Simfile issues/questions

I have finished several songs recently only to notice that I never included a .sm or .scc file in any of the songs' folders. Yet, somehow, the steps and info are still saved and stored somewhere. This is a sort of concern now, as I can't imagine being able to successfully share any of my songs if there is no apparent file where the steps themselves are stored.

In an attempt to solve this issue, I tried creating a blank .sm file in the folder for one of these songs (manually, i.e. creating a blank notepad document and saving it as .sm), figuring it would get rid of the steps I already had but start writing new ones down on the file. It did not. The old steps were still there, the simfile remained blank.

Thus, here are my questions: Where on Earth are these steps being stored if there is no apparent file in any of the song folders? Are they somehow embedded in the folder or hidden? How will I be able to share my songs? If not, why was that .sm file not working? Perhaps I created the file incorrectly. And if so, where can I get my hands on a working template?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1. Did you install StepMania into Program Files? Don't do that. Install it somewhere that your user can normally read/write to without special permission.
2. Custom songs should be installed in %APPDATA%/StepMania 5.0/Songs/ You probably didn't know this because it's poorly documented.
3. IIRC, if StepMania is in Program Files, and you put the songs in the StepMania/Songs folder instead of the one I just named in %APPDATA%, then Windows did some funny business and the files that were made when StepMania tried to make .sm and .ssc files were created in some special place. I can't remember where they get hidden, but hopefully you can find them if you use "Find Files & Folders" to search your entire hard drive for one with the right name.

(I don't use Windows, so I don't have to deal with this problem myself, and might be misremembering part of it)

Aha, the songs are indeed in AppData. The step charts for all of those songs are there, thankfully. And now that you mention it, I'll reinstall Stepmania to a new location.

Thank you very much for the assistance.