How to Back Up RetroArch Saves Automatically

RetroArch is the emulator frontend most retro players end up using, and it is very good at one thing that quietly bites people: it hides your saves. Your 60-hour Final Fantasy VI file lives in a folder you have never opened, on a drive you assume will last forever, until one day it doesn’t.

This is a guide to finding those files and backing them up so a wiped SD card, a fresh OS install, or a botched update never erases your progress again. The first half works no matter how you back up. The second half is how I do it with the tool I build, 1Retro, but you can stop reading at the halfway mark and be fully covered by hand.

First, know what RetroArch is actually saving

RetroArch writes two different kinds of “save,” and mixing them up is where most lost-progress stories start.

• Save files (SRAM). These are the in-game saves the cartridge itself would have stored: the file you make when you stand on the save point and pick “Yes.” They end in .srm (sometimes .sav). This is the one you cannot afford to lose.
• Save states. These are full snapshots of the emulator’s memory at an instant, the “quicksave” you take mid-boss. They end in .state (with .state1, .state2, and an auto-slot .state.auto for numbered slots). Handy, but tied to a specific core version and not something a real console ever had.

Both are worth backing up. But if you only protect one thing, protect the .srm files. Those are your actual playthroughs.

Where RetroArch keeps your saves

Here is the part people get wrong: there is no single universal path. RetroArch puts saves wherever its settings tell it to, and different installs ship with different defaults. Some drop the .srm right next to your ROM. Others use a dedicated saves folder.

Do not guess. RetroArch will tell you exactly where they are:

1. Open RetroArch.
2. Go to Settings → Directory.
3. Look at the Save Files row and the Save States row.

Those two paths are the precise folders you need to back up. Write them down.

If you would rather find them on disk, these are the common defaults per platform. The saves folder sits inside the RetroArch config directory:

Platform	Typical RetroArch save location
Windows	Your RetroArch install folder, e.g. C:\RetroArch-Win64\saves\
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/RetroArch/saves/
Linux (native)	~/.config/retroarch/saves/
Linux (Flatpak)	~/.var/app/org.libretro.RetroArch/config/retroarch/saves/
Steam version	…/steamapps/common/RetroArch/saves/
Android	/storage/emulated/0/RetroArch/saves/

Save states usually sit in a sibling states/ folder. If Settings → Directory shows something different, trust the app over this table: your config wins.

The manual backup, and why it usually fails

Once you know the folder, the by-hand method is simple: copy it somewhere safe.

• Drag the saves folder onto an external drive or a USB stick.
• Or drop it into Dropbox, Google Drive, or a saves_backup folder in the cloud.
• Do this again every time you finish a serious session.

This genuinely works. The problem is not the mechanics, it is the discipline. A backup you have to remember to make is a backup you will forget to make right before the session that mattered. And when you play the same game across a handheld, a desktop, and a Steam Deck, a folder you copied last Tuesday is already stale: restore it and you overwrite the newer save you made somewhere else. Most “I lost my save” stories are not a missing backup. They are a backup from the wrong day.

If you are here just to protect your files, you now have everything you need. Find the folder in Settings → Directory, copy it somewhere off the device, and do it regularly. The rest of this post is how to make that automatic.

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The automatic way

I got tired of managing this by hand, so I built 1Retro: it watches your RetroArch save folder and backs up every change to the cloud the moment it happens, then keeps that folder in sync across all your devices. Free to start, no card required.

Here is the whole setup:

1. Make an account at 1retro.com. The free tier is 20 MB, which is thousands of retro saves.
2. Install the desktop app from the Download page. It runs quietly in your menu bar or system tray and starts with your computer.
3. Point it at your saves. Open the app and it detects RetroArch (and Snes9x, mGBA, and others) automatically. Confirm the folder you found in Settings → Directory above. Full walkthrough on the desktop setup page.
4. Play. From here it is invisible. Every new .srm is backed up within seconds, and when you sit down at another machine your save is already waiting.

One design note that matters for a save tool: the app talks to a small server running on your own computer, so 1Retro’s servers only ever receive the save files you point it at, never free rein over your disk.

Why this beats a copied folder

The reason I built this instead of using a synced Dropbox folder is the thing Dropbox gets wrong for saves: it blindly picks a winner.

• Conflicts are caught, not clobbered. If the same game got a newer save on two devices, 1Retro flags it and lets you choose which one wins, instead of silently overwriting the one you wanted.
• Version history. Every save keeps its past versions, so a corrupted write or an accidental overwrite is a rollback, not a funeral.
• It works across your whole shelf. RetroArch on the desktop, a Miyoo Mini running OnionOS, a MiSTer, Android: the same save library follows you across all of them.

FAQ

Does 1Retro back up save states too, or only SRAM? Both. It syncs the save files RetroArch writes, .srm and .state alike. If you only care about your real in-game saves, those are covered first.

Will this work if my saves are stored next to my ROMs instead of in a saves folder? Yes. Point the app at whatever folder Settings → Directory reports. It does not care whether that is a dedicated saves folder or the same directory as your content.

Do I have to keep an app running? The desktop app runs in the background and syncs on its own. There is also a CLI for headless setups and a MiSTer daemon if you want it fully hands-off. See the getting-started guides.

Is it safe to sync save states between different versions of a core? Save states can break across core updates, which is true of RetroArch in general, not of syncing. That is exactly why .srm files are the ones worth protecting: they survive core and even emulator changes. Sync both, rely on the SRAM.

How much space do saves actually take? Almost none. A battery save is measured in kilobytes, so the free 20 MB holds thousands of them. Save states are larger but still small next to a modern cloud allowance.

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Losing a save is one of those small heartbreaks that feels avoidable only in hindsight. Spend the five minutes: open Settings → Directory, find your folder, and get it backing up. If you want that to happen on its own, that is the whole reason 1Retro exists. Come try it, and if your setup does something weird, tell me on Discord or the forums.