Where is the Save Game File Location?

[123Leo_Fighter]

I have made a discussion like this before, however, people did not understand my problem so I will try again.
I can not find the save game file location.
It is not under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4
And it also is not under:
C:\Users\*Username*\Documents
THERE IS NOTHING and I repeat, NOTHING under documents.
The reason why I reposted this is because everyone was saying (paraphrased) "Oh, just go look under C:\Users\*Username*\My Games\Fallout4, it is right there!"
"MY GAMES" DOES NOT EXIST. I have played fallout 4, I have it downloaded, and I have saved my game. So where oh where is the save game file location?
I have looked online for answers but they just repeated the Documents\My Games idea.

[goatfish]

thats the answer everyone gives you because thats the default location. are you sure you didn't change the location?

try right clicking the start button on your desktop, click File Explorer, in the top right of the window where is says "Search This PC" just type .fos and the files will show up.

.fos is the file save format, or .f4se if its a save with mods

[Zekiran]

Have you tried "USERS" APPDATA" "LOCAL" or that area?

Without knowing anything beyond 'you don't have your system configured correctly if you are placing Steam things in Program files 86' it's still really hard to figure out what is going on.

[steventirey]

Mine is under C:\users\"username"\Documents\My Games\Fallout 4. That is the default, and where Bethesda says it is supposed to be.

Does Fallout 4 have cloud saving, and the save isn't on your computer at all?

[OldFatGuy]

Originally posted by steventirey:

Mine is under C:\users\"username"\Documents\My Games\Fallout 4

Same here.

[steventirey]

It could also be on OneDrive. Which is apparently C:\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\Fallout4

A number of people over the years have reported the save files just going straight there.

[OldFatGuy]

Originally posted by 123Leo_Fighter:

I have made a discussion like this before, however, people did not understand my problem so I will try again.
I can not find the save game file location.
It is not under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4
And it also is not under:
C:\Users\*Username*\Documents
THERE IS NOTHING and I repeat, NOTHING under documents.
The reason why I reposted this is because everyone was saying (paraphrased) "Oh, just go look under C:\Users\*Username*\My Games\Fallout4, it is right there!"
"MY GAMES" DOES NOT EXIST. I have played fallout 4, I have it downloaded, and I have saved my game. So where oh where is the save game file location?
I have looked online for answers but they just repeated the Documents\My Games idea.

If there really is "NOTHING and I repeat, NOTHING under documents" then there's a good possibility that that folder has been marked to hide all files.

[Iron Knights]

Are you saving "cloud" only ? You can turn that off as you will run out of space soon enough. When you do that and make your first save, your saved game should be local.

[cheshirm]

since the game came out in 2015 game writes save files to folder
Documents\My Games\Fallout4\saves

or full path
c:\users\yourwindowslogin\documents\my games\fallout4\saves

steam cloud, if turned on, copies the saves from that folder into the steam cloud.

windows one drive moves files from the Documents folder into its One Drive folder.
the game does not read one drive folders. if you use one drive, tweak to leave the save files where they are in the documents folder

[「OnTheCouch」]

Originally posted by steventirey:

It could also be on OneDrive. Which is apparently C:\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\Fallout4

A number of people over the years have reported the save files just going straight there.

thats the same my document folder, which onedrive create a copy when you first install it (it let you choose tho, wanna "cloud" that folder or not)

[123Leo_Fighter]

Originally posted by goatfish:

thats the answer everyone gives you because thats the default location. are you sure you didn't change the location?

try right clicking the start button on your desktop, click File Explorer, in the top right of the window where is says "Search This PC" just type .fos and the files will show up.

.fos is the file save format, or .f4se if its a save with mods

That helped me realise that:

Originally posted by OldFatGuy:

If there really is "NOTHING and I repeat, NOTHING under documents" then there's a good possibility that that folder has been marked to hide all files.

Might be correct.
Turns out that on one my computers, there is nothing under documents, however on my main one it does show up. So I need to test if that is actually the case. I do have the steam cloud enabled so I may need to look where OnTheCouch suggested.
Thank you all for being so helpful!

[Zekiran]

Note well that using Steam Cloud with games like these, may lead to very, very bad results. It's best left off for long-play and huge-save file games.

[★Silent★]

I've been playing this game since the day it came out and I really liked it back then. I stopped playing because of the loading saved games issue.
the LOAD option in the main menu greyed out a few years ago.
I didn't find a solution at the time and just moved on.

Now because of the new update that should be released soon for the game I am again trying to find a solution and really I have tried everything.
I canceled the ONEDRIVE service for the documents folder, didn't work.
i uninstalled ONDRIVE APP. didn't work.
I changed the save folder name to FALLOUT4OLD
C:\users\name\documents\my games\fallout4old
Then I tried to start a new game to make a save, and when I go back into the game the LOAD option is grayed out. so it didn't work as well.
I tried deleting STEAM and reinstalling. didn't work.
I tried reinstalling the game on drive C instead of another drive. didn't work.
I tried canceling STEAM CLOUD in game settings. didn't work.

btw all my save files from 8 years ago are located in my my games\fallout4 save folder. But the game doesn't seem to find them and doesn't allow uploading them.
i just want to start a fresh game i don't care about old save.
BUT Nothing works nothing!
I can play the game I can save the game and make a quicksave but can't LOAD those saves.
Every time I enter the game the only option is to start a new game.

feeling helpless.

[Q]

Originally posted by 《★Silent★》:

I've been playing this game since the day it came out and I really liked it back then. I stopped playing because of the loading saved games issue.
the LOAD option in the main menu greyed out a few years ago.
I didn't find a solution at the time and just moved on.

Now because of the new update that should be released soon for the game I am again trying to find a solution and really I have tried everything.
I canceled the ONEDRIVE service for the documents folder, didn't work.
i uninstalled ONDRIVE APP. didn't work.
I changed the save folder name to FALLOUT4OLD
C:\users\name\documents\my games\fallout4old
Then I tried to start a new game to make a save, and when I go back into the game the LOAD option is grayed out. so it didn't work as well.
I tried deleting STEAM and reinstalling. didn't work.
I tried reinstalling the game on drive C instead of another drive. didn't work.
I tried canceling STEAM CLOUD in game settings. didn't work.

btw all my save files from 8 years ago are located in my my games\fallout4 save folder. But the game doesn't seem to find them and doesn't allow uploading them.
i just want to start a fresh game i don't care about old save.
BUT Nothing works nothing!
I can play the game I can save the game and make a quicksave but can't LOAD those saves.
Every time I enter the game the only option is to start a new game.

feeling helpless.

make a backup of all your important save game files, Steam cloud is going to delete everything or move it somewhere sooner or later.
in my case steam moved all my save game files into this folder inside steam installation folder, i thought i lost everything but nope, it was moved from my documents > games > fallout 4 to a different folder in steam installation folder. Why? no idea.

some ppl lost everything and couldnt locate any save game file, i guess i was lucky.

Maybe if you take your old files to this folder im talking about?

anyways maybe just maybe, deleting everything related to fallout 4 including registry entries, fallout 4 stuff inside steam folder, maybe there's some hidden fallout 4 folder somewhere, the thing is completely deleting everything except your save game files obviously, and screenshots, then installing the game again.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMods/comments/pctbt0/fo4_looksmenu_causes_save_options_to_grey_out/

https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/1950gzt/load_game_option_greyed_out_all_of_a_sudden/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMods/comments/ugug9v/fo4_save_option_grayed_out

https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/hin5xk/load_option_greyed_out_continue_option_gone/

i dont think that changing the name of save games folder is a good idea the game wont recognize it, anyways read those threads, 2nd one talks about the issue where the game and/or steam moved everything to a diff folder. BTw there s achange this thread is goin to be locked soon due "this thread was quite old before the recent post we locking it to prevent confusion" automated thing.

ps: u have something stored in steamcloud for fo4?

[cheshirm]

bought the game in 2016. installed it on win 7 10 and 11.
the save folder has ALWAYS been
Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Saves
which is the same as
c:\users\yourWindowsLogin\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Saves

perhaps search your drives for files that end in .fos

check your antivirus log again. a new definition file might be blocking the game.

go to folder
...\steam\logs
check files cloud_log.txt and cloud_log.previous.txt. lines with appid 377160
are about this game. mine shows
[2024-04-16 08:16:33] [AppID 377160] Need to locally delete file My Games/Fallout4/Saves/Autosave1_00000000_596E6772696B_CombatZone01_061403_20230317233657_68_2.fos
where my save files are

[sdack]

Posting it here, too, for anyone who may want to know about how to deal with OneDrive and the Documents folder being in the wrong place:
https://www.elevenforum.com/t/move-or-restore-default-location-of-documents-folder-in-windows-11.8708/