Where StarRupture saves your files on PC (and how to verify them)

StarRupture hides its save data a few folders deep in Windows, and it can also involve Steam Cloud. Knowing the exact paths makes it much easier to back up worlds, move a session to another PC, or debug cases where nothing appears under “Load Game.”

Quick answer: On a typical Steam install, StarRupture saves on PC live in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\[Your_Steam_ID]\1631270\remote\Saved\SaveGames for Steam Cloud–managed saves, and in C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\StarRupture\Saved\SaveGames for local data. A save is valid when you see matching .sav and .met files in a subfolder named exactly like your in‑game session.

StarRupture save file locations on PC (Steam)

StarRupture uses two distinct places on Windows for save data:

Scenario	Folder path	What you find there
Steam Cloud / main Steam userdata	`C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\[Your_Steam_ID]\1631270\remote\Saved\SaveGames`	Per-session folders containing `.sav` + `.met` files Steam Cloud syncs.
Local AppData	`C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\StarRupture\Saved\SaveGames`	Local session data; also used in some save-error scenarios and logs.

Both locations use the same basic structure. Under SaveGames, each session (world/profile name) has its own folder. Inside that folder you should see numbered save slots and autosaves as file pairs:

Manual saves and autosaves use .sav for the main data and a matching .met metadata file, for example 0.sav and 0.met, 1.sav and 1.met, and so on.
Autosaves also appear with names like AutoSave0.sav in the same session folder.

StarRupture supports multiple profiles, with each profile exposing up to 10 manual save slots and three autosave slots in the UI. All of those ultimately resolve to these .sav/.met pairs on disk.

How to open the StarRupture save folders

Close StarRupture before touching any save files. This prevents the game from writing while you copy, move, or rename anything.

To jump to the local AppData location, press Windows key + R, type %localappdata% and press Enter. In the window that opens, go into StarRupture → Saved → SaveGames.

To open the Steam userdata location, use File Explorer and navigate to your Steam folder, then to:


C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\[Your_Steam_ID]\1631270\remote\Saved\SaveGames

Replace [Your_Steam_ID] with the numeric folder present on your system. If you have multiple Steam accounts on the same PC, you may see multiple IDs; the correct one has StarRupture data inside 1631270.

Once you are inside SaveGames, look for a folder with the same name as your StarRupture session (for example, NewWorld or whatever custom world name you chose). That folder is what the Load Game menu expects.

How to verify that StarRupture is saving correctly

You can confirm that StarRupture is actually writing saves in a few simple checks.

In-game, open the pause menu with Esc, choose the save option, and click a manual save slot. Make sure the slot shows a timestamp or updated playtime in the UI before you exit to desktop.

After exiting the game, open the relevant SaveGames\[SessionName] folder in Windows. Check that:

New or updated .sav and .met files were written at the time you performed the save.
The filenames match the slot you used. If you saved to the first slot, that usually appears as 0.sav and 0.met inside your session folder.

Relaunch StarRupture and go to Load Game. At the top left, click on your session name (for example, “NewWorld”) to open its inner list of saves. The manual and autosave entries should line up with the files you saw in the folder.

If the session name appears but the inner list is empty while the files exist on disk, the most common cause is a mismatch in slot numbering or metadata, or the game not recognizing the folder as a valid session.

Using save files to move or restore a StarRupture session

For backups and transfers between PCs, the game expects a very particular structure. The safest approach is to let StarRupture create the session folder on the target machine, then overwrite its contents.

On the source PC, locate the session folder under either the Steam userdata path or local AppData path, depending on where your valid saves live:


C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\[Your_Steam_ID]\1631270\remote\Saved\SaveGames\[SessionName]


C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\StarRupture\Saved\SaveGames\[SessionName]

Copy the entire [SessionName] folder to a safe location (for example, an external drive or cloud storage).

On the target PC, start StarRupture, create a new session using the exact same name as the one you copied (case and spacing included), and perform a manual save. Then exit the game fully.

On the target PC, navigate to the same SaveGames path where StarRupture created the new session. You should now see a newly created folder matching your session name.

Replace the contents of the new [SessionName] folder on the target PC with the contents from the source PC’s backup, keeping the folder name itself unchanged.

This approach ensures the game and Steam have already registered the session in files like remotecache.vdf. That registration is what makes the session appear in the Load Game menu. Without it, you can have valid .sav/.met files sitting in the right place that never show up in the UI.

How to know a transferred save worked

After copying a session between folders or machines, you can confirm success through both the UI and the filesystem.

Open the StarRupture Load Game menu. Your session name should appear in the list. Click it, then check that:

The manual slot timestamps match the playtime from the source environment.
The autosave slots (often three of them) also list recent times rather than a fresh, few-minutes-old entry.

Load one of the manual saves. In-game, confirm that your base, character progress, inventory, and world state match what you expect from the original PC.

If the session appears but loads into an empty or much earlier state, the target folder may still contain mixed files from the initial dummy save. Replacing the entire contents of the session folder again, while the game is closed, usually fixes that.

Once you know these two Windows paths and how StarRupture structures session folders, you can confirm in seconds whether your progress is being written, copied correctly to a new PC, or blocked by a metadata issue. That is the level of certainty you want before investing dozens of hours into a new base on Arcadia‑7.