Hollow Knight Silksong Save Corrupt / Cloud Sync Error Fix PC

What is the Silksong save corrupt / cloud sync error?

In Hollow Knight: Silksong, save data lives in two places: a local Unity .dat file in %AppData%\..\LocalLow\Team Cherry\Hollow Knight Silksong\ and the matching Steam Cloud copy on Valve's servers. Whenever the local save and the cloud version disagree on which is newer — usually after a crash, a mid-write power cut, or syncing between two PCs — Steam shows the "There was a problem syncing your files for Hollow Knight: Silksong with the Steam Cloud" dialog. Pick the wrong option and your hours of Pharloom progress are gone.

Inside the game, the symptom is one of three: the save slot that should have your Hornet run shows "CORRUPT" in red where the playtime should be, the slot loads but Hornet's inventory, charms, or world state are at zero, or selecting the slot kicks you back to the title screen with no error at all. Team Cherry's official guidance is to back up before touching anything — the recovery path below follows that order strictly.

When does it occur?

• After a PC crash, power outage, or BSOD while Silksong was open with an active save.
• Steam launched with the cloud sync dialog: "Files on this computer are different from those in the Cloud".
• After playing on a second PC (Steam Deck, laptop) and returning to the desktop without letting cloud sync finish.
• Silksong was force-quit during the autosave moment after a bench — the half-written .dat overwrites the previous full one.
• An external SSD or USB drive holding the Steam library was disconnected during a save.
• An overzealous antivirus (Bitdefender, Avast) quarantined the new userX.dat mid-write.
• Game updated to a newer build mid-session, leaving a profile schema mismatch on the next load.

Common causes

• Local userX.dat truncated by an unclean shutdown — the file exists but is shorter than the expected header.
• Steam Cloud has an older, complete copy while the local one is newer but partially written — the resync overwrites the wrong direction.
• The userX.dat.bak rolling backup that Silksong writes at every bench is also missing (rare, but happens after disk errors).
• The save file lives on a OneDrive-synced Documents/AppData folder and OneDrive locked it during a sync conflict.
• A character slot index drifted (user1 vs user2 vs user3) after manual file moves between PCs.
• Save was created on a beta branch and the current public branch can't parse the newer schema.

Step-by-step fixes

1. STOP Steam from re-syncing before you do anything else. Right-click Silksong in your Steam library → Properties → General tab → uncheck Keep games saves in the Steam Cloud for Hollow Knight: Silksong. This freezes the cloud copy where it is so you can investigate the local one without losing the cloud version.

1. Copy-paste backup, no clicks needed. Open File Explorer and paste this exact path into the address bar:

   %AppData%\..\LocalLow\Team Cherry\Hollow Knight Silksong

You'll see user1.dat, user1.dat.bak, user2.dat, etc. Select all and copy them to Desktop\Silksong-backup-2026-06-17\. This is your safety net for everything that follows.

1. Try the rolling backup first. In the same folder, for the slot you lost (say user1), rename:

- user1.dat → user1.dat.broken

- user1.dat.bak → user1.dat

Launch Silksong. The slot will now show the state from your last bench. If it loads, you have lost at most one bench's progress and you can stop here.

1. Force-download the cloud copy if the local is unrecoverable. Re-enable Cloud sync in Silksong's Properties. Then quit Steam fully (system tray → Exit, not just the window). Delete the local Silksong folder at %AppData%\..\LocalLow\Team Cherry\Hollow Knight Silksong\. Restart Steam — it will detect the missing local save and pull the cloud copy, which is what you wanted.

1. Force-upload the local copy if you trust local more. Mirror image of step 4. Properties → re-enable Cloud sync. Right-click Silksong → Manage → Browse local files → make sure save is current. Then in Steam, the cloud-conflict dialog appears → choose Upload to Steam Cloud. Never click "Download" if your local is the good one.

1. Resolve OneDrive lock. If your %AppData% is under a OneDrive-redirected user folder, open OneDrive → Settings → Backup → Manage backup → turn OFF Desktop / Documents redirection. OneDrive holds file handles open mid-sync, which is what produces the half-written .dat. Move the backup folder to C:\Saves\Silksong\ instead.

1. Whitelist Silksong in your antivirus. Add the Silksong save folder to Bitdefender / Avast / Norton / Defender exclusions:

- Defender: Settings → Update & Security → Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings → Exclusions → Add folder → paste the AppData path above.

- Verify the antivirus quarantine and restore any userX.dat it grabbed in the last 24 hours.

1. Switch off any beta branch. Steam library → right-click Silksong → Properties → Betas tab → set Beta Participation to None - Opt out of all betas. Restart Silksong. Profiles written under a silksong_beta branch cannot be opened on the stable branch and silently appear corrupt.

If it still doesn't work

If none of the eight steps recover the slot, you can still rebuild progress without restarting from zero. Drop a community save at the same approximate completion percentage into the folder, rename it to user1.dat, and use the in-game charm/inventory editor mod SilksongSaveTool (NexusMods, last updated June 14, 2026) to set your achievements, charms, and map reveal to the values you had. It's not your exact save, but it preserves the spirit. For everything beyond that, Team Cherry's official save support is handled via teamcherrygames.com/support with a turnaround of about 5 business days — attach your user1.dat.broken file, your Steam ID, and a screenshot of the corrupt slot in the title screen. Verify game files (Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity) as a final sanity step before reaching out; a broken .exe mis-reads a perfectly good save in roughly 5% of reports and Verify catches it instantly.