"Saving Failed" error

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 03:33

I am running the Steam version of X3: Albion Prelude version 2.5.2.
Using Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, SP1.
3 GHz AMD processor, 4GB RAM, 2TB hard drive.

My game will not save. Pretty simple. Neither manual nor auto saving work. Each time I attempt, I get a "Saving Failed" message. I tried several "fixes" from old forum posts, but nothing has worked yet. This makes the game unplayable.

Post by **X2-Illuminatus** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 10:37

Insatiable wrote:I tried several "fixes" from old forum posts, but nothing has worked yet.

It's always a very good idea to tell people, what you tried already. This way we don't end up suggesting those things again and don't waste your and our time.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 13:07

Look in your X3AP saves folder (FAQ) for either of the following:

1. A sav file in the range x11-x13.sav that is remarkably different in size to the others. If so manually delete it.
2. If you have a x99.sav listed then manually delete it. (FAQ)

Now try again and good luck.

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 18:44

X2-Illuminatus wrote:It's always a very good idea to tell people, what you tried already. This way we don't end up suggesting those things again and don't waste your and our time.

Yeah, I know. Just lazy. Here's what I've tried so far:

1. Deleting the x99.sav file. Deleted successfully, no effect except for the next autosave overwrote my old autosaves with a blank slot.

2. Changing the Savegame folder permissions from read-only. No effect.

3. Restarting the game. No effect.

4. Looked for abnormally large savefile. None found. All around 10 MB.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:08

If you had an x99.sav and deleting that did not fix things then the chances are that one of your x11-x13.sav files is corrupt and cannot be renamed or removed automatically by the program.

Manually rename each of those 3 to something like oldx11.sav etc.

Now check if you can save. If you can then reintroduce copies of the 'old' files (in original numerical order) one at a time as x13.sav and load it to see which one(s) is/are corrupt and cause issues. Resave after each and you should end up with them as x12.sav and with no x99.sav. Discard any files with issues or saved after a corrupt file is loaded and x99.sav appears to remain after a resave attempt.

(x99.sav is temporary rename by the game of a previous save to allow the saves to be renamed and reordered. It is auto-deleted after all the shuffling of saves is completed properly.)

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:17

I renamed all of them so the program wouldn't recognize them, then loaded an old manual save. No effect. x99.sav is recreated each time, but no other files are.

If the problem was with the actual save file, then why wouldn't I get an issue when it was being loaded? Or while playing the game, at the very least? I don't see how removing old saves would make any effect. This issue is very specific and occurs no matter what save file I use to load from.

EDIT: Oh, and just to make absolutely sure that it's not a corrupt savegame, I restarted as a new character. Same problem.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:20

Can you manually take a previously known good save, copy it and rename that to x13.sav in the save folder and then load it?

Old saves in the autosave list have to be renamed and in one case removed by the program. x99 is used as a temporary renaming to hold one save outside the loop for a while as the reshuffle happens. Hence my line of questions.

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:22

No. There are NO "previously known good saves". I tried them all.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:23

So you cannot load any of them as well as not being able to save?

I am now wondering if your gamefiles have corrupted and that is why nothing can be saved. Do a Steam verify gamefiles cache separately for X3AP and X3TC - FAQ.

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:30

What? No. If I couldn't load them, I would say that. If I couldn't load them, I wouldn't have a problem with saving. I can load all of them.

I don't mean to be testy here, but is this really that complex? This issue has obviously been anticipated, since the game has a built-in error message. I appreciate your tries, though.

EDIT:

am now wondering if your gamefiles have corrupted and that is why nothing can be saved. Do a Steam verify gamefiles cache separately for X3AP and X3TC

So, I did this for both games. Neither one reported any problems. However, while navigating the Steam menu for X3TC, I noticed a couple oddities which may or may not be related. For one thing, X3TC was set to not auto-update. I don't recall setting that, so I changed it back to auto-update. Nothing happened. I restarted Steam; still nothing. The second thing I noticed was that under the "Local Files" tab, X3TC's disk usage was listed as "<none>". In contradiction, the button labeled "Browse Local Files..." led me right to the proper directory full of the correct files.

I don't know if any of that is significant. X3AP, on the other hand, had no visible issues on the Steam interface.

And it still won't save, in case you're wondering.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:43

Unfortunately while you know what you have done in the past and have tried, and also can see what happens when you do things - I don't and can't. If it was really that simple, you would have fixed it by now I would think.

So remind me, how did you get the saves if you cannot save in-game? Your thread says nothing about this just coming on suddenly in mid-game nor whether it is only since an update, since a mod/script installation or removal, etc. So I am left a bit in the dark here. Have you verified the game installs, and have you ever modified your game?

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 19:55

Regarding your post edit.

If X3TC was set not to update then you have not had the essential TC update from Steam that changes all the gamefiles to a new format. That is why you see that contradiction as you can see the old gamefiles in the folder but Steam knows that you have none of the new format files. The new and updated X3AP will not work with the old TC files.

TLDR: You will probably need to reinstall X3TC from Steam to get the correct files. See this.

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 20:02

Hmmm, that sounds like something I could try. However, what about Albion Prelude? Do I need to uninstall both and then reinstall?

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 20:07

To be honest, I don't know and all I can suggest is to delete a few TC gamefiles and then verify it, and if that works then do the same for AP in its addon folder which is a far smaller download anyway. It is odd that your recent verify didn't already get things moving on one or both. See that thread link I added in my last post for how this has affected a few others.

Not as simple as we thought eh?

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 20:14

I deleted a couple files and the X3AP verification registered it. It started a 1.1 GB download. We'll see if that works.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 11. Dec 12, 20:23

OK, but I think TC is going to prove your main problem if it hasn't been updated for a while.

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Fri, 14. Dec 12, 21:35

So I did a complete redownload of both X3TC & X3AP, in that order. I deleted all save games and the one script that I had before, Sector Takeover, I believe. Started a brand new game. Finished the tutorial. Docked at the spaceyard.

SAVING FAILED.

What. The. Crap.

EDIT: And, as always, x99.sav is created all by itself.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Fri, 14. Dec 12, 21:49

To be clear, you did do a manual delete of the gamefile folders before any reinstall? (Otherwise an uninstall or verify does not remove extra or corrupt files.)

Assuming you did all that then drop a DxDiag in here so I can have look at your drives and drivers.

Insatiable · Post by **Insatiable** » Fri, 14. Dec 12, 21:57

Yep, manual delete. I'll try to get that DxDiag soon. In the meantime, I have X3:Reunion as well. Do you think there are any cross-compatibility issues that could be related to Steam? I've never noticed it during the 370 hours of playing Terran Conflict, but you never know...

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Fri, 14. Dec 12, 21:59

No, the X3:Reunion gamefiles and saves are totally separate. Only X3TC and X3AP share a lot of gamefiles but do not share saves.

Another odd request. Manually rename the x99.sav to say x01.sav. Now see if it loads OK.

One other thing, you never did explain how you had previous saves from a game that will not save. Did the problem just start one day halfway through a campaign? Or was it only just after a mod or update? Any info here would be useful.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

"Saving Failed" error

"Saving Failed" error