This is community software, and it is very new, so back up your saves before you try it. A free, unofficial launcher called Carryover can keep non-Steam game saves in sync between a PC and a Steam Deck using your own cloud storage, rather than Steam Cloud. It was shared on r/SteamDeck by u/Heavy-Blacksmith-620, and the code is on GitHub at akfaiz/carryover under an MIT licence. The repository was created on 10 November 2026, and I have not tried it myself yet, so we will be trying it rather than vouching for it.
The problem it is aiming at
Steam Cloud already covers a lot of Steam games, but it does nothing for titles you play through Epic, GOG, Amazon, a heroic-style installer, or an emulator. Those saves usually live in a different folder on each machine, and it is easy to overwrite a newer file if you copy them by hand. Carryover’s pitch is that you point both devices at the same cloud folder you already use, then let the launcher pull the latest saves before you play and push them when you quit. That includes starting the game from Steam Game Mode, through a non-Steam shortcut.
The README says it works on Windows and Linux, including the Steam Deck. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV (including Nextcloud, ownCloud and a NAS), SFTP and SMB are all listed, and rclone is built in, so you do not install a separate sync tool. Every device has to use the same remote and the same folder.
How the sync actually works
Each game gets one copy of its saves in the cloud. On each device, you map that to the local folder that game actually uses, which can be a Windows AppData path on the PC and a Proton or Heroic folder on the Deck. Before a session, Carryover compares your local files, the cloud copy, and the last successful sync. If only the cloud is newer, it pulls. If only the local files have changed, it pushes. If both have changed and they differ, it stops and asks which side to keep, and the side about to be overwritten is backed up first. A save folder that has gone missing or been emptied is treated as a conflict, not as “delete everything”.
After you quit, the new local saves are pushed and the cloud lock is released. Only files that actually changed are transferred, compared by size and checksum. You can also press Sync now, and there is a Trash page that holds a deleted game or emulator for 30 days. If you play a game outside Carryover, the launcher can notice those files have changed when it is opened again and mark the game as not uploaded yet, so you are not left thinking everything is already in the cloud.
One warning from the README is easy to miss and worth repeating. If you add a Steam shortcut, quit from the game’s own menu, not with Steam’s “Exit game”. Steam’s Exit game can close Carryover at the same time as the game, so the new saves never get uploaded. If that happens, you need to sync that game before you play it on the other device, either with Sync now or by starting it again on the same machine.
Game Mode, Heroic, emulators and suggested save folders
“Add to Steam” creates a non-Steam shortcut that runs Carryover around the game, so the same pull-then-push cycle happens in Game Mode. The prompts before a game starts, including conflict choices and “played on another device”, are described as working with a controller, with the safe answer focused first. For games installed by Heroic, the README says you should pick the Heroic launch mode and keep Heroic’s own prefix, because a Proton shortcut would give those games a new, empty one. Carryover then starts the game the way Heroic’s own “Add to Steam” would, and waits for it to exit. If you already use something like our NonSteamLaunchers guide to get Epic or GOG games onto the Deck, this is aimed at the save-sync half of that setup, not at replacing the launcher install itself.
Emulators are set up once per device, then a game can use more than one of them. Each emulator keeps its own cloud saves, so they do not get mixed, and the same emulator on another device shares them. The README mentions examples such as Eden and Ryujinx. Choosing a ROM can suggest the game’s name and save folders, using a separate emulator manifest.
For PC games, the project says it can suggest known save folders for about 21,000 games, based on the Ludusavi manifest, and then translate those paths for each device: Windows folders on a PC, and the Proton prefix or native Linux folders on a Steam Deck. Folders that already hold saves are shown first, and on Linux it also searches the Wine prefixes used by Heroic, Lutris and Bottles, including those on a microSD card. I checked the current Ludusavi manifest, and just over 22,000 games in it have file locations listed, so that “about 21,000” figure is in the right ballpark. It is still a suggestion list, not a guarantee that every path is perfect.
How to install it on Steam Deck and Windows
The latest version, as of 13 November 2026, is 0.2.0, from the GitHub releases page. On the Deck or another Linux PC, you download the Linux AppImage, rename it to carryover.AppImage, make it executable, and run it. The README suggests putting it in a folder you will not move, for example ~/Applications on the Deck, because Steam shortcuts point at that exact path. Run it from Desktop Mode the first time. There is also a Linux tarball with an install script if you prefer that. On Windows, you download the exe, rename it to carryover.exe and run it. There is no installer. Windows may show a SmartScreen warning on first run because the exe is not code-signed yet; the README says you choose More info, then Run anyway.
On each device, you add your cloud storage, confirm both machines are using the same remote and folder, then add a game and set how it starts and where its saves live on that device. After that you can press Play in the launcher, or use Add to Steam and start it from Game Mode. On the second device, the game shows up as “needs setup” until you set its local save folder, and then the saves should follow you. To update later, you download the new file and rename it over the old one, so existing Steam shortcuts keep working.
New enough that you should treat it carefully
I like the idea a lot, especially for Deck, SteamOS and Steam Machine owners who bounce between a Windows PC and a handheld or living-room box with games Steam Cloud does not cover. The README itself only names Windows, Linux and the Steam Deck, so a Steam Machine would be using the Linux build, and I have not tried that. I have not tried the Deck AppImage either. This project is days old, it moves your save files, and a bad sync is the sort of thing you only want to discover after you already have a backup. Use the project’s own backup options if you like, but make a copy of the important saves first.
If you want to try it, start with the r/SteamDeck post and the GitHub README, and follow the install steps there. Thanks to u/Heavy-Blacksmith-620 for sharing it, and to the r/SteamDeck community for picking it up. We will be trying it, and I will update this if we can confirm how it behaves on a Deck with a real Epic, GOG or emulator library.
