Question Can I save games' appdata on Win10 then copy them to Win11 appdata file?

[SleuthX]

I'm doing a clean Win 11 install and formatting the windows 10 drive, can I avoid losing my games' app data or is copying them to Win11 going to cause trouble?

 

[USAFRet]

Disregarding "appdata"...what specific information are you looking to save and move to the new OS?

 

[SleuthX]

Disregarding "appdata"...what specific information are you looking to save and move to the new OS?

Games' appdata like Valorant, Fortnite, GTA V cause I heard if those don't exist on boot, the games pretty much won't open

 

[USAFRet]

Games' appdata like Valorant, Fortnite, GTA V cause I heard if those don't exist on boot, the games pretty much won't open

Not sure what you mean by that.

I was referring to things like save points or login info.

After a new OS, a reinstall of whichever games, with your same account, should load up just fine.

 

[SleuthX]

Not sure what you mean by that.

I was referring to things like save points or login info.

After a new OS, a reinstall of whichever games, with your same account, should load up just fine.

I got 250gb of internet bandwidth lol. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking

 

[USAFRet]

I got 250gb of internet bandwidth lol. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking

The game install files are almost certainly not contained in the AppData folder.

I do not believe what you are trying to do will work.
I've never tried it, but I don't think moving the AppData from a Win 10 install to a new Win 11 install will actually work.

If it were me, I'd have to try it with non-critical data, on an OS install that can be blown away and redone.

 

[SleuthX]

The game install files are almost certainly not contained in the AppData folder.

I do not believe what you are trying to do will work.
I've never tried it, but I don't think moving the AppData from a Win 10 install to a new Win 11 install will actually work.

If it were me, I'd have to try it with non-critical data, on an OS install that can be blown away and redone.

But isn't appdata necessary for the game to launch? or am I missing something?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

I think you're confusing terminology.

Are you speaking specifically about the %appdata% folder in Windows? Or are you just referring to a games' data in general?

For games, you can transfer the folder that games are installed in to your new installation, but sometimes it doesn't work well and it'll require the game's downloader, whether it be Rockstar Social Club, Steam, etc, to re-download the data that's missing. It won't be the entire game (e.g. the 100gb for GTA V), but it'll still be a couple gigs.

I just reformated my system and I was able to transfer almost everything without much issue. Steam is particularly easy to transfer to a new system.

 

[SleuthX]

I think you're confusing terminology.

Are you speaking specifically about the %appdata% folder in Windows? Or are you just referring to a games' data in general?

For games, you can transfer the folder it's installed in to your new installation, but sometimes it doesn't work well and it'll require the game's downloader, whether it be Rockstar Social Club, Steam, etc, to re-download the data that's missing. It won't be the entire game (e.g. the 100gb for GTA V), but it'll still be a couple gigs.

%appdata% folder

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Not a lot of data for games is stored in %appdata%. It's mostly stored in the install location and sometimes save data is stored in the Documents folder.

Regardless, if there is data stored in %appdata%, I don't see why you couldn't install the game on the new installation and copy over the old data.

 

[SleuthX]

Not a lot of data for games is stored in %appdata%. It's mostly stored in the install location and sometimes save data is stored in the Documents folder.

Regardless, if there is data stored in %appdata%, I don't see why you couldn't install the game on the new installation and copy over the old data.

I looked inside and it was saved settings and cache, logs, guess I'm safe then?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Should be OK, but there is no guarantee. But like USAFRet said, the critical files for running the game should not be located in the %appdata% folder, just miscellaneous things like settings like you found.

 

[stonecarver]

can I avoid losing my games' app data

If you talking about your app data game saves that get put in there yes you can save them.

The best way to re install your game saves is install windows 11, install your games. PLAY your games and at least make a save. Your windows 11 recreated your app data folders for your saves so now you just have to copy and pasted your saved saves from your windows 10 and let windows over wright the files your new game install made with that first save.