Where Are Hoi4 Save Games?

Hearts of Iron IV save games are located in the Documents > Paradox Interactive > Hearts of Iron IV > save games folder on Windows, with similar paths for macOS and Linux.

Where to Find Hearts of Iron IV Save Files

The save files are stored in your user documents folder under Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\save games.

On Windows, the full path looks like Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\save games\; on macOS it’s ~/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV/save games/; and on Linux it’s ~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV/save games/. These folders hold uncompressed .hoi4 files — each one is either an Ironman save or a regular one. Honestly, I find it handy to know that, unless you’ve turned on cloud saving, the game keeps everything right on your machine.

Step-by-Step: Accessing Your Save Files

You can access your save files by opening your file explorer and navigating to the OS‑specific save games folder.

For Windows, hit Win + E and browse to C:\Users\[YourUsername]\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\save games\. On macOS, launch Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, then type ~/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV/save games/. On Linux, fire up your file manager and paste ~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV/save games/ into the location bar. You’ll see files with the .hoi4 extension — feel free to copy, delete, or tweak them as you like. If you’re planning to edit a save, just set save_as_binary=no in Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\settings.txt (check out the Steam Support page for more on finding game files).

If This Didn’t Work

If you can’t locate your saves, check cloud save settings, verify Steam Cloud sync, and ensure the game has created the folder.

First off, double‑check that you’re saving to the Cloud tab inside the game; if you’re not, Hearts of Iron IV will fall back to local saves. Next, hop into Steam → Settings → Cloud and turn on Sync Steam Cloud for Hearts of Iron IV so your saves upload automatically. Then, launch the game, quit, and look again in your documents folder—the save games directory gets created the first time you run the game. Still nothing? Make sure your antivirus or file‑permission settings aren’t blocking the Paradox Interactive folder.

Prevention Tips

Protect your saves by backing them up regularly, enabling cloud saving, and backing up before updates or mods.

Every few weeks, grab the whole save games folder and copy it to an external drive or a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox — keep dated copies so you can roll back to an older version if needed. Turn on cloud saving in‑game (under the Cloud tab when you hit Save) and also through Steam Settings > Cloud, and also make a habit of hitting Save manually before you quit. Before you slap on a new patch or mod, duplicate your save games folder just in case; remember that Ironman mode turns off manual saves and cloud backups, so it’s worth double‑checking your save location before you dive into an Ironman campaign.

Contents

Where to Find Hearts of Iron IV Save Files

Step-by-Step: Accessing Your Save Files

If This Didn’t Work

Prevention Tips

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