Auto Save Not Working?

[ve1ocity]

I was playing my legacy. I totally forgot to save the game after the initial move.

And suddenly the game became unresponsive and I had to shut the PC down. When I restarted, it came as the game was auto saved at the time it became unresponsive, but when I loaded it, I was in the very beginning, right before the move.

Has anyone encountered this problem? Is there any way I can recover the save file? I was getting really fond of the spouse and he was a townie

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Edit By: MrsFlynn to add the following information:

Autosave isn't used anymore, It was patched out in 2016/2017. If you have a Slot_00000001.save file or any of it's .ver files. (Slot_00000001.save.ver0) These are safe to delete.

Read more in the post linked below:

Save Vs. Save As - Differences and what they do
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=29331.msg467748#msg467748

-- Auto Save and how it works
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/803383/auto-save-and-how-it-works

[Twinmum]

I've had the game become unresponsive a few times now and when I've started it up again, it was where I had last saved it. I'm not sure about recovering the file, but I would suggest to just save and save often! Carl had a problem when he was working on the gardeing guide and I'm sure he said the auto save is only when you start and end a game, so if the game becomes unresponsive, I doubt that it would have saved anyway.

[_Annika_]

Yes, the game only saves when you first start a new game, and when you quit using the menus. I've been manually saving roughly every 15 mins or so.

[Dellena]

One of the gurus also said it was supposed to auto save when you travel as well. 

[Twinmum]

One of the gurus also said it was supposed to auto save when you travel as well.

mmm supposed to, but I don't think so, well not at the moment anyway lol

[Dellena]

Yeah, there's definitely some issues with the Autosave.  My rule of thumb:

1. Save every night when they go to sleep
2. Save after each change in build mode (you can also save during build mode if you're doing something that's taking a while)
3. Save after each promotion
4. Save before major events like weddings and births

Those are my own benchmarks for saving.

[MarianT]

I've also noticed that sometimes when you save, you don't, actually. If you hit save and just see an hourglass, then it's not saving. In that case, I do a "save as" which so far has always worked for me.

[justproud2b]

I've also noticed that sometimes when you save, you don't, actually. If you hit save and just see an hourglass, then it's not saving. In that case, I do a "save as" which so far has always worked for me.

You can also use save as to verify your last save worked due to it having a time stamp

[lindsaysoderberg]

I've had the game crash many times. I finally realized that it's necessary to resist accumulating items and delete ones that pile up, especially gardening items, often.

It crashed a lot while gardening, especially when trying to fertilize with probably over 1000 items in my sim's inventory.

Not once did it auto-save. I always had to start back from where I saved last.

Now I just frequently save and sell as many items as I can part with. 

[Dellena]

Auto save isn't timer based.  It will auto save when you travel and when you exit.  Do not depend on it.

[lindsaysoderberg]

A few days ago (after my previous post) my game started generating auto save files after my game cashed.

HOWEVER, they are not actually "auto-save" files. They are only exact copies of the last time I saved the game myself successfully.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the crashing had to do with the so-called auto-save files.

Not sure what to do about it...

[Stormi71]

I manually save ALL the time now, using "save as", because the auto saves in my daughters game overwrote my saved games, and the only one left was when I started the game. I have noticed that when I do "save as", it also overwrites one of the autosaves, as the next time I save, they both have the same time stamps.  I save when the last sim in the household is going to bed, and usually again when they've gone to school and work, and before they travel, when they get promoted, when they level up....pretty much all the time

[MissZoef]

When they first announced the auto-save feature I was really pleased with it. However I don't notice anything of it and I ALWAYS save manually. They might as well leave it out. If it was a timer based auto-save, then it would be much more useful. In case you forget to save in a while. I'm not even sure how to aut-save is supposed to work and when it saves.

[Whirligig]

While I have yet to have the game crash, my computer (which I am not allowed to complain about because it was a very generous gift from someone I barely know) runs up incredibly high temperatures with the game running, and last night there were three thermal shutdowns in the space of four hours. When I realized the auto save does nothing useful, I went and tracked down a daily save mod that saves the game at 5 pm daily because much as I'd like to be able to remember to do it myself, I'm a forgetful person. Still took me four attempts to get through a particular Wednesday and throw a gold medal dinner party.

So yeah, don't count on the Maxis auto save is the general consensus of this thread.

[DarkWalker]

While I have yet to have the game crash, my computer (which I am not allowed to complain about because it was a very generous gift from someone I barely know) runs up incredibly high temperatures with the game running, and last night there were three thermal shutdowns in the space of four hours. When I realized the auto save does nothing useful, I went and tracked down a daily save mod that saves the game at 5 pm daily because much as I'd like to be able to remember to do it myself, I'm a forgetful person. Still took me four attempts to get through a particular Wednesday and throw a gold medal dinner party.

So yeah, don't count on the Maxis auto save is the general consensus of this thread.

Offtopic, but if you are getting thermal shutdowns, and you aren't afraid of taking your computer apart, look for dust buildup on the coolers. They are the typical cause of overheating, I had to take my computer completely apart and clean every part a couple months ago due to a similar issue.