Change Save Game Folder

Overview

By default, No Man's Sky stores Save Game data in C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\HelloGames\NMS (%appdata%\HelloGames\NMS) shared by all versions, which can cause conflicts and loss of data when switching between different versions of No Man's Sky.

SmartSaveFolder

SmartSaveFolder runs in the background and changes the Save Game Location of No Man's Sky to be a local SAVEGAMES subfolder next to each NMS.exe Executable. For more information visit the SmartSaveFolder page.

Download Smart Save Folder File: SmartSaveFolder_v1.06.zip (162 kB) (info) Current version: v1.06

Launcher Bat Script

This method was created by EthanRDoesMC, and works by overriding the USERPROFILE environment variable which points to the C:\Users\<User> folder. This solution was based on an answer from SuperUser.com.

To use this method create a new .bat file in your No Man's Sky installation folder, for example C:\No Man's Sky_v1.381\Launcher.bat (NOTE: Make sure file extensions are visible).

Copy and paste the following into the bat file:

@ECHO OFF
REM -- source: https://superuser.com/questions/1226025/
REM -- modified by ethanrdoesmc, who knows nothing about the windows shell, for NMS
REM -- also see https://nomansskyretro.com for steam api issues if you're running older versions unpacked

REM -- Path to the directory of this script (make sure to remove ending slash)
set CURRENT_DIR=%~dp0
REM -- Great example from Strawberry Perl's portable shell launcher:
if not "" == "%CURRENT_DIR%" if #%CURRENT_DIR:~-1%# == #\# set CURRENT_DIR=%CURRENT_DIR:~0,-1%

REM -- OVERRIDE the user environment variable to point to a portable directory
set USERPROFILE=%CURRENT_DIR%\Data

REM -- Set NMS app ID, if unpacked
set SteamAppId=275850

REM -- Start the application
start "" /D"%CURRENT_DIR%\Binaries" "NMS.exe"

Simply double click your new .bat file to run No Man's Sky with the redirected save game folder. You can also modify your No Man's Sky shortcut to point to this bat file instead of NMS.exe for convenience.

Save games will be stored in a Data subfolder in the same folder structure in the C:\Users\<User> folder (%userprofile%), for example C:\No Man's Sky_v1.381\Data\AppData\Roaming\HelloGames\NMS\DefaultUser.