This September we publish Here on LXA an article on how to take screenshots and share them from the Steam Deck. At first things weren't easy, as you had to navigate hidden folders and such, but recently they added a way to share something — something — easier. History has repeated itself with the Steam recorder, and there are people who do not know how to share their gameplaysIt's not complicated, as you'll discover below.
First of all, we need to explain what this Steam recorder is. Since a recent version of the Steam client and Steam OS 3.6.19, Valve's launcher has integrated a recorder that can run in the background to record everything, just the last X minutes or start on demand with a key combination. Its configuration is simple and appears in the latest version of Steam in a section of its settings. From there we configure the time to record, the quality and the shortcut, if we want it. I think it is important to note that this is not only valid for the Steam Deck; it is integrated into the Steam client, also for the desktop. With something already recorded, how is it shared?
How to share Steam recorder videos
The most official way to share captured games with the Steam recorder is from game mode, or at least that's how it is on the Deck. The first thing to do would be to press the Steam button and then go to Multimedia and choose a video. We will see something like the one at the top of this article, that is, the background video and the buttons to edit it. When we have the clip we want to share, we click or tap on the share button and we will see something like this other image:
Of those three options:
- “Send to another device…” is so that it can be accessed from another device where we are using Steam. For example, I have a Windows installation that I also use on the Deck, and I see the “Windeck” device to send it and watch the video there.
- “Send to phone…” will prepare the video and send it to a phone using the Steam app. Once there, you can download it.
- “Create QR link…” is to create a QR code from which we can download the link.
- The last option is to share it in a chat.
And that's the most official way, which is not always the best.
Export video from desktop
The best way is to have access to the video and do with it whatever you want. You might think, “Well, I'll just look for it in the folders and share it,” as you could do from the beginning with still captures… Yeah… No, you can't. By default, videos are saved in the home folder/.local/share/Steam/userdata/USERNAME/gamerecordings/ — the dot in front of “local” is that it is hidden –, but what we will see there are folders with loose files that are of little or no use to us. get a video from that, you have to do the following:
- Let's go to game mode: Steam->Start/Shutdown->Switch to desktop.
- Once on the desktop, open the Steam app. It's in the start menu or system tray.
- With Steam open, go to the View/Recordings and Captures menu, which at the time of writing is labeled “NEW.”
- A gallery with the saved screenshots will appear. We choose the one that interests us.
- The same sharing icon that we found in game mode will then appear, but this one is more powerful. When we click on it, there will be a “Save” option that will allow us to “Export video file…”.
- What remains is a straightforward path: clicking on the folder will open a dialog box asking where to save the exported video, and clicking on “Export Video” will perform the export and save it.
Note: NM
The way Steam video captures are shared is very reminiscent of still captures, as it was months ago. The “photos” have improved, and while it could be simpler, it is fine for me, as I use the Steam app. Sharing gameplays still needs improvement — NM –, a grade that they used to put in classes for very young children a long time ago and I don’t know if they still use it today.
Someone who uses the Steam Deck as a console will hardly be able to share what they record if the more official options fail, even more so if the videos take up several gigabytes. But let's trust Valve, the Steam recorder has started well and will surely be better in future versions.