Resetting a Steam Deck Wipes Every Game and Local Save

If the Deck boots, the reset is at Steam › Settings › System › Factory Reset, and it clears all local data, games included. If it will not load Steam, hold the … button while powering on and choose Erase user data. If nothing works, Valve’s USB recovery image wipes and reinstalls everything.

What survives is whatever lives off the device: your library, and the saves of games that use Steam Cloud. A save that was never synced goes with the reset.

Before you reset

1. Check which games sync saves. Valve’s Steam Cloud page says each developer decides what the cloud stores, and the store page shows a Steam Cloud logo when a game uses it. A game without it keeps its progress on the Deck only.
2. Go online first. Valve notes that playing in Offline Mode “will keep games from syncing until you’ve gone back online”. A Deck that has been offline for a week may be holding progress the cloud has never seen.
3. Deal with the microSD card yourself. Valve’s recovery page does not mention microSD cards at all. If the card goes with the Deck, format it at Steam › Settings › System › Format SD card, which is Valve’s own route. If it stays with you, take it out.
4. Plug the Deck in. Valve recommends it for the recovery-menu steps, and a reset is not something to interrupt at 3% battery.

If it boots: Factory Reset

1. Press the Steam button and open Settings, then System.
2. Scroll down to the Factory Reset option and select Factory Reset.

The Re-install SteamOS part of it may need an internet connection, because it downloads fresh copies of any system files that have been modified. Valve says you can switch that option off if you cannot connect. Valve describes the whole operation as clearing all local data “including games, etc.” — so treat anything installed or downloaded in Desktop Mode as part of that too.

If Steam will not load: the recovery menu

1. Hold the power button for 10 seconds to shut the Deck down completely.
2. Hold the … button and press power.
3. Keep holding … until a menu labelled SteamOS appears.
4. Choose ERASE USER DATA FROM DECK.

If you want the Deck working again rather than empty, stop at step 3. The same menu offers Previous B, which rolls SteamOS back to the last version that worked while retaining installed games and saves, in Valve’s words. If a recent update broke it, that fixes the Deck without a wipe.

If nothing works: the USB recovery image

This is the route for a Deck that will not reach either of the menus above, or that someone has put another operating system on.

1. Download the SteamOS recovery image from Valve.
2. Write it to a USB key of at least 8GB. Valve suggests Rufus on Windows and Balena Etcher on a Mac or Linux.
3. Shut the Deck down and plug the key in. Valve’s instructions allow a hub, which is one job a USB-C hub or dock earns its keep on.
4. Hold Volume Up and press power. Let go of Volume Up at the chime.
5. Choose Boot Manager, then EFI USB Device. The screen goes dark for about a minute.
6. From the desktop that loads, pick your option.

Valve lists three there. Re-image Device is a full factory reset: user info, games, applications and any other operating system are wiped and replaced with stock SteamOS. Repair SteamOS reinstalls the system while attempting to keep your games and personal content. Recovery tools is a command prompt for boot-partition work, and not something a seller needs.

Valve’s own installation steps call the wipe Wipe Device & Install SteamOS, a line above the list that calls it Re-image Device. Both describe the same wipe; the label on your screen may be either.

Before you sell or give it away

Reset it, then switch it on before it leaves. After a USB re-image, Valve says the Deck reboots into the SteamOS welcome experience, and its setup guide says first-time setup asks for Wi-Fi so the new owner can log into their own Steam account. If it shows your library instead, the reset did not run.

Nothing on Valve’s recovery pages describes a lock that follows the Deck to its next owner — no equivalent of the Activation Lock that bricks a hand-me-down phone. The risk runs the other way: a Deck sold still signed in is a device with access to your account.

If it has already gone, signed in, open Account Details › Manage Steam Guard on Steam and deauthorize your devices. Valve says this deauthorizes “all computers or devices that have access to your Steam account” — your own included, so each one will ask for a Steam Guard code next time.

What to actually do

• Selling it: go online, confirm your saves are in Steam Cloud, remove or format the microSD card, then Settings › System › Factory Reset.
• It broke after an update: try Previous B in the recovery menu before wiping anything.
• It will not boot at all: the USB image, and Repair SteamOS before Re-image Device.
• Unsure whether a game syncs: look for the Steam Cloud logo on its store page. If it is missing, assume the save lives only on the Deck. Games added in Desktop Mode, where the Deck behaves like the Linux PC it is, are outside Steam Cloud unless they sync some other way.