Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
My setup:
I have a game whose demo is publicly available but whose release version is not out yet.
I set the demo version's Steam Cloud configuration so that it points at the release version.
Players downloaded the demo through Steam. On Windows and macOS, their save files roam to/from the cloud correctly. However, on Linux specifically, it only roams correctly if they also have the release version on their account (even if it's not installed).
The Steam Cloud documentation explicitly says (emphasis mine):
You are able to share Cloud storage space between two app IDs by filling out the Shared cloud APP ID field. This is most commonly used to share saved games between a demo and a full game. A value of 0 disables this feature. (Note: trying to use shared cloud data with an unreleased target/base app will not sync those files and is not a recommended setup).
At the very least, it's probably worth updating the documentation to say what's expected when you're in this scenario rather than just "[it] is not a recommended setup" because developers may test this on Windows and Mac and come to the conclusion that, while it's not recommended, it still works. Then, when finding out Linux doesn't work, they may think that they set up Steam Cloud incorrectly. This is what happened to me and caused me to spend a bunch of time pursuing the wrong avenues.
Alternatively, the documentation could call out that if you own the release version of an application (which all developers naturally will even if it isn't publicly available) that everything will seemingly work okay.
At worst though, perhaps the "real" bug is that everything seemingly works fine on Windows and macOS when it shouldn't.
Your system information
N/A - I'll explain why below.
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
My setup:
Players downloaded the demo through Steam. On Windows and macOS, their save files roam to/from the cloud correctly. However, on Linux specifically, it only roams correctly if they also have the release version on their account (even if it's not installed).
The Steam Cloud documentation explicitly says (emphasis mine):
At the very least, it's probably worth updating the documentation to say what's expected when you're in this scenario rather than just "[it] is not a recommended setup" because developers may test this on Windows and Mac and come to the conclusion that, while it's not recommended, it still works. Then, when finding out Linux doesn't work, they may think that they set up Steam Cloud incorrectly. This is what happened to me and caused me to spend a bunch of time pursuing the wrong avenues.
Alternatively, the documentation could call out that if you own the release version of an application (which all developers naturally will even if it isn't publicly available) that everything will seemingly work okay.
At worst though, perhaps the "real" bug is that everything seemingly works fine on Windows and macOS when it shouldn't.