The save/load operation failed

[Samurai]

So I'm having this problem where I can't save my game.
I installed the game in a different directory and tried moving my saves to the new folder, now the game doesn't recognize them and won't even let me star new saves.
I never used mods, it's not a firewall problem, is there a fix for this or am I doomed to never play this game?

Edit: I already uninstalled everything and installed again

Edit 2: Figured it out, I may be kind of dumb... or unlucky I'll never know

[cheshirm]

firewalls are for network access. has nothing to do with where programs write on disks

" tried moving my saves to the new folder,"
you can move your save files wherever you wish
but the game reads/writes saves to folder
Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Saves

perhaps research windows mklink command
and create a symbolic link from where the new folder is
to where the folder is actually located

[Death Approaches]

mklink will work on ntfs drives, dunno if it's fat32 if that's possible, so will depend on your volume and why you moved the game saves... why DID you move the game? space? because that dreck about not being under Program Files is old, that was an issue years back, but today you'll have more issues with onedrive than permissions issues under PF directories for Steam libraries...

speaking of, did you create a new Steam Library to move the game to, or just move it? Steam really hates that, while it's OK if a mod manager is doing the launching, Steam gets really pissy when it can't find something it installed, and will want to keep trying to re-re-re-install it in the last known location, though you can manually edit the appmanifest and fix the path that way, if you only have one installed copy... we'd have to know what you're doing, and what you're intending to be the outcome, though.

you already uninstalled and reinstalled, great, but it's still going to put saves under My games of the current user that invoked the game... it's hardcoded to. as are the .ini files that are in-use... symbolic linking directories is the only way, or using a mod manager like MO2 and have it "trap" your saves for you, which goes against your "never use mods" thing.

[Sero]

How did you move your saves to the new folder? Your saves are in an entirely different place than the rest of the game files. If the programm doesn't know where the saves are it of course can't load them. Simply putting them into a folder labeled Skyrim does not work.

It doesn't matter where you install Skyrim, the savefiles always go into the same spot.

[smr1957]

One more thing to check, and that is if you have One Drive enabled - that absolutely does not play nice with games and should be disabled, as it is one of the main causes of issues with saving.

For issues with One Drive, see this post by Wolfpack (from Skyrim Special Edition forum, PINNED TOPIC Helpful Links and References, Section 5 - General Troubleshooting):

One Drive Issues Fix
Skyrim vs. the OneDrive Documents folder (or "I can't save my games, see my saves or update my INI files") by Wolfpack
https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/2263565217515804221/

Good luck!

[Samurai]

Ok Guys, so what happened was:

I have two directories for my games: 1 in a smaller SSD and 1 in a way larger HD.
Firstly I installed in the ssd, but for some reason the launcher would not save my graphic settings, even when ran as Admin. My save files were in the installation folder, so I copied all of them, uninstalled the game, then installed it again on my HD (and yes, there's a propper steam library there), I pasted the old save files and ran the game.

The launcher settings were fixed BUT the saves were not showing in the main menu, although the character names appeared ingame when trying to load, it just wouldn't. There wasn't any skyrim related folder in My Documents since everything was in the same folder before... But since everyone was talking about this online, I decided to manually create a folder there and name it "Saves".

So now my game saves but I lost the older files, that's fine I guess

[Samurai]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

which goes against your "never use mods" thing.

It's not some kind of rule, it's just my first playtrough, that's why I never used mods xD