Save files gone

[mistermeow]

When updating factorio to the latest experimental release (2.1.13) all my save data from after 2021 seems to be gone. I'm pretty sure what happened is that the data from my steam copy, which I haven't used in years, got pasted onto my (site-purchased) copy. Does anyone know how this can happen and is there any way I might be able to get these worlds back?

[mistermeow]

I got them back because steam cloud somehow synced with my site-bought copy, so I really dodged a bullet with that one. I should really learn to use backups in games where I use experimental settings!

[mistermeow]

I still do not know how three years of gameplay just vanished from the game though.

[eugenekay]

The Factorio.com “Installer” defaults to using the %appdata%/Factorio/ folder as the User data directory; the same place as the Steam version. It sounds like Steam Sync merged your saves by uploading them, deleting them locally, and then downloading them again.

I prefer to use the “Zip” package for non-Steam-synced games. It saves User data to the folder it is unzipped to; very nicely self-contained!