How to transfer Lonely Mountains: Downhill Saves from Xbox Game Pass to Steam

I’ve had Lonely Mountains: Downhill on my wishlist for a while and was overjoyed when I played via PC Game Pass. I bought the Steam version when it was on sale (and the PS4 version too, because I really love it), and I was wondering if there was a way to transfer my game progress from the Xbox app to Steam. Thankfully there is, made possible in part by a post from one of the developers on the Steam forums that put me on the right track.

Here’s how I did it. This is largely based on my previous post, in which I’ve explained the same process for Hollow Knight. Before we begin, close both Steam and the Game Pass launcher apps, and of course the game. You need to have installed and at least started LDM for this to work so that a Steam save file is created.

Xbox Game Pass Location

On the Xbox Game Pass, the LMD save files are stored in a rather cryptic location. Head over roughly this location and dig: %APPDATA%Local/Packages/Thunderful.LonelyMontainsDownhill*

I say “dig” because seemingly random numbers that may change from system make up the file name and save data. Essentially you’ll find two further folders in wgs, one of which contains a file without extension that’s larger than any of the others (95KB in my case). Here’s what the full path on my system was:

C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\Packages\Thunderful.LonelyMontainsDownhill_8j53pwgd019sy\SystemAppData\wgs\00090000015F9C57_000000000000000000000000767DBB27\A49EA588BEC14ECE8F67A0731472F326

I found a file called 4ADDF5B766454DA7B07EA5E2837A3DFA in there (yeah I know, super memorable name – classic Microsoft). This was the save file, and it is indeed compatible with the current Steam version (1.5.0.3406.0401.PCSM at the time of writing, as opposed to 1.5.1 for the Game Pass version, and 1.5.0.3405.1267.PS4MU for the PS4 version… hey one day I’d love to be able to transfer console files to PC and vice versa, but I’m not at that point yet).

Copy that cryptic file now, we’ll need it in a moment.

Steam Location

Steam actually uses two save locations: a local file, and a cloud file. As DrWDSo explained, the cloud file takes precedence over the local save, so let’s patch that and have Steam figure out the version conflict next time it launches. Take a look at the following folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\[your ID]\711540\remote

Your user ID will be a nine digit (or so) number, and you may find more than one such ID in the userdata folder. In the correct one, you’ll find one folder for each game you have a cloud save for, all of which correspond to a game. For LDM, it is indeed 711540. The remote folder contains the cloud save file, which in my case looked like this:

steamuser_data_123456789.sav

Transferring Data

Make sure neither version of the game is running, and make sure to close either launcher app.

Paste that cryptic Game Pass save into the above Steam cloud folder folder, with its original cryptic name. Now rename the native Steam save file (append .old for example) and copy the whole file name. Next, rename the cryptic Game Pass save with whatever the Steam save was and you’re good to go. Should anything go wrong, you have the renamed Steam file as a backup.

Now start the Steam version, let the “out of sync” cloud message upload the local file, and be greeted with your previous Xbox/PC Game Pass save. You’ll see all the achievements pop into place too, until they’re all unlocked on Steam.

Happy Cycling!