cannot load the saved file.

[vazeango]

i have played the witcher 3 for over 300 hrs, including offline and online saves.
just a day ago i had to reinstall windows 10 again and that somehow messed my saved game file, i even tried downloading it from the cloud. can anybody help me with this please.

[Bandy]

You haven't described how the failure occurs, does it CTD, is there some error message, or...
Are you using mods? Did you try to validate game files via steam in case it was a game files issue instead of a save file issue?

[vazeango]

NO, Im not using any mod neither there is any failure. i just cannot load my old saved game.

[Yumeko]

why cant you load it. Does it say anything.

[vazeango]

no, it does not. i just cant load my old saved file.
i have the saved files in my system.

[Bandy]

Can you SEE the save file from inside the game? If so, what happens when you select it? Describe step-by-step what happens, because basically, you are not giving enough details needed to try to help. Saying, "it doesn't work!" helps no one help you.

If you have steam cloud save enabled, then disable it... it causes more problems than it is worth. Also, you DID NOT say you tried to validate game files through steam. Do so.

With nothing else to work with, my guess is your saves are not in the correct directory path...

[vazeango]

ok, just two days ago i had to reinstall windows and it changed everything. i had to change t directories just to open witcher 3. i also changed the folder for saved game files but it can't load the saved files. when i open the game there is no option for load game.

NOTE: iI EVEN TRIED DOWNLOADING THE SAVED FILES FROM CLOUD.

[Bandy]

Your directory paths are possibly buggered up, read on. Run W3 from the game .exe in the actual game folder, do NOT bother even starting steam. The .exe is here:
Drive:\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\x64\witcher3.exe
Witcher 3 will run without any game launcher like steam, Epic, or GOG.

Hopefully you have saves backed up elsewhere. Turn OFF steam cloud, just do it.
Your save games should have been here before, and you likely tried to re-install to this path, right? ...
C:\Users\ <your user name> \Documents\The Witcher 3\ Gamesaves

NOW, here is the real question. Did you turn off/disable windows OneDrive when you reinstalled windows10? Or did you buy a new computer with W10 pre-installed???

It sounds like M$ OneDrive is active, and this is a BUGGER to resolve completely, but can be worked around easily. Basically, W3 is somehow hooked into OneDrive, so it is looking in the:
C:\Users\ <your user name> \OneDrive\documents folder,
so go see if there is a W3 folder in there, and if not then move save games there but make sure the folders required are present:
...\ <your user name> \OneDrive\Documents\The Witcher 3\...

Open game, see if it is resolved. Report back.

EDIT: make sure you have migrated your personalized user.settings files to the folder as well, tho the game likely regenerated those files by default.

[vazeango]

yeah, i disabled onedrive while installing new windows. i will try this now.

[★ FmNey ★]

Steam cloud has corrupted save files, not for witcher 3 but many other games. Might be cause of your downloading from the cloud

[vazeango]

Hello, i just synced my onedrive.
now should i open the game with steam or just run the .exe file

[Bandy]

Did I tell you sync OneDrive? You are on your own if you want to go down that path...

[vazeango]

sorry, my onedrive was disabled, so i thought of enabling and syncing with it.

[Bandy]

Apologies, I get what you mean. I prefer my files to go where I want them to go, not where M$ decides they should go...

Anyways, again, I suspect somehow W3 is looking in the OneDrive folder for saves, so just put your <backed up> saves there in the proper directory path. You do not need to have OD sync'd, but from now on know that this may be an issue for this and other games, and to look in both directories in the future.

I bought a 'boutique' game computer b/c it was the only way to get an RTX card earlier, and yes, OneDrive was active by default and I did not unsync it before installing some games, so now the user\OD folder cannot be disabled for these games unless W10 is reinstalled. I just didn't bother...

[vazeango]

i did everything you said except that onedrive syncing which i did on my own.
i still can't load my old saved game file. i wish i could share you some screenshots.

[Bandy]

If that didn't solve the problem don't know what it could be, but still suspect it has something to do with that, but maybe just b/c that was my problem and how it got solved. Good luck!