SOLVED: No game saves can be loaded (even new campaigns)

[Mr. Sun]

Hello there! I just re-installed the Witcher 3 to start a new campaign, and played a few hours, to find that I cannot load any of the saves I created for that run, nor any of the saves downloaded by Steam Cloud Sync.

I have tried re-installing the game, starting a new campaign and saving, restarting my computer, verifying the integrity of the cache via Steam, deleting specific folders and redownloading (DLC in Witcher 3 steamapps, savegame folder in Documents) and running the game as administrator (as well as disabling controlled folder access in malware protection settings).

The game runs perfectly on my Windows 10 laptop, apart from this frustrating issue.
The error reads: "Save game data appears to be damaged and cannot be loaded".

Has anyone experienced the same? Are there any known fixes? I have had a pretty thorough look online but haven't found any solutions that worked for me.

Hoping to be able to play this beautiful game soon. Thanks.

[Mr. Sun]

Originally posted by opjose:

Originally posted by DORCO PIO:

Yes exactly! Where does one check the antivirus log on Windows? And I have disabled controlled folder access, and added the witcher3.exe as an exclusion to Windows Security, neither of which fixed the issue.

Also check that those folders and parent folders are set to Read/Write and that "System" and your user account both have R/W rights.

If you mean checking this via 'Properties', then I've done this - all accounts have R/W permissions on the Documents folder.

[Mr. Sun]

Originally posted by cheshirm:

perhaps create a new local windows account with a simple login name like "games".
logout. login with the new account. see if the game saves and you can load saves.

Thanks mate. Not sure why, but this worked for me! Started a new campaign, been able to save and load no problem!

[cheshirm]

so something corrupt in your original windows login. or permission problem. up to you how to proceed. play with new login. transfer everything from old login. try to find out what the issue may be with old login. the game works on your pc so you have all the libraries and settings correct with the new login.

[Esmariatumadre]

I dont know if its linked but i just solved my problem by updating the drivers with geforce. Finally after 8 hours trying to play

[Mr. Sun]

Originally posted by cheshirm:

so something corrupt in your original windows login. or permission problem. up to you how to proceed. play with new login. transfer everything from old login. try to find out what the issue may be with old login. the game works on your pc so you have all the libraries and settings correct with the new login.

I have had other permissions issues on the previous login which seemed to be related to the use of fingerprint authentication associated with that account. This new one only uses a pin, which could be an explanation. Will follow-up here if I found out more. Thanks, H.

[CMDR MRMAURICE (Moz)]

I'm also having an issue with loading saves. I've been playing for a while and now today no saves (even autosaves) are loading. It just gets stuck and then game is not responding. I have spent the last few hours trying to figure it out to no success

Update: So I loaded an old save. Loaded fine. Then I loaded my recent game (from in-game) and it worked????? I'm so confused

[carless]

Originally posted by cheshirm:

so something corrupt in your original windows login. or permission problem. up to you how to proceed. play with new login. transfer everything from old login. try to find out what the issue may be with old login. the game works on your pc so you have all the libraries and settings correct with the new login.

Hi
I have the same problem with not being able to load any gamesaves. I made a new local account and there I could play normally the first time. I transfered everything from my old account to the local account and deleted the old one and now the second time I want to play the same problem I had with the old account occours again.
Any Ideas why this could be?
I would love to play the game cause it was very fun while it worked so thanks for any answers!

[cheshirm]

very strange indeed. you transferred all your saves to the new account, the new account can read and load them and you can play. logout/restart pc and game no longer reads saves.

I installed the game on my old win 10 pc in Dec 2015. the game can still load those saves on my new win 11 pc today. I did not do anything special - just moved the files. have never had to run steam with admin permission since I got steam 18 yrs ago.

https://support.cdprojektred.com/en/witcher-3/pc/sp-technical/issue/654/i-am-unable-to-save-the-game#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20encountering%20issues,is%20Windows%20Defender%20and%20Bitdefender.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/292030/discussions/0/6126615404771663875/

everything points to permission issues. but restarting game does not change permissions. if it is a game bug, what is triggering it just for the few users that are posting about it.

long shot - move save files to another folder outside the Documents\The Witcher 3 folder. delete the witcher 3 folder.
manually create the The Witcher 3 folders.
manually create the The WItcher 3\gamesaves folder.
copy your saves back into the gamesaves folder.
run the game and see if you can load them.

[carless]

Actually I think its at least in the right direction because when I manually created the folder and started the game I could see 2secs long the actual loading screen. After that unfortunetly the same thing like before happened and the screen went completly black.
Maybe everytime I load a game a connection is recreated so the game cant read the saves?
Do you have any other ideas what I could try?

[cheshirm]

the only connection would be steam cloud save. turn it OFF then try save/loading. no connection needed for a disk read/write. unless your pc Documents drive is on a netwrok and not local

will post in your thread on this problem