Unfortunately, with the recent Mac update to Catalina OS, there were some changes to the way that read/write permissions worked on the documents folder for Catalina. However, these following steps should help you retrieve your save files on Mac.
** Before you follow any of these steps, make a backup of your /Documents/Klei/DoNotStarveTogether/ folder **
There's likely two things that can cause this:
- Don't Starve not having permissions to use the Documents folder (Catalina should have asked about that, it's because of its new security features).
You should be able to fix that by giving Don't Starve Together the right to access your Documents, or give it Full File Access. - Because DST was unable to read its save files it may have created a new directory in your save location and is working from there, therefore not seeing your original saves.
To address both issues, first we have to make sure that DST doesn't use a new location rather than the original, which it couldn't see because of Catalina permissions.
Check in your /Documents/Klei/DoNotStarveTogether/ folder and see if there's a folder with as it's name just a large number. You will want to delete that, because with the right permissions, Don't Starve Together should be able to read the original save.
Next, we'll have to give Don't Starve Together permission to read from its original save location, either by giving it access to Files and Folders or Full Disk Access.
To give Don't Starve Together access to Files and Folders:
- Go to your system preferences>Security and Privacy>Privacy
- Select 'Files and Folders'
- Make sure the lock in the bottom left of the dialog is open. If it isn't, click it and enter your password.
- If dontstarve_steam is in the panel 'Allow the apps below to access data', select it (by clicking to the left of the checkbox, not the name) and click the '-' button to delete it. Next time you launch DST a popup should ask you if you want to allow it to access files in the documents folder. Selecting OK should make things work as intended.
If this does not make things work as intended you can try giving DST Full Fisk Access:
- In Steam, right click Don't Starve Together and select 'Properties'
- Go to the 'Installed Files' tab in the dialog that opens and select "BROWSE..."
- Now go to your system preferences>Security and Privacy>Privacy
- Select 'Full Disk Access'
- Make sure the lock in the bottom left of the dialog is open. If it isn't, click it and enter your password.
- Shift-Drag dontstarve_steam into the panel 'Allow the apps below to access data'.
** Again, before following any of these steps, make a backup of your /Documents/Klei/DoNotStarveTogether/ folder **