How to Get Steam Cloud to Work on a Mac

By Chris Hoffman

Steam runs on Mac OS X and Windows.
i Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Steam Cloud synchronizes your progress in games across all your computers. You can even start playing on Windows and switch to your Mac to continue if you’re using a game that supports cross-platform save files. Only certain games support Steam Cloud and not every game that does uses cross-platform save files. For example, games using Valve’s source engine have cross-platform saves, but some third-party games, including Torchlight, have saves that are incompatible across platforms.

Step 1

Enable Steam Cloud and check this in Steam’s settings window. Click the “Steam” menu at the top of your screen while in Steam, select “Settings” and click the “Downloads + Cloud” tab at the top of the settings window to access the option. Click the “Enable Steam Cloud Synchronization for Games Which Support It” check box at the bottom of the window and click “OK” to enable Steam Cloud if it’s disabled.

Step 2

Check that Steam Cloud is enabled for the specific game by right-clicking the game’s name in your Steam library and selecting “Properties.” Click the “Updates” tab at the top of the properties window that appears and click the “Enable Steam Cloud Synchronization for [Game Name]” check box to enable Steam Cloud for the game if it’s disabled. If you don’t see the check box, the game doesn’t include Steam Cloud support.

Step 3

Ensure that Steam Cloud is enabled on your other Windows or Mac OS X computers by repeating these processes on each computer. Save games won’t synchronize if Steam Cloud is disabled in Steam or for a specific game.

Step 4

Set Steam to online mode on all your computers by clicking the “Steam” menu and selecting “Go Online.” Steam Cloud won’t synchronize your game data over the Internet if Steam’s running in offline mode.

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