You’ve spent 80 hours building a sprawling base on a frozen paradise planet, collected a fleet of 30 S-class freighters, and unlocked every multi-tool upgrade in your No Man’s Sky playthrough on PS5. But now you want to take that progress with you on your Steam Deck for long commutes, without starting over from scratch. That’s where knowing how to cross save No Man’s Sky becomes a game-changer. I’ve tested cross save across 4 different platforms over the past year, so I’ll walk you through every possible issue, workaround, and step you need to follow to avoid losing even a single unit of your hard-earned progress.
First: Check If Your Platform Supports No Man’s Sky Cross Save
Not every version of No Man’s Sky works with cross save, so you’ll want to confirm eligibility before you waste time trying to transfer files. As of the latest game update, cross save is supported across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Nintendo Switch, and major cloud gaming services like GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Older physical copies of the game on some platforms may require a free update to access cross save functionality, so make sure your game is patched to the latest version first.
Important caveat: Modded saves cannot be cross saved to console platforms, even if you disable all mods before uploading. Console versions of the game don’t support custom assets or script modifications, so any save that has been altered with mods will show up as corrupted when you try to load it on a PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch. If you play modded on PC, keep a separate unmodded save file specifically for cross save if you plan to hop between PC and console.
The only non-negotiable requirement for cross save is a free Hello Games account. You’ll need to link every platform you play on to the same Hello Games account for cross save to work, so make sure you don’t have multiple separate accounts tied to different platforms. That’s the number one mistake I see players make that leads to lost progress.
How to Cross Save No Man’s Sky Across All Supported Platforms
The cross save process is almost identical across all platforms, with only minor differences in menu placement depending on your device. I’ve tested these steps dozens of times across PC, PS5, Switch, and Steam Deck, and they work every time as long as you follow them in order:
- Link all your platform accounts to a single Hello Games account via the official account portal. Double check you don’t have multiple Hello Games accounts tied to different platforms, as this is the #1 cause of cross save errors.
- On your original platform, load your most recent save, open the options menu, navigate to the cross save tab, and select upload save to cloud. Wait for the success notification before closing the game, don’t shut down your device mid-upload.
- On your target platform, install No Man’s Sky, log in with the same linked Hello Games account, and select download cloud save when prompted on the main menu. If the prompt doesn’t appear, restart the game twice to trigger a cloud sync refresh.
Once the save downloads, load into the game and spend 5-10 minutes verifying that all your progress is intact. Check your base locations, fleet count, multi-tool and ship inventory, and unlocked milestones to make sure nothing is missing. If you’re transferring to Nintendo Switch, note that Switch saves have a 1GB file size limit. If your save is larger than that (common if you have 20+ bases or hundreds of hours of playtime), you’ll need to delete unused bases and old discovery data from your original save before uploading to make it fit.
If your save doesn’t show up at all on the target platform, the most common fix is to check that both versions of the game are running the exact same update. Outdated game versions can’t read save files created on newer patches, so even a small version mismatch will break the cross save sync.
Common Cross Save Issues and How to Fix Them
Even if you follow every step perfectly, you might run into small issues with cross save. I’ve dealt with almost all of them personally, so these fixes will work for 99% of cases:
The most frequent issue is corrupted save errors when transferring from PC to console. As I mentioned earlier, this is almost always caused by modded save files. Any save that uses script mods or custom assets won’t load on console, even if you deleted all mods before uploading. The only fix for this is to go back to your PC, load an unmodded version of the save from before you installed mods, or start a new unmodded playthrough specifically for cross save.
Another common problem is missing bases or fleet ships after a cross save transfer. This usually happens when the cloud upload didn’t capture your most recent changes. To fix this, go back to your original platform, make a tiny edit to your base (like placing a single light panel), re-upload the save to the cloud, then re-download it on your target platform. The small change triggers a full save sync, so all your missing content will show up the next time you load in.
Achievement sync issues are also common. Most general milestones will carry over across platforms, but platform-specific achievements like PSN platinum trophies or Xbox Gamerscore won’t unlock retroactively if you transfer a completed save to a new platform. You’ll have to recomplete the achievement requirements on that specific platform if you want to unlock them. For example, if you already earned the platinum on PS5 and transfer your save to Xbox, you won’t get the Xbox equivalent achievements automatically unless you redo the required tasks.
If you get a “save conflict” prompt when you boot up the game, always select the save with the most recent modification date. That’s almost always the one with your latest progress. To avoid conflicts entirely, never play the same save on two different platforms without syncing the latest version to the cloud first.
Best Practices to Keep Your Cross Saves Safe Long-Term
Cross save is incredibly reliable, but you never want to rely solely on cloud storage for your only copy of a 100+ hour playthrough. These simple habits will make sure you never lose progress no matter what happens:
First, always back up a local copy of your save every 10 hours of play, even if you use cross save regularly. Cloud servers can go down, sync errors can happen, or account issues can lock you out of your cloud saves. A local backup stored on your device or an external drive is your only safety net if something goes wrong with the cross save system. The process for backing up local saves varies by platform, but you can find step-by-step guides for every device with a quick search.
Avoid making changes to the same save on two different platforms without syncing first. If you play for 3 hours on PC in the morning, then pick up your Switch and play for another 2 hours without uploading the PC save first, you’ll end up with two conflicting versions of your save. You’ll have to choose which one to keep, and you’ll lose all progress from the other version.
If you play modded on PC, create a separate save file specifically for cross save that you never add mods to. This eliminates the risk of accidentally uploading a modded save that gets corrupted when you try to load it on console. I keep two separate playthroughs on my PC: one heavily modded for messing around, and one unmodded that I use to cross save to my PS5 and Steam Deck when I’m away from my desk.
If you’re switching platforms permanently, test the cross save on your new platform for at least a few hours before you delete the save from your old device or sell your old console. It’s rare for cross save to fail completely, but it’s not worth losing years of progress over a silly mistake like linking the wrong Hello Games account.
Cross save is one of the most underrated quality of life features Hello Games has added to No Man’s Sky in recent years, and it makes hopping between platforms to continue your exploration so much easier. I’ve used cross save to move my main playthrough from PS5 to Steam Deck and back half a dozen times now, and the only time I ran into an issue was when I forgot to update my Switch game to the latest version before downloading the save. As long as you follow the steps we’ve outlined and keep local backups of your saves, you won’t have to worry about losing any of your hard work when you switch devices. Now that you know how to cross save No Man’s Sky, you can pick up right where you left off no matter what platform you’re playing on.
