Castellan
Overview · Butler
The Butler, which keeps your game saves backed up
How the Butler finds your games' save folders, backs them up as plain copies to a place you choose, keeps earlier versions, checks they restore, and how to get a save back.
- Article
- 3701
- Applies to
- Butler 0.1.0
- Last reviewed
- For
- For everyone
What the Butler does#
The butler kept the household's stores that mattered most at table. The Butler keeps your game saves: hours of play live in a few small files, and it backs them up, and checks that they restore.
It holds the Steward's office on a gamer's PC, with the Cellarer behind it, which backs up your documents and photos. On an everyday PC, the Cellarer holds it.
The Butler comes with the Household license. It uses no AI.
Where it finds saves#
Each game is a folder of its own, from the places most games use:
| Place | Where |
|---|---|
| Saved Games | The folder Windows keeps for them, in your user folder |
| My Games | Documents\My Games, wherever Windows keeps Documents |
| Steam's cloud saves | Steam's own folder, each named by its game |
| Unreal Engine games | Each game's Saved\SaveGames folder |
| Others | Any save folder you add, one per game |
An empty folder is no game.
How it backs them up#
The way the Cellarer does:
- Plain copies, in
Butler backup\<this PC's name>\<the game>, in the place you choose. Nothing is backed up until you choose it. - Only what's new or changed, every hour, and when you press Back up now. Each copy is checked as it goes.
- Nothing in the backup is deleted. A changed save's older copy goes to
Earlier versions: a way back from a save that went wrong. - Restore checks every 7 days: a few saves restored to a temporary folder, and checked against the backup.
The page says plainly what isn't covered yet: no place chosen, the drive away or full, a save in use, places not looked in.
Set it up#
- Open the Butler's page: Open on its card in Castellan. Its tour asks where to back up to, and where to look.
- Set Back up to to a folder on another drive than your games: an external drive, or a cloud folder already on this PC.
- Press Save, then Back up now.
Get a save back#
- Close the game.
- Press Open the backup, under Getting files back on its page, or open the place you chose, then
Butler backup, this PC's name, and the game. - For the latest save, copy the game's files back into its save folder. For an older one, look in
Earlier versions, under when it was replaced.
Its page#
The Butler's page is at http://butler.localhost:21212/. It shows your backup, each game backed up, what isn't covered yet, the restore check with Check a restore now, the recent rounds, and how to get saves back. Back up now is at the top.
Its settings#
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Back up to | Not chosen | The folder to back up to. |
| Where to look for saves | All four | Saved Games, My Games, Steam's cloud saves, Unreal Engine games. |
| Other save folders | None | One game each. |
| Back up what changed every (Advanced) | 60 minutes | 15 minutes to a day. |
| Keep earlier versions (Advanced) | On | |
| Check a restore every (Advanced) | 7 days | 1 to 90. |
| Files each restore check restores (Advanced) | 10 | 1 to 100. |
What it can't do#
- Games that keep saves elsewhere, in their install folder, the registry, or only in a launcher's cloud, aren't found on their own. Add the folder under Other save folders.
- A save in use while the game runs may be skipped that round, and copied the next.
- Getting a save back is by hand: close the game, and copy the folder back.
Related articles
Is this page right?
If something on it is wrong or out of date, tell us and we'll fix the page.
Still stuck? Write to support@castellan-software.com and mention article 3701. Every version of Butler, and what changed in it, is in its release notes.