Does "Delete Local Content" retain save files?
If you remove a single player game installation with the Delete Local Content option from the Steam Libary, in general will save files be deleted or retained?
Best Answer
Save files will almost never be deleted by Steam. Only very old games save files to the installation directory, which is what Steam deletes. Moreover, Steam seems to only delete files that were downloaded by it, keeping things like crash logs and saves intact.
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Answer 2
Depending on where the game involved stores the savegame files, Steam may or may not delete them. By deleting the Local Content, Steam is deleting the folders and associated files located in steamapps folder. Those found under MyDocuments or other simmilar locations are left in place.
UPDATE: apparently it keeps any files that are generated prior to downloading.
Answer 3
On OS X, it is my experience that Steam won't delete save files. Most developers put their game's save data in ~/Library/Application Support/ as a standard practice on OS X, which mostly keeps them out of Steam's purview.
Now if a file was kept in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/ (or wherever you happen to keep them) Steam will simply delete the whole game directory containing the game from the common directory regardless of whatever else is in there.
TL;DR
On OS X, as long as your game's saves aren't kept with the application, Steam will likely not delete them.
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