Alexis Kestler
Finding where your Stardew Valley save files are located is one of the most important things any farmer needs to know. Your save data contains everything about your precious farm – all your hard work, relationships, museum collections, and more!
Losing access to your save files can be devastating. But thankfully, it’s easy to find and back up your Stardew Valley saves with just a few simple steps.
In this complete guide, you’ll learn:
- How to locate your Stardew Valley save file location on PC
- What‘s included in the save files and how to back them up
- How to restore previous save file versions
- Save file tips for mods, editing, and troubleshooting
Follow along below to become a Stardew Valley save file expert!
Why You Need to Know the Stardew Valley Save Location
Let‘s start by looking at why it‘s so important to know where your Stardew Valley save files are and how to manage them properly:
Safeguard Your Hard Work and Progress
You‘ve spent countless hours building up your farm, maximizing your profits, collecting every artifact, befriending every villager, and completing every achievement. Just imagining losing all that progress is scary!
By regularly backing up your save files, you ensure you‘ll never lose your hard work. You can get back to farming in no time if you restore a backup.
Restore Previous Saves If Anything Goes Wrong
Unfortunately, save files can become corrupted or simply vanish sometimes. Maybe a mod causes conflict, you accidentally delete a save, or the game crashes and wipes data.
With backups of your save files, you can easily restore a previous working version of your farm if disaster strikes in the current save.
Safely Install Mods Without Risk
Mods let you customize and expand Stardew Valley in amazing ways, but they also carry risk. Mods can potentially corrupt saves or cause crashes.
By backing up your vanilla save files first, you can try out mods safely. If anything goes wrong, you can delete the mods and restore your original saves.
Edit Saves for Fun and Convenience
Sure, you could spend hours mining to get enough gold to upgrade tools…or you could edit your save to add 1 million gold instantly!
Editing save files lets you add money, items, unlock areas early, and make other changes to customize your experience.
How to Find Your Stardew Valley Save File Location
Ready to locate your Stardew Valley saves? Follow these steps:
Step 1) Open the Run Dialog
Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box. Here you can directly open folders by their directory path.
Step 2) Type %appdata% and Hit Enter
In the Run box, type in %appdata% and press Enter. This will take you directly to the Application Data folder containing your saves.
Step 3) Navigate to StardewValley > Saves
Inside AppData > Roaming, look for the folder named StardewValley. Open it up.
Then, open the Saves folder inside Stardew Valley. This is where your save files are stored!
It‘s that easy! Now let‘s look at what you‘ll find inside the Saves folder.
Inside Your Stardew Valley Saves Folder
When you open your Saves folder, you‘ll see:
- Individual save folders – Each folder is named after your farmer from that save. The numbers indicate playtime.
- SaveGameInfo – This file stores metadata about your save games.
To back up a particular save, copy the folder with your farmer‘s name on it. For example, copy the folder FarmFanClair_123456 to save that specific save file.
What Gets Saved in Your File?
Your save file contains everything about your current progress in Stardew Valley, including:
- Your farm layout and all buildings/decorations
- Inventory items, money, and wallet balance
- Relationship status with NPCs
- Locations explored on map
- Museum and achievements progress
- Character stats and skill levels
- Quest status and history
- Game settings and configuration
How to Back Up Stardew Valley Saves
Now that you know where your save files live, here‘s exactly how to back them up:
Back Up Everything
To backup your entire Stardew Valley data:
- Copy the entire Saves folder to a safe location like an external drive or cloud storage.
- To restore later, copy the folder back into %appdata%\StardewValley, overwriting the existing Saves folder.
Back Up Individual Saves
To backup only specific save files:
- Open your current Saves folder.
- Copy the individual save folders you want to back up.
- Paste the save folders in a safe location.
- To restore, copy the saves back into the current Saves folder.
I recommend backing up your saves every few in-game days or before installing mods. Better safe than sorry!
How to Restore Older Save Files
If you need to restore an older version of a save, it‘s super easy:
- Copy the old save file from your backup location.
- Paste it into your current Saves folder, overwriting the existing copy.
- Boot up Stardew Valley and load the save you restored.
Your farm will be right back to its previous state! This lets you undo changes if a save gets corrupted or ruined.
Save File Locations for Other Platforms
Wondering about save files on other platforms? Here‘s where to find them:
Mac Save Location
Instead of %appdata%, open your user‘s Application Support folder, then follow the same steps:
User/YourName/Application Support/StardewValley/Saves
Linux Save Location
On Linux, your saves will be under your user‘s Home folder:
Home/YourUser/.config/StardewValley/Saves
Android and iOS Saves
Mobile version saves are managed by your device‘s cloud syncing. But you can find local copies in:
Android – /SD Card/Android/data/Stardew Valley/files/Saves
iOS – Applications/Stardew Valley/Documents/Saves
Nintendo Switch Save Data
Your Switch saves are tied to your user profile and can‘t be directly accessed. For backup, you‘ll need the full user backup via Nintendo‘s online services.
Advanced Stardew Valley Save File Tips
Now that you‘re a save file expert, here are some bonus tips for managing your game data:
Handle Save Files Carefully to Avoid Corruption
Avoid crashing, force quitting, or shutting down Stardew Valley while it‘s saving to reduce corruption chances. Also be careful adding mods or editing saves manually.
Use Multiple Save Slots
Rotate across multiple save slots instead of overwriting the same one. This gives you backups built-in if a save gets corrupted.
open backups from Multiple Sessions
When backing up, save copies of your Saves folder from different days. This lets you restore to various time points.
Cloud Storage Offers Remote Backups
For an extra layer of protection, upload your backup saves to cloud storage like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
Mods Can Extend Functionality
Mods like Save Backup let you manage saves and backups within the game for convenience.
But make sure to backup your original saves before installing any mods!
Keep Your Farm Safe with Save File Mastery
Well friend, now you have all the knowledge needed to expertly manage your Stardew Valley saves!
Knowing the save location lets you backup saves, restore old versions, install mods, and edit game files for fun and convenience.
No Stardew farmer should be without regular save backups. Follow this guide to learn the save file location on PC or Mac. Now go keep your farms thriving and disaster-proof!
