Local save is uploaded to Steam Cloud and breaks Realm–Character links inside the Account
Summary
A local save is injected into Steam Cloud and overrides the existing cloud save. This breaks the links between Account, Realms, and Characters and makes the save unusable. Once this happens, it is impossible to recover a working save through Steam Cloud.
Description
When launching the game with Steam Cloud disabled, even if Realm and Character save files are present, the game does not take the Account into account. The Realms and Characters exist on disk, but they are not correctly linked to the Account and the save does not function.
When Steam Cloud is enabled, Steam immediately synchronizes the existing local save state to the cloud. This replaces the cloud save with the local state without asking to choose between local and cloud saves.
After this synchronization:
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The cloud contains the same local save state.
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The links between Account, Realms, and Characters are broken.
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Characters are no longer correctly associated with their Realms.
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There is no way to restore a valid save from Steam Cloud.
The issue is made worse by the fact that Steam Cloud only updates on game exit, but in this situation no corrective update is possible, as the local state is already considered the source of truth and is simply mirrored to the cloud.
Steps to reproduce
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Launch the game with Steam Cloud disabled.
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Ensure
RealmandCharacterfiles exist in the save folder. -
Observe that the Account is not correctly taken into account.
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Enable Steam Cloud.
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Launch and exit the game normally.
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Steam Cloud synchronizes the local save to the cloud.
Expected result
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The Account should be correctly recognized when valid Realm and Character files exist.
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Steam Cloud should preserve an existing cloud save or prompt the user to choose between local and cloud saves.
Actual result
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A local save is prioritized and uploaded to Steam Cloud.
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The cloud save is replaced by the local state.
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Account–Realm–Character links are broken.
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No local/cloud choice is ever presented.
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Recovery through Steam Cloud is impossible.
Question
Is there a way to force the game or Steam Cloud to use the existing Account data and correctly restore the links between my Account, Realms, and Characters, without importing or prioritizing the local save?
More specifically:
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Can Steam Cloud be forced to restore the Account → Realm → Character links from the cloud?
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Is there a supported way to prevent a local save from being uploaded to the cloud when it breaks these links?
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Is there a recovery process to rebuild the Account associations when Realm and Character files exist but are not recognized?
Additional information
This already worked once: I was able to successfully recover my Realms and Characters linked to my Account yesterday. However, without making any intentional changes, the same issue happened again today, with the local save being prioritized and synchronized to Steam Cloud once more.
This suggests an intermittent behavior or a specific condition in how the Account / local / cloud state is evaluated at launch.
This issue effectively makes the game and my save unusable. After more than 60 hours of playtime, losing access to my Realms and Characters due to a local/cloud sync issue is extremely discouraging.
Best regards
