Every time I exit playing Skyrim, Steam starts downloading something. It takes a couple of minutes @1.5MB/s or so. This wouldn't be such a big deal, except that I'm trying to create a mod, so I'm jumping in and out of the game every ten minutes or so to play test, and I don't seem to be able to launch the creation kit until the downloading stops. Anyone have any idea why this is happening? Screenshot management maybe?

Well they recently made it so your save games are saved on the cloud....

Ug.

Only 50 MBs worth and only the most recent 50 MBs.

Really? That's better than nothing at all.
So I guess if you lose your saves or accidentally delete them there's a way to get them from the cloud? Or do they automatically download into your save game folder?

Both, I believe. Bare with me here as I've never really been in much position to experience the Steam Cloud.

I believe it will automatically download all the stuff in the cloud to the machine and upload the latest 50 MBs worth of saves to the Cloud.

The Steam Cloud API allows your game to write and retrieve files for each user. Use it for personalized settings like keyboard, mouse, and gamepad configurations, multiplayer sprays, or even saved games.

The point is... If you delete SKYRIM, or just only "saves" folder it will be automatically re-downloaded. It's a very useful feature. For example... if you not at home for few months and got a laptop you can connect to STEAM, download this game and saves re-downloads also.

Surprising that game users only have 50 MB. Other AAA titles what I've got on STEAM have 100 MB. It's like a minimum size... Anyway, it's good to know that this feature was enabled for SKYRIM.

I agree that it's a good feature, but it's really getting in my way at the moment. Fortunately for me and others in my shoes, it looks like cloud syncing can be disabled (right click the game in your library, go to "properties", then uncheck the enable sync box on the Updates tab.)

It's not downloading, after you exit the game. It's uploading your save to the cloud in a slow fasshion. On par with my upload speeds.