Cloud gaming save games: how your progress moves between the cloud and your PC

When you play through GeForce NOW, Boosteroid or Xbox Cloud Gaming, your progress usually isn’t stored by the cloud service itself. It’s held by the cloud of the store or platform the game comes from: Steam Cloud, Epic, GOG, EA app or Xbox. The service simply loads it and saves it again when you’re done. Here’s how that works on each service, what to switch on in Steam and Epic, how to handle save conflicts and what to check before you move from the cloud to your own PC. Everything here is accurate as of 19 October 2026.

GeForce NOW: the store’s cloud keeps your progress

According to NVIDIA, cloud saves in supported games let you pick up where you left off on any supported device. Start on one screen, finish on another. NVIDIA’s own example is Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 from GOG, both of which support cloud saves.

In practice, cloud saving has to be enabled in the store you stream the game from, and the game has to support it. If it doesn’t, your progress won’t travel from NVIDIA’s servers to your PC on its own. Which stores GFN supports is covered in games on GFN.

Paid members also keep their in-game graphics settings between sessions, so you don’t have to set them up every time.

Install-to-Play: Steam Cloud or persistent storage

Install-to-Play is the mode where you install a Steam game yourself at the start of each session. It’s only available on Performance and Ultimate and is explained in detail in our Install-to-Play guide. One rule applies to saves:

• The game supports Steam Cloud: your progress carries over to the next sessions, even without persistent storage.
• The game doesn’t support Steam Cloud: neither the installation nor your progress is saved automatically. You need persistent cloud storage, a paid add-on with 200 GB, 500 GB or 1 TB.

Watch out for one trap: changing your persistent storage location deletes all saved Install-to-Play game data.

Boosteroid: platform clouds, otherwise its own storage

According to Boosteroid’s help centre, if a game supports cloud saves, your progress lives in the cloud of the distribution platform (Steam, Epic, Xbox). For games without cloud saving, Boosteroid stores the game data itself and restores it at the start of your next session. The service as a whole is covered in our Boosteroid article.

For the sync to happen, Boosteroid recommends this order:

1. Exit the game with the in-game quit option.
2. Wait until the desktop appears.
3. Only then end the session.

Cloud saving should be on in Steam, Epic and the EA app, which is usually the default. Demos and trial versions don’t support cloud saves. If Boosteroid shows a Cloud Sync Conflict window, its help centre says to choose “download to this machine”. That advice applies to Boosteroid’s servers, not to every conflict in general (more on that below).

Boosteroid also has its own guide for the EA app: My Game Library, right-click the game, Game Properties, the CLOUD SAVES tab and “Enable cloud saves for all”. After playing, save, then close both the game and the EA app. This is Boosteroid’s guide, not EA’s.

Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox on PC

For Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft promises that your progress, saves and add-ons come with you wherever you play. According to Microsoft’s developer documentation, a game saves locally first and syncs to the cloud once it’s online. After syncing, the save is available on every supported device. Xbox Play Anywhere games share progress across Xbox consoles, Windows PCs and handhelds.

According to Thurrott, Xbox consoles upload saves to the cloud with a delay. If you start the game somewhere else first, it asks whether to load the local save or wait for the sync. Cloud saving is paused during Quick Resume, and the Xbox app on PC shows the sync status for Play Anywhere games. How to get started with Xbox Cloud Gaming is covered in getting started.

How to turn on cloud saves in Steam and Epic

Steam Cloud

You can tell a game uses Steam Cloud by the Steam Cloud logo on its Steam store page. Games can store settings, saves and stats in Steam Cloud, but the developer decides exactly what goes there.

1. For one game: Library, right-click the game, Properties…, the General tab and the Cloud Synchronization toggle.
2. For all games: Settings, Cloud and “Enable Steam Cloud Sync for applications that support it”.

If you turn the cloud off, your progress stays only on the computer you played on.

Epic Games Launcher

1. Click the settings icon in the top right and choose Settings.
2. Tick Enable Cloud Saves.
3. In the Early Preview version of the launcher: Epic logo in the top left, Settings, General and Cloud Saves.

Epic’s help page warns that switching cloud saves off and on while playing on several machines can cause a conflict.

Conflicts and lost saves

Steam shows a conflict window when the files on your disk differ from those in the cloud. In general, Steam Support recommends picking the most recently modified version and checking the dates and times of both before you confirm.

• Offline Mode: playing offline prevents syncing and is very likely to cause a conflict.
• Play game without syncing: if Steam can’t sync and you choose play game anyway, you risk a conflict and lost progress.
• Recovery: Steam Support can’t restore lost saves.
• Games without Steam Cloud: many games don’t use it for saves. Without access to the old computer, those saves can’t be recovered.

If GFN has trouble signing in or launching a game, see our troubleshooting guide.

Online games: progress on your account

In some online games it isn’t about a save file at all, it’s about your account. Fortnite is the example: progress carries over through your Epic account, so GeForce NOW has to be linked to the same Epic account you use on other platforms. How to link an Xbox account in GFN is explained in our PC Game Pass guide, and streaming Fortnite is covered in Fortnite cloud gaming.

Checklist before moving from the cloud to your PC

1. Check for the Steam Cloud logo on the game’s Steam page, or for cloud save support in other stores.
2. Make sure cloud saves are on in the store (Steam, Epic, EA app) and in the game.
3. In the cloud, quit the game normally from inside it and let the sync finish before you close the session.
4. On your PC, sign in with the same store account you used in the cloud.
5. If there’s a conflict, compare dates and times and pick the newest version.
6. For Install-to-Play games without Steam Cloud, remember that progress isn’t saved without persistent storage.

Join our Discord if your progress doesn’t line up between the cloud and your PC: GamersTogether Discord.

FAQ

Information verified on 19 October 2026. More streaming guides are waiting in our Cloud gaming section.