Where Are Prison Architect Save Files Located?
Prison Architect saves and preferences on Windows, macOS and Linux, plus the saves subfolder that holds each prison.
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Prison Architect stores saves, preferences and failure-free autosaves in one per OS folder, with each prison as .prison files inside a saves subfolder. The layout is the same on all three desktop systems, only the parent moves.
Steam Cloud covers the saves, which makes hopping between machines painless until a mod mismatch appears. A prison built with mods refuses to load where those mods are missing, so sync subscriptions alongside the files. Copy the whole folder with the game closed for manual backups.
Where Prison Architect stores this, by platform
%localappdata%\Introversion\Prison Architect
Prisons live in the saves subfolder, preferences.txt beside it. Copy the whole Prison Architect folder to keep saves, prefs and mods aligned.
~/Library/Application Support/Prison Architect
Same interior as Windows, including the saves subfolder. Use Go to Folder in Finder since Library stays hidden.
~/.Prison Architect
A dot folder directly in home, not under .config or .local/share. Show hidden files to see it. Same saves subfolder inside.
Frequently asked questions
Why won't my transferred prison load?
Missing mods are the usual cause. The .prison file references mods that must be installed and enabled on the target machine. Match the mod list, then try the transfer again.
Where is the Prison Architect preferences file?
preferences.txt in the same folder as the saves subfolder on every OS. Deleting it resets graphics and options to defaults without touching any prison.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.