How to delete all game data from Steam

[Panzerknacker]

So what I'm trying to do is completely reset the game to default (settings, achievements, tips & tricks, blueprints, HUD, everything) but no matter how often I delete or overwrite the userdata directory it keeps fetching these things from Steam, even in offline mode without a active internet connection.

In a non-steam installation of the game this works flawless of course but there is stuff in the Steam cloud or cache that keeps re-appearing. Besides resetting I also want to upload respective data from a local save to Steam cloud.

Is this even possible and how do I proceed?

[BraveCaperCat]

Steam shouldn't be doing this in the first place. When you remove the files, steam should detect that they are gone and will ask you if you want to put the out of date steam cloud files back, or if you want to replace the steam cloud files with the more recent local ones.

[Panzerknacker]

I agree with you, I don't like Steam's behaviour regarding this. But it does what it does, hence my question.

And while it is possible to delete the actual savegames from Steam by deleting the save folder while the game is running (it will sync the 'no saves' to the cloud when you exit the game), this is not true for the other stuff I mentioned, it will keep re-appearing.

[Tertius]

You can disable Steam cloud for Factorio in the Steam properties of Factorio. Then remove everything locally (don't forget to delete "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\(your steam id)\427520"). Then reinstall Factorio and start at least one map to let Factorio create everything (It doesn't create an empty blueprint file, if you don't actually start a game).

However, I don't know if you enable Steam cloud after that again. Even if the existing files stay in the cloud, they should be probably overwritten by the local files, because these files all have a newer timestamps.

By the way, to see what's in your Steam cloud, check this: https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

[FuryoftheStars]

By the way, to see what's in your Steam cloud, check this: https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

Hey, that's nifty. Wish they'd give you a way to dump it all from there, too. :/

[Tertius]

I guess too much grieving potential. Be happy this secret link is available at all - I have that direct link bookmarked but I'm unable to find it anywhere in my account settings.

[FuryoftheStars]

I guess too much grieving potential.

From what? Account being hacked? I'd think people's saved credit cards would be far, far worse....

[Tertius]

I envision support questions like this: "I deleted my Steam saves of <favorite game> because I installed fresh, but now all saves on all my other devices are gone! Gaaah! My precious save on <that other computer> is destroyed! How can I restore that?"

Don't give players too much freedom with what he can do. He will use this against himself.

[Panzerknacker]

Well thanks for your help, I managed to get done what I wanted like this:

I had to indeed delete the .factorio folder inside the home directory, AND also the .local/share/Steam/userdata/<number>/427520 directory, all after disabling cloud sync.

Then I started the game and was greeted with a 'Could not find user profile, progress most likely lost' or something like that message.

After that I had to restore my backup to the .factorio folder AND also the achievements.dat and player-data.json to the .local/share/Steam/userdata/<number>/427520 directory. Then I enabled cloud saves again and it let me choose wether I wanted to keep the data in the cloud or the local data. I selected local data of course and now the game works with the right data which is also in the cloud now. It also unlocked my achievements as Steam achievements which I had not expected.

Not really user-friendly and rather messy how this works but at least it's fixed now.