How to Easily Save your Saves After Removing a Mod:

A very simple & short step by step process that I have used to save my save files when I removed one or more mods, regardless of how complex they were.

Fix:

DISCLAIMER: As there have been a few people having issues with me posting this suggestion and believing there can be possible risks to your save being corrupted, I figured I would do the decent thing and note that there can be a possible risk in using this method and to use your own discretion / judgement. Although I have never once had any issues with this method since owning the game and can not personally verify these risks, I will at least note them.

This is not a guide on how to "Clean" your saves as some have claimed it to be and never was. It is a quick process that allows those who are not tech savvy or can't be bothered to go through the tedious process of "Cleaning" their save, who simply just want to play their saved game without a mod.

When you typically remove a mod a save was using, by default your save becomes corrupted regardless. There is a complex way of trying to fix them and a simple way, both of which come with their own risks, but if your save is already corrupt, what do you have to lose? This guide covers the "Simple" way. Worst case scenario is you need to start a new game, which many already end up doing.

Problem:

Every so often a player will want to remove a mod from their Skyrim, but the problem with doing this is that you generally have an error pop up when you load a saved game that was using that mod and if you proceed the game will get stuck at the loading screen and do nothing. You then usually have to CTRL+ALT+DEL out of the game and End Task it through Task Manager.

A lot of people talk about using this mod manager or that mod manager or use some convoluted processes to fix the issue..... or just tell you to start over with a new game and forget your old saves.

Simple Solution:

I have used this solution multiple times and has worked every single time regardless of how complex / big a mod is or how many mods I decide to remove at one time or how often I decide to remove mods from an existing saved game:

#1 - Remove the mods you no longer want by either deleting them from the Nexus Mod Manager, the Skyrim Data File List or the Steam Workshop.

#2 - Load up Skyrim like normal.

#3 - At the Main Menu, before you load your saved game, load a brand new game.

#4 - As soon as the new game is loaded, at the first chance you get to get to the in-game menu, don't save the new game, just go and Load your old Save Game.

#5 - Your old save will still display the error message that you are missing mods, but proceed anyways.

#6 - Your old save will load normally and you can play without issue.

#7 - Save your game so that it no longer calls for the missing mods.

Done.

Why does this work?

I have no idea, but loading a new game that doesn't try to call for the missing mods seems to clear up your game's data and perhaps when you load your old save, it uses some of the data from the new game that is stored in RAM for your save and bypasses the lockup that happens so often.

Your Welcome.

[MageThis]

This certainly works. I might add make a backup (I make 2 to 2 external devices) of your save file(s) before tooling with them. Step #0

[Blue Sun Merc]

There is also a tool on the nexus for cleaning saves its recommeneded to do about every 20 hours of gameplay or so. Regardless of what mods you use or how many the longer you play the more junk that gets put into the save thus making it unstable.

[Kenz]

SkyRRIIIIIIIImmm

[Katsotil]

I have installed and uninstalled heaps of mods and had no problem loading my save from the main menu.

[Zer05um]

you should really be reading the unistall methods for mods, they are written and placed by the mods author completely for you so as to not bloat your save with scripts. if you just delete mods that have a certain way of uninstalling them then the best case for what's going to happen is you are going to get huge load times upon entering a cell or leaving one, this isn't gonna happen if you just delete say one mod that has ~3 scripts in it but it can happen with the ones that activate a script every 5 secs or ones that have lots of scripts, think 10+. also gameplay isnt going to be effected, what is going to be effected is having a save that constantly ctd's or has infinite load times for what you think is just a bug by bethesda, but is actually becasue you have broken the save itself.

[Praxius]

I have also used the auto unequip arrows mod and similar with no issues in removal this way.

I am not saying there can't be issues as I am only going by my repeated personal experiences.

Before I wrote this guide I removed every single mod from my game and then did the above & still could load my save without any noticeable difference in gameplay.

[Zer05um]

I was talking less armor mods and more things like Auto Unequip Ammo, it has a section that says you have to go into the console and stop the quest that it uses to make the scripts work. things like armor and such wont do anything to your save if you uninstall them so long as they are not equip and have enchantments, if they are then the enchantment will stay on the pc without it being able to be removed unless you use the console. there are a lot more examples but yeah you should know what you're doing when you uninstall something

[Praxius]

For those who have been having an issue with me posting something other players may benefit from, I have added a disclaimer in the guide noting your concerns.

[Praxius]

I have had certain items in my inventory from a mod, I have had certain building locations and entire sections of the map completely modeled into something entirely new, I have had mod quests active and so on. The items are no longer in my inventory, the lands are reverted back to their default design and even when I am standing in the area, I spawn perfectly fine. The only time there can be a risk would be with such mods as Falskaar where you would be located not on the stock map.

Worst case scenario is if one somehow does get a corrupt save, simply load the save prior that hasn't been touched since the mod was installed and go through one of the more tedious processes.

[Zer05um]

Im fairly certain that all that you zre doing when you load a new game save and then the old one is just bypassing the engine hang up that happens when skyrim tries to load something from a mod that doesn't exist anymore, ie. a npc in a cell that you are in or something to that measure. This method that you have show should be avoided, because the guy that keeps posting is right, if you unistall some mods they can break your saves because they have certain measures that must be done to make sure they do not leave scripts in your save. this can "currupt" saves and stop them from loading properly. If poeple intend to unistall mods it is always a good idea to check the page that you downloaded the mod from to see if it has a specific way to unistall, rather then just deleting it and breaking/dirting your save games with broken and useless scripts.