Game is not saving

[lnterceptor]

Hi, I think I played the beginning over 6 times now. I keep getting the head to turn, it shows a symbol that it's saving bottom right. I explore for a while, get new ship logs, die, my game starts from the beginning and I can fly again.

But after I close my game or go to the main menu I have to start over every time and get the launch codes. I dont feel like this is supposed to happen, does anyone have any advice on how to solve this?

[Nert]

That's definitely wrong, sounds like it's unable to save, maybe some kind of write-protection or virus protection on the folder where it's trying to write your saves

Someone else had a similar issue but I'm struggling to find the thread, I believe they reinstalled and everything was fine after that

%appdata%\..\locallow\Mobius Digital\Outer Wilds\ and then I believe SteamSaves should be where they are

[lnterceptor]

Thank you for looking it up! Right as you typed this I reinstalled it and it does seem to work now. Highly appreciated for your efforts <3

[firebloom]

Having the same issue. I can see the save file in the folder, but it doesn't see a save game to load.

[Fuzzball]

I think I'm definitely getting this same problem too. I first played the game for an hour and flew to Attlerock, but then the game crashed and I had to quit. Every time I go to the game's Main Menu it only gives me the option for "New Expedition". I've tried replaying the game several times and getting to the point where the statue head turns and the eyes glow. The little symbol appears in the bottom right, but still whenever I quit to the Main Menu it never gives me an option to continue where I left off.

The game remembers my profile exists, and keeps my adjusted settings, but doesn't remember my game progress. I tried re-installing the game once, but that didn't seem to change anything.

I came across this old reddit thread and tried what the most helpful comment suggested, but I don't think I did it right... If I backup then delete all the content in the "SteamSaves" folder and open the game it says "Your save file is corrupted do you want to load the previous one?", but even if I say no, create a new profile and then copy back in the old "<Profile Name>" folder, it still doesn't seem to find my save games.

Within the "<Profile Name>" folder itself there are just four objects: "data.owsave", "graphics.owsett", "input.owsett" and "player.owsett". Should there be anything else?

Anyone ever found some clear steps to fix this? Clearly it's a problem that occurrs fairly frequently.

[MobiusDigital]

Originally posted by Fuzzball:

I think I'm definitely getting this same problem too. I first played the game for an hour and flew to Attlerock, but then the game crashed and I had to quit. Every time I go to the game's Main Menu it only gives me the option for "New Expedition". I've tried replaying the game several times and getting to the point where the statue head turns and the eyes glow. The little symbol appears in the bottom right, but still whenever I quit to the Main Menu it never gives me an option to continue where I left off.

The game remembers my profile exists, and keeps my adjusted settings, but doesn't remember my game progress. I tried re-installing the game once, but that didn't seem to change anything.

I came across this old reddit thread and tried what the most helpful comment suggested, but I don't think I did it right... If I backup then delete all the content in the "SteamSaves" folder and open the game it says "Your save file is corrupted do you want to load the previous one?", but even if I say no, create a new profile and then copy back in the old "<Profile Name>" folder, it still doesn't seem to find my save games.

Within the "<Profile Name>" folder itself there are just four objects: "data.owsave", "graphics.owsett", "input.owsett" and "player.owsett". Should there be anything else?

Anyone ever found some clear steps to fix this? Clearly it's a problem that occurrs fairly frequently.

Have you tried reinstalling as well or looking into your firewall?

[Nert]

Note that a save file won't be made until after your first death, post-statue. If you quit before that death then it will still only say New Expedition - to save any false negatives

A reinstall has fixed the issue every time that I've heard of it, but such a thing doesn't touch the save files which are in the AppData structure, not with the game files.. My first guess would be antivirus, I used to use BitDefender which often blocked games from writing their own saves, wouldn't explain why a reinstall can fix though.

I have four owsett files within my SteamSaves\<profilename>\ folder - player, graphics, input, and data

There's also a <profilename>.owprofile in the SteamSaves folder

[Fuzzball]

Originally posted by Nert:

Note that a save file won't be made until after your first death, post-statue. If you quit before that death then it will still only say New Expedition - to save any false negatives

Ah, maybe that is the issue for me in the end. The game crashed before my character ever died, and I have yet to experience a death. I was just repeatedly testing up to the point of that statue lighting up, because I saw the little save symbol in the corner when it did, and so I thought this would be enough to test whether the game was saving my progress.

I guess I will have to try the game again and get to the point where I die for the first time, hopefully without the game crashing beforehand again. When I have some free time and am able to try this I will report back. Thanks.

[Nert]

Originally posted by Fuzzball:

Originally posted by Nert:

Note that a save file won't be made until after your first death, post-statue. If you quit before that death then it will still only say New Expedition - to save any false negatives

Ah, maybe that is the issue for me in the end. The game crashed before my character ever died, and I have yet to experience a death. I was just repeatedly testing up to the point of that statue lighting up, because I saw the little save symbol in the corner when it did, and so I thought this would be enough to test whether the game was saving my progress.

That is understandably confusing!

If you want to save time it's fine to simply hurl yourself off of the observatory to your death immediately after seeing the statue - speedrunners do this for other reasons - and after that your save should be fine and work as expected, if it doesn't then you're seeing the same issue as OP

Beyond that point it will autosave every time you see "Ship Log Updated", and is immediate so even a crash shouldn't cost you any progress

[firebloom]

Originally posted by Nert:

If you want to save time it's fine to simply hurl yourself off of the observatory to your death immediately after seeing the statue - speedrunners do this for other reasons - and after that your save should be fine and work as expected, if it doesn't then you're seeing the same issue as OP

Beyond that point it will autosave every time you see "Ship Log Updated", and is immediate so even a crash shouldn't cost you any progress

I saw several "Ship Log Updated" messages and there is still no way to save or any option to load a save file. I haven't died yet though. I'll try "hurl yourself off of the observatory" because in theory, punching the TV shouldn't work to fix it and yet...

[Nert]

Originally posted by firebloom:

I saw several "Ship Log Updated" messages and there is still no way to save or any option to load a save file. I haven't died yet though. I'll try "hurl yourself off of the observatory" because in theory, punching the TV shouldn't work to fix it and yet...

It does have to be post-first-death-after-statue, think of seeing that event to be the end of the tutorial, how you 'respawn' is an integral part of the story so they want to be certain the player sees it and knows about it before considering the game started

(This is a very mild spoiler and is better to discover as a surprise but I feel like making sure people get to play it at all is more important!)

There will not be a save or load option even when working correctly, the only difference is beyond that point, when starting the game back up you'll have Resume Expedition as well as New Expedition.

The quickest test is to ignore the village - there's nothing you need to do with anyone there if you've learned all they teach you anyway - walk through and up to the observatory, get the codes, see the statue on your way out, then immediately hurtle to your death or fly into the sun or something. If you can now quit out of the game and see "Resume Expedition" when you load it back up, everything's fine

[firebloom]

Originally posted by Nert:

... see the statue on your way out, then immediately hurtle to your death or fly into the sun or something. If you can now quit out of the game and see "Resume Expedition" when you load it back up, everything's fine

Hurling yourself off the cliff post freaky statue worked terrifically. The "resume" button exists now.
Thank you, Nert! Now each time I'd like to save the game, I'll find some creative way to die.

[Fuzzball]

Good news. I managed to play through the game for a while with no crashes, and died twice. When I quit to the main menu it gave me an option to "Resume Expedition". Hopefully all my problems are sorted! Thanks for the help.

[b1tbull]

No luck here. Started the game yesterday. I understand the time loop thing and the fact the game save occurs when the loop resets or you die. I re-installed the game, deleted the local save files, created a new profile. Now even when jumping off the cliff after the turn of the head no resume option appears in the menu. Getting tired of "starting new expedition" every
time. Save files are created, just never seen the resume expedition in the menu.
Any suggestions ?

[Amakarra]

I had the same issue with constantly having to start a new discovery, what worked for me : (do not leave the game or go to main menu until you've done the last step)

- Start a new discovery
- Get the Launch code and see the statue
- Jump from the cliff and die
- You restart close to your ship with your launch code
- Then keep playing for at least 22 min so that the next auto save logo appears

I wasn't doing this last step until now bc I kept leaving to main menu to check and the resume expedition was not appearing. But now it does, hopes it can help some of you !

[fifi]

This is still not resolved. My progress is not saved after getting launch codes, death, special events etc. Every time I quit I have to start from the very beggining. Devs, think about how many people has just left this game thinking that's intended.

Anything above didn't work for me.