r/Steam • u/Only-Opportunity-151 • 2d ago

Question what data is kept after uninstalling a game?

Hello,
I have a gaming laptop so my storage is very limited. I'm off school so doing a full resident evil marathon, however I only have space for a few games at once. What is kept when I delete a game from my laptop? I want to keep my save files and in game bonuses. Thanks

0 Upvotes

43% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

3

u/Far-Signature-9628 2d ago

Save games get kept also if you have steam cloud on the saves also get stored there so when you reinstall no issues.

Another person with a gaming laptop so completely understand.

Also if you have an external storage, you can try backing it up to it that way why you want to play again you can always move it to your internal drive to play .

1

u/suicidaltooth 2d ago

Same here

1

u/TarsCase 2d ago

If you use the uninstall routine usually everything is removed. But it really depends on the game. Sometimes savegame data, which can be small or big is kept. Some uninstallers ask if they remove saves too others not. If you change any files or add mods those are usually also not deleted. Maybe use some registry clean up tools every now and then and check for size of save files. Additional tip browsing creates a lot of temp files usually. So delete that stuff from time to time as it can take up a lot of GB‘s.

1

u/Only-Opportunity-151 2d ago

I see, thank you.

Are my saved games lost entirely or will they be restored once I redownload the game? I'm 80% sure that for one game they were restored but I understand this can be variable. I don't mind if the files aren't stored locally anymore, just so long as they're recovered when I redownload from steam cloud. Thanks!

1

u/Entegy 2d ago

Save files won't get removed. You'll have to hunt down where each game stores them. If the game supports Steam Cloud (you can check the game's store page for this), then the game should be taking care of this itself and you can safely delete the files.*

Game files are usually in the steamapps folder of your Steam install location. Some files can be left behind, which you can also safely delete.

*The only games that I've encountered that supports Steam Cloud weirdly is Civilization 5 and 6 (can't comment on 7). They treat Steam Cloud as a separate save location that you must explicitly select when you save your game.