Launcher do backup but don't find them

[Sarxzer]

Describe the bug
When the launche do a backup, everything is fine, but the list don't show any backup.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open the launcher
2. Go to the Backup tab
3. See the list with no backup

Expected behavior
The Backups listed

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows 10 & 11
• Version: 1.7.3

Additional context
The game and the launcher are on a portable hard disk

[Fris0uman]

Can you reproduce the issue with the game and launcher not on an external drive?

[grimmspector]

I'm using this on a local drive, C drive even, and having this issue. I can make backups (only when the game is not running, and only if it has NOT run since I launched the launcher even when the game is closed), but the backups do not appear in the list ever, no matter what I do. Refreshing does nothing. Relaunching does nothing.

[DavidMamreyan]

Have the same issue. Both launcher and the game are on local system drive C.
Windows 11 Pro 24H2
Launcher version 1.7.12

[DavidMamreyan]

So I've done some research and found the problem - sessions. This problem appears only if User data directory is not equal to the game directory. I sent this repository link to ChatGPT and that's what he found. Hope it will help you fix the problem.

Problem description

When creating backups via the “Backups” tab (either manually or automatically), the launcher successfully generates .zip archives in the save_backups directory, but these archives do not appear in the backups list. Refreshing the list or restarting the launcher does not help.

Investigation

Backup creation

In backup_saves_step2() the launcher compresses all files from the save directory (self.save_dir) into a zip archive. For each file, it calculates its name inside the archive like this:

relpath = os.path.relpath(next_file, self.game_dir)

relpath is used as arcname when writing the file

compress_thread = CompressThread(self.backup_file, next_file, relpath, self)

The key point here is that the relative path (relpath) is computed against self.game_dir
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Backup display

The method update_backups_table() scans each backup archive and only lists it if every entry inside the zip file starts with the name of the save directory (save_dir_name, usually “save”):

with zipfile.ZipFile(entry.path) as zfile:
for info in zfile.infolist():
if not info.filename.startswith(save_dir_name):
return # skip this archive

In other words, if any file in the archive doesn’t begin with “save/…”, the backup is skipped and never appears in the list
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Root cause

If the user sets a custom “session directory” for saves that is located outside of the game directory (self.game_dir), the current code fails. Consider this typical setup:

Game Directory: D:\Games\CDDA
Session Directory: C:\Users\User\CDDA_User
Save Directory: C:\Users\User\CDDA_User\save...

Here the save files are not under self.game_dir. The call os.path.relpath(next_file, self.game_dir) returns a path containing ..\ or even an absolute path (on Windows) because the session directory is on a different drive or outside the game directory. These path entries don’t start with “save/”, so the listing logic sees the archive as invalid and hides it.

Proposed fix

Instead of computing the archive name relative to self.game_dir, it should be computed relative to self.save_dir and always prefixed with the save directory’s name. This ensures every entry in the archive starts with “save/…”, which passes the validation in update_backups_table().

Changes

In backup_saves_step2(), modify the backup_next_file() function so that it computes the archive name like this:

Determine the save directory name:

save_dir_name = os.path.basename(os.path.normpath(self.save_dir))

Compute the relative path within the save directory:

relpath_in_save = os.path.relpath(next_file, self.save_dir)

Prefix it with the save directory name:

relpath = os.path.join(save_dir_name, relpath_in_save)

The corrected code then uses this relpath both for the progress label and for writing into the zip archive. With this change, the backup file structure inside the archive always begins with “save/…”, so it will be properly recognized and displayed by update_backups_table().