Big Walk save file location, backup and host transfer

What the official host system does

House House says the host keeps the save game and all group progress, and that the game records it automatically. Under the normal in-game flow, the same person hosts again when the group wants to continue.

That is why a different player pressing Host sees a fresh island. Nothing was necessarily deleted: they opened their own local world rather than the original host’s world.

Big Walk does not provide an export button, shared group slot or host-handover screen. The manual Windows method below works by backing up and moving the local file outside the game.

Big Walk save file location on Windows

Paste this path into the File Explorer address bar: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\House House\Big Walk\user_data\save_games

Using %USERPROFILE% avoids guessing the Windows account name. AppData is hidden by default, but pasting the full path opens it directly.

Player reports and PC save references agree on this folder. If more than one hosted world exists, keep every file until you have identified the right slot inside the game.

• Press Windows + E to open File Explorer
• Paste the full path into the address bar and press Enter
• Do not rename or edit the save files
• Copy the entire save_games folder for the safest backup

Make a backup before changing anything

Close Big Walk completely before copying the folder. A file copied while the game is writing can be incomplete, and Steam Cloud may also sync a newer local state after the game closes.

Copy save_games to a separate folder and add the date to the backup name. If the new host already has a world, back up their folder too instead of replacing it without a way back.

Keep the original host’s backup until the new host has opened the correct island, played briefly, closed the game and reopened it once. That second launch confirms the transferred world is still saving normally.

How to transfer the world to a new Windows host

This is a community-tested file copy, not an official multiplayer feature. Treat it like moving any important local save: work from copies and preserve the originals.

• Original host: close Big Walk, open the save_games folder and make a dated backup
• Original host: send a copy of the save file or backed-up folder privately to the new host
• New host: close Big Walk and back up any existing save_games folder
• New host: place the copied save in the same save_games folder without changing its name or extension
• New host: launch Big Walk, choose Host and confirm the expected world appears
• Group: keep the original backup until a second launch confirms new progress is being saved

If the transferred save does not appear

First close the game again and confirm the file is one level inside save_games rather than inside an extra nested folder created by unzipping. Also confirm Windows did not add a second extension or rename the file.

Restore the new host’s backup before trying a different copy. Do not open the file in an editor and start deleting fields: the save contains world state, collected items and player-specific entries, so an apparently small edit can damage unrelated progress.

Steam Cloud belongs to the signed-in Steam account. It can restore that account’s own files, but it is not a shared group save and it does not automatically hand the original host’s world to another account.

Lost or corrupted save: safest recovery order

Do not keep launching and closing the game if the expected world disappears. First copy the current user_data folder somewhere safe, even if you think it is broken. A later cloud sync or replacement attempt can remove the last recoverable version.

Then check that the original host is signed into the same Windows and Steam accounts used before, and inspect the save_games folder for an older file. Steam Cloud may help the same host recover their own synced save, but it is not a substitute for a local dated backup.

If no known-good copy remains, contact House House support at help@bigwalk.game before using a save editor. Community tools can inspect or alter files, but they are not an official recovery path and can introduce a second problem.

Mac and console limits

The path and transfer steps on this page are for Windows. Mac builds can store data in different library or sandbox locations depending on whether the game came from Steam or the Mac App Store, and the exact transfer path is not documented by House House.

PS5 and Switch 2 do not expose a normal save file folder that you can copy into another player’s account. Use the platform’s own backup tools and keep the same host unless official transfer support is added.

Because the manual method is outside the game, it may change after an update. The official FAQ remains the source for the supported behavior: the host saves automatically and normally hosts again to continue.