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https://github.com/handsomefox/eldenring-backuptool

Elden Ring Save Guard — automatic, versioned backups of vanilla Elden Ring saves, with a safe manual restore. Windows, Steam, GUI (Rust/egui).
https://github.com/handsomefox/eldenring-backuptool

backup-tool egui elden-ring eldenring gui rust save-backup steam windows

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Elden Ring Save Guard — automatic, versioned backups of vanilla Elden Ring saves, with a safe manual restore. Windows, Steam, GUI (Rust/egui).

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README 

          
# Elden Ring Save Guard



Automatic, versioned backups of your **vanilla Elden Ring** save — created quietly in the

background every time you play, so you always have a known-good save to fall back on.



## What this program does



Every time you launch Elden Ring through Steam, Save Guard makes a verified copy of your save

before you play, again whenever the save changes while you play, and once more after you quit.

Each copy is a separate, timestamped snapshot kept on your own PC. If your save is ever ruined,

you can copy an older snapshot back.



## Why it exists



- **Malicious multiplayer users** have been reported altering or ruining other players' saves —

  forcing boss deaths, pushing story progression, triggering cutscenes, teleporting characters,

  unlocking achievements, or leaving world state broken.

- **Ordinary problems** — crashes, power loss, disk errors — can corrupt or truncate a save too.

- **Steam Cloud is synchronization, not backup history.** If your save is damaged, the damaged

  version can simply become the newest copy that syncs everywhere. There is no built-in "go back

  a few versions" button.



Save Guard **cannot stop an attack or corruption from happening during a session** — nothing on

your PC can. What it does is keep a history of good saves so you can recover afterward.



## Supported



- Windows 10 and Windows 11

- The **Steam** version of Elden Ring

- **Vanilla** saves (`ER0000.sl2` and its `.sl2.bak`)

- **Not** supported in this release: Seamless Co-op `.co2` saves

- **No administrator rights required**



It does **not** modify the game, inject code, read game memory, or interfere with Easy

Anti-Cheat. It only reads and copies your save files. See [SAFETY.md](SAFETY.md).



## Install



1. Download the latest release ZIP and extract it to a **permanent location** you won't move

   later — e.g. `C:\Tools\EldenRingSaveGuard\`, not your Downloads or a temp folder. The Steam

   launch option points at this exact path (see step 6); if you move, rename, or delete the

   folder afterward, **Elden Ring will fail to launch** until you fix it. If you do move it, just

   re-copy the launch option from the Help tab and paste the new one into Steam.

2. Run **`Elden Ring Backuptool.exe`**.

3. On the **Dashboard**, pick the Steam account (save folder) you want to protect. If you only

   have one, it's already selected.

4. Optionally change the backup destination on the **Settings** tab.

5. Open the **Help** tab and click **Copy launch option**.

6. In Steam: **Elden Ring → Properties → General → Launch Options**, and paste it there.

7. Launch Elden Ring normally. Backups now happen automatically.



The launch option looks like this (your path will differ):



```

"C:\Users\You\Desktop\eldenring-backuptool\Elden Ring Backuptool.exe" --monitor %command%

```



`%command%` is Steam's own launch command — it is passed through untouched, so Easy Anti-Cheat

and online play work exactly as before.



## Confirming it works



On the **Dashboard** you'll see the selected account, the save file and its size, the backup

destination, how many snapshots are stored, and when the last backup happened. After you play a

session (or press **Back up now**), the status turns to **Protected — backups exist**.



## Multiple Steam accounts



`%APPDATA%\EldenRing` can contain several numbered folders (multiple Steam accounts, Family

Sharing, old copies, another person on the same PC). Save Guard lists the ones that actually

contain a save and lets you choose which to protect. It does **not** blindly back up every

folder, and it does **not** guess based only on which was modified most recently. Switching the

selected account never merges or deletes another account's snapshots.



## Restoring a save (manual)



Restore is done by hand, so you stay in full control:



1. **Fully close Elden Ring**, and preferably **exit Steam completely**.

2. In the app, open the **Backups** tab, choose a snapshot, and click **Open** to reveal its

   folder in Explorer.

3. Double-click **`save.zip`** (Windows opens it like a folder) and copy the `.sl2` file (and

   `.sl2.bak` if present) into your save folder (`%APPDATA%\EldenRing\\`), replacing the

   current files.

4. Reopen Steam. **If Steam Cloud reports a conflict, choose the LOCAL copy** — the one you just

   restored — rather than the newer cloud version. (The exact wording of the conflict prompt

   varies between Steam versions; pick the option that keeps your **local** files.)



## Backup location



Default: `Documents\Game Save Backups\Elden Ring\\snapshots\`. You can change it on

the **Settings** tab. Each snapshot folder is named by date and time and contains `save.zip` (the

compressed save files — Elden Ring saves are mostly empty space and shrink roughly 15–20×) plus a

   small `metadata.json` with hashes for both the original saves and the complete archive. Existing

   snapshots are rechecked before they are displayed, used for deduplication, or pruned.



## Uninstalling



1. In Steam, open **Elden Ring → Properties → General → Launch Options** and **clear the field**

   first. (If you delete the app before clearing this, Steam will try to run a missing file and

   the game won't launch.)

2. Delete the extracted application folder.

3. Your backups are kept. To remove them, delete the backup destination folder yourself.

4. Optional: delete `%LOCALAPPDATA%\EldenRingSaveGuard\` to remove settings and logs.



## Limitations



- It does **not** prevent cheating or corruption — it gives you recovery points.

- It **cannot** undo Steam achievements that have already synced to your account.

- Only the **one** account (SteamID64) you selected is backed up.

- Vanilla only; Seamless Co-op `.co2` saves are not handled.

- Backups use local disk space — keep an eye on free space for large snapshot counts.

- A snapshot taken **after** a malicious change will itself contain that change, so keep older

  snapshots around; don't rely only on the newest one.

- The background monitor reports exit code 0 for the game session (it detects the game by process

  name and can't recover the game's real exit code). This does not affect Steam or the game.



## Development



Requires Rust 1.97.1 (edition 2024, pinned in CI). This repo cross-builds Windows binaries from Linux with

[`cargo-xwin`](https://github.com/rust-cross/cargo-xwin); on Windows you can use the normal

MSVC target.



```sh

# Portable core: builds and tests on any OS, no GUI/X11 needed

cargo test --lib --no-default-features

cargo clippy --lib --no-default-features -- -D warnings

cargo fmt --check



# Full Windows build (from Linux)

cargo xwin build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

# ...or on Windows

cargo build --release

```



Project layout (single package, two targets):



- `src/lib.rs` — portable core (`config`, `discovery`, `snapshot`, `retention`, `launch`,

  `paths`, `monitor`, `platform`, `logging`). Contains all the unit tests.

- `src/main.rs` — dispatches GUI vs `--monitor`.

- `src/gui.rs` — the egui dashboard (behind the `gui` feature so core tests stay GUI-free).



## License



MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).