The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Special Edition: How to Find Your Saves on the Steam Deck

First, press the physical STEAM button on the left of the device, next to the screen. Select Power from the popup menu, then select Switch to Desktop.

If you need to go back to the standard interface (called “Gaming Mode”), you can double-click the icon in the top left of the resulting screen.

The next couple steps will be easier with a USB mouse and keyboard, but if you don’t have that option, you can use the trackpads under your Deck’s joysticks as a mouse. Press the physical STEAM button + the physical X button (top right of Deck) at the same time to toggle the on-screen keyboard on/off.

Navigate to System > Konsole, which will bring up the Konsole window. This is a standard command-line interface, like Terminal on Mac or Command Prompt on Windows.

You can use any linux commands that you know in this window. The four commands that we’re going to use today are:

• ~ – not strictly a command, but rather a reference to the logged on user’s home directory
• ls – list all files in the current directory, or folder
• cd – “see” directory, or go to the following folder
• name of an installed program – run that program

Press enter after inserting a command to execute it.

dolphin ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/489830/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition/Saves

dolphin ~/.local

And if you happen to be looking for regular Skyrim saves, too, then use the following instead:

dolphin ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/72850/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/Skyrim/Saves