Enshrouded: Missing Character Save Location

If Steam Cloud is not enabled, your Enshrouded character save files are not kept in the Steam userdata folder — they live in a different location on your PC. Enshrouded stores its character data in the game's own save directory under your Windows user profile, separate from the cloud-synced path. That means if you are looking in the usual Steam Cloud location and cannot find your character, the save is almost certainly sitting in the local, non-cloud folder instead. To locate it, go to your Windows user folder and open the AppData folder, then navigate into the Enshrouded save directory. Because AppData is a hidden folder on most Windows installations, you may need to enable hidden items in File Explorer before you can see it. Once inside, you will find the character save files that the game writes when Steam Cloud is turned off. This distinction matters whenever you want to back up a character, move it to another machine, restore an older version, or troubleshoot a missing character after a crash or reinstall. If Steam Cloud is enabled, the game may instead use the Steam userdata path, so the two locations are not the same and a save stored in one will not appear in the other.

Where the files are stored

• Steam Cloud disabled: the save files are placed in a separate folder in the game's local save directory, not in Steam's cloud storage path.
• Steam Cloud enabled: the save may be handled through Steam's userdata cloud folder, which is a different location from the local one.

The key point is that “missing character” usually means you are searching the wrong folder — the cloud path instead of the local one, or vice versa, depending on whether Steam Cloud is active.

How to find the local save location

1. Close Enshrouded completely so the game is not writing to the save files while you look for them.
2. Open File Explorer and enable viewing of hidden files and folders, because the AppData directory is hidden by default.
3. Go to your Windows user profile folder and open the AppData folder.
4. Inside AppData, look through the local application data directory for the Enshrouded folder.
5. Open the Enshrouded folder and locate the character save files.

What to check before copying or moving saves

• Confirm whether Steam Cloud is currently enabled for Enshrouded in Steam, because that determines which folder the game reads from.
• If Steam Cloud is on, disabling it may cause the game to use the local folder instead, which can make an existing local character appear again.
• If Steam Cloud is off, the local folder is the authoritative location, so any backup or restore should be done there.
• Make a copy of the character files before changing anything, so you keep a fallback if a restore does not go as expected.

Restoring a missing character

1. Decide whether you want the character to come from the local folder or from Steam Cloud, since the two are mutually exclusive in practice.
2. If you want the local version, make sure the files are present in the local Enshrouded save folder.
3. If you want the cloud version, make sure Steam Cloud is enabled and let Steam sync the data.
4. Launch the game and check the character select screen to verify the save is recognized.

Common pitfalls

• Looking only in the Steam userdata folder when Steam Cloud is disabled — the files will not be there.
• Looking only in the local folder when Steam Cloud is enabled and has overwritten or replaced the local copy.
• Forgetting to enable hidden folders, which makes the AppData path appear to be missing entirely.
• Editing or deleting files while the game is running, which can corrupt the save.

Quick reference

Always match your search location to your Steam Cloud setting. If Steam Cloud is not enabled, check the separate local folder in AppData rather than the Steam cloud directory.