

📡 Launching in Gaming Mode

To keep synchronization active in Gaming Mode (Gaming UI) while playing games:

  • Return to Gaming Mode by clicking the **Return to Gaming Mode** shortcut on the Desktop.
  • In your Steam Library, navigate to the Non-Steam category, select **SyncSave**, and click **Play**.
  • Controller Layout: Since SyncSave has a browser-based dashboard interface, click the Controller icon next to the Play button, and change the layout template to **Web Browser** or **Mouse and Keyboard** to navigate easily using the trackpads.
  • The interface will open up inside Steam. Configure your room codes under **Internet Sync** or pair locally. Once configured, you can exit the dashboard. The background daemon service will remain active in the system tray, monitoring save directories and executing syncs silently in the background while you play!

💻 Desktop Linux Configuration

For standard Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc.):

  • Extract the tarball or zip bundle in your home applications path.
  • Make sure the main execution files are marked executable. In a terminal: 
    cd /path/to/extracted/syncsave
chmod +x SyncSave bin/syncsave.js
  • Launch the application to run the background service. Right-click the system tray icon to open the Dashboard, or navigate to http://localhost:8383 in your web browser.
  • To configure autostart on system boot, add the application to your Desktop Environment's startup applications manager.

📂 Seamless Path Mappings & Translations

SyncSave translates user directories automatically. For example, if you track a game save on Windows at:

C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\GameTitle

SyncSave will translate it on your Steam Deck to:

/home/deck/Documents/My Games/GameTitle
🛠️
Custom Mappings (Protip): For emulators (such as Yuzu, Ryujinx, RPCS3) or games utilizing prefix structures (Proton prefixes under compatdata), you can set up custom translation paths inside **Settings** > **Custom Path Translations** (e.g. mapping Windows directories to customized Deck subdirectories) to sync folders of any structure.

Need help or want to compile from source?

SyncSave is free, open-source under MIT. Explore the code or compile binaries on GitHub.

⭐ Visit Github Repository