Unable to save in-game settings and game progress [SOLVED] \{}^,...,^}/

[EviLFazZ]

I started playing Life is Strange the moment it was officially unlocked on Steam in the UK and have had no other problems with it, except for not being able to save anything

I understand that Life is Strange auto saves and uses the typical 'My Documents' folder on Windows OS. However, from other conversations on this forum, it uses the My Documents on the default OS drive which is normally C:. However I've never kept the 'My Documents[/b] on the default drive for so many obvious reasons and is 'always' set to totally different drive

One or two very old games out of my 500+ games had problems with assigning a folder for save files, but was able to manually reassign/redirect them without little fuss

Searching both my C: drive (Windows 8.1 OS) and X: drive (my 'My Documents' dedicated drive) do not contain any such folders names Life is Strange, and D: drive (my dedicated gaming drive) only contains the typically installation of the game (within Steams usual folder layout), but nothing else

Whilst playing Life is Strange, it suggests it's saving (animated pen and paper icon) and also when changing any configuration settings, but after returning to the game, nothing has been saved, both settings and game progress

Currently each time I start Life is Strange, I need to change the visual, audio and keymap binding settings every single time and also start the game all over again, which means I'm now not playing Life is Strangeany more until this issue is solved, because it's obviously getting really annoying

I have tried creating the folders manually on both C: and X:, but does not make any difference. I so wish I knew this was going to be a problem, as I already paid for the Season Pass and have a horrible feeling I'm alone with this problem and will probably never be fixed. I hope I'm wrong though, as 'we' (in our cave) were really enjoying Life is Strange, but this technical problem has killed it completely dead for us until it's solved

Meanwhile ...could anyone please confirm the exact folder layout for the save files, just so I may confirm that it's not this issue of no folder being present (with the correct hierarchy and spelling) and can look at other ways of solving this fault if needed

Update 01: I always use the "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" function before posting any Technical Support, so the game is both up-to-date and as intended

Updated: 18th March 2015 - Solved - See my reply #12: steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/1/618453594743051416/#c618456760257300477

[v00d00m4n]

Maybe you have some antivirus or file rollback software or something like sandboxy that re-reroutes file write into some directory where it stores sandboxed files, and it failes to re-route programs back to this directory on file read?

[ppietro]

I don't know if this helps, but if you're manually creating directories, here's where mine are:

Config: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame\Config

Saves: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Life Is Strange\Saves

There is also some data in the steam tree. My steam installation is D:\Games\Steam, so:

D:\Games\Steam\userdata\<usernumber>\319630

You might want to make sure that directory exists too.

Also <username> & <usernumber> are placeholders for your logins on your system. :)

Good Luck!

Cheers,
Paul

[EviLFazZ]

Thanks Voodooman but use ESET (the best for A/V editing and gaming setups) which never gives me issues like this and don't use any rollback software.

Thanks ppietro (Paul), that did help me figure out better where Life is Strange are shoving it's files however, it also revealed that the game is no creating anything in these directories and the directories don't even exist. Re-installing Life is Strange from scratch still didn't help.

I have a sad feeling I'm the only one with this problem, so it will most likely never be fixed and once again, it money in bin due to a game being built badly.

For the record and to summarize in case someone else finds this post and requires more details on my installation:

Steam Client: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam (just Steam and nothing else - Strictly no games)
Steam installed games: D:\Games\Steam (all Steam games and anything else related)

[ppietro]

I re-read your original post. You say you see the writing icon - so it sounds like something is being written.

Just in case you want to search your drives, each of the three save games appears to be composed of files in pairs - LISOptions1.sav & LISSave1.sav, LISOptions2.sav & LISSave2.sav, and LISOptions3.sav & LISSave3.sav.

You might try searching for those and seeing if they're being written somewhere. If the game is hard coded to load them from the C: drive, but is writing them somewhere else, maybe you can just copy them to the c:\ structure I outlined above for loading. Just a thought.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Paul

[EviLFazZ]

Thanks again ppietro (Paul)

That additional information has really helped me figure out what is going wrong, which in short, Life is Strange is not writing any files/saves anyway at all. Not one of those file names you have kindly shared with me are to be found on any related drive

With this information, I will write a formal bug report to DontNod and see if they are bothered about fixing this 1990's in-game fault, because no other game I own on Steam gives me this problem

I will update this post if anything ever comes of it ...next month ...next year?!

[EviLFazZ]

As suggested by DontNod, I re-installed Life is Strange in the basic old school method by using the system's main drive (C:) where both Windows 8.1 and Steam are installed... it made 'no difference'

It still will not save anything (game configuration and game progression)

[Square_Jason]

Hi there,.. if you go to the run prompt (win + r) and type

explorer /

what folder does it open?

[EviLFazZ]

Hey Square_Jason, thank you very much for getting back to me

You're colleagues attending Rezzed were surprised by all this and thought it best to disturb you on it. I'm still suffering from a BAFTA Games Award hangover, so somewhat a little slow

Anywho, that command opens: X:\

This is because I've assign this (entire) physical drive in Windows OS to be where all my files, saves, etc to be defaulted too ...as in My Documents ...using the standard inbuilt option to move the location of the 'My Documents' default folder

[v00d00m4n]

Originally posted by EviL FazZ:

Hey Square_Jason, thank you very much for getting back to me :LIS_butterfly:

You're colleagues attending Rezzed were surprised by all this and thought it best to disturb you on it. I'm still suffering from a BAFTA Games Award hangover, so somewhat a little slow :swdshiner:

Anywho, that command opens: X:\

This is because I've assign this (entire) physical drive in Windows OS to be where all my files, saves, etc to be defaulted too ...as in My Documents ...using the standard inbuilt option to move the location of the 'My Documents' default folder :catenvelope:

Maybe instead of using root of drive you should create at least folder called Documents and move everything there?

You know, that windows add a lot of system folders and files in root of disk, such as system volume information, recycle bin, and so on? And now all of this mixed with your documents, and attributes of document folder applied to root of disk.
Also widnows may give no permission to write in root of disk in case is UAC used and program does not have admin permission,
I think this is the reason why some programs including Life is strange does not write in your documents folder.

Please, move it to Documents sub-folder at the same disk, and see how game will behave in this case.

[Al_lA]

I had this issue too. I've created the folders c:\users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Life is Strange\Saves and also f:\My Games\Life is Strange\Saves, as that is the location of my 'documents' after I moved it using the windows dialog. Creating the folders on my other drive has solved my problems re: saving.

[Scott]

Originally posted by EviL FazZ:

Hey Square_Jason, thank you very much for getting back to me :LIS_butterfly:

You're colleagues attending Rezzed were surprised by all this and thought it best to disturb you on it. I'm still suffering from a BAFTA Games Award hangover, so somewhat a little slow :swdshiner:

Anywho, that command opens: X:\

This is because I've assign this (entire) physical drive in Windows OS to be where all my files, saves, etc to be defaulted too ...as in My Documents ...using the standard inbuilt option to move the location of the 'My Documents' default folder :catenvelope:

Hi, I spoke to you at the Rezzed event and believe the problem you are experiencing is the same as what AI_IA was having. Can you try the suggestions above and let me know if that resolves your save issues?

Many thanks

[EviLFazZ]

Sorry for the long delay, mad week already with VR related stuff and another dying graphic card ...I think I might just have to treat myself to a Titan X shortly

Anywho ...in short, I'm very happy to say THAT WORKED

I 'only' created the following folder:

>>> X:\My Games\Life is Strange\Saves

I did not need C:\Users\FazZ\Documents\My Games\Life Is Strange\Saves as this did nothing and also don't even have a 'My Games' folder on my OS drive C: as this has been fully re-assigned to drive X: (in my setup).

Thanks Al_lA and ppietro, you both helped solve this minor thing, that did actually stop me from playing Life is Strange

I won't bore everyone with the finer details of my setup, but mainly for the benefit of Voodooman, what you're explaining is not how Windows 8/8.1 works exactly and 'nothing' on my entire 30Tb+ setup is mixed together, everything is specifically assigned to drives, folders, NAS's and on-line connected storage and this is the first time I've seen this kind of fault out over 500+ games on Steam and another 200+ on Rift, Origin, Uplay, GOG, Desura, etc put together

For the attention of scottb thanks for taking the time to try and help and thankfully for now this is now solved. Before I disappear into 'the' strange I just remembered something that might help you solved this for others that have a similar issue ...because I also completely forgot to mention something that might have caused this. When I first played Life is Strange (minutes after it was officially unlocked on Steam) I went through the usuals us Steam gamers have to do every time (3840x2160, maxing out the graphical settings, subtitles off, audio adjustments for surround audio (if any), keybindings, trackball, etc) and for this game, I did most of that where I could and actually started Episode One just to make sure it worked. The reason is, my sexy other half was interested in playing the game, ever since I got her into playing The Walking Dead (game), so after testing the game, I used the the in-game option to delete the first auto-created save game (1 of the 3) as I knew I would not need this save again, as I would starting the game from fresh with my other half

That hopefully explains the madness of deleting and can now add that it's possible that the game actually deleted the entire folder and not just the save file? Maybe?! I do remember seeing an actual save within the game itself on that same day, but never after I did the above. Hope that helps you and/or others too, present and future

Thanks again, fun regards and happy gaming all

[salival79]

@Evil Fazz. For me your solution doesn't work at all.

[Deckard]

ok so i just solved the problem. So first of you need to creat the correct save files on the drive you have the game instaled on. for me it was as fallows c:/user/(username)/Documents/MyGames/LifeIsStrange/Saves
now with that done you still will have trouble if you are in the same boat as me and that is because of the stupid onedrive thing installed on my rig so you must access it online and remove any conection it has to your game so that it no longer trys to access it by defalt. Not sure why but this game seams to hate this program.

This is my first time on any board so if i was unclear in my explanation please feel free to ask.
hope this helps

[xXxOlivierxXx]

Just wanted to say that creating "F:\My Games\Life is Strange\Saves" fixed my problem (F: is my default documents folder). Too bad that I found the solution until I had already finished the episode 1 :(