Missing save files

[ErikModi]

So, having a VERY bizarre issue.  My save games are not showing up.

I have three older saves that I overwrite (one for NR, one for Remnant, one for Pentastar, though I doubt I'll play them again), and started another game to run the Empire of the Hand again.  But for some reason, there were no autosaves.  Then I manually saved a game, and its gone, too.  Funny thing is, looking in my save game file folder, the saves are there, but the game just isn't reading them for some reason.  Ran the Defreezer to see if that helped, but it didn't.  What's up?

[ErikModi]

Okay, validated the files through Steam (one was missing, redownloaded it), reinstalled the last add-on I added (things were working fine with it before), and deleted the actual save files from the folder, and still no joy.  The game just won't recognize a newly-created save file.  I can save over a previously-made save and reload it just fine, so I'm rather at a loss.

[tlmiller]

I've had this issue before.  It was something so stupidly simple that I felt absolutely like a moron when I figured it out...wish I remembered what it was now, might be the same stupidly simple thing.  If noones figured it out before I get home, I'll take a look at my install if I get the chance to see if it refreshes my memory.

[Corey]

Offhand, I think it's a permissions thing where EaW isn't allowed to open the folder. Try running as admin.

[ErikModi]

There apparently isn't a "Run as admin" option for the Steam version, at least that I can find.  It's been working fine up until now without admin permissions, and it can access the saves made before sometime last night from the same folder just fine, even overwriting and reloading them.

[Pali]

If you're using a 64-bit windows OS I would recommend moving your Steam folder and library out of the Program Files (x86) folder, as there are some admin and write-only quirks within that folder.  You can find instructions on how to do this while maintaining your files with a quick Google search (it's a bit more involved than just a cut/paste).  No promises that it'll fix the issue, but it'll help for future modding of other games as well.  Some Skyrim mods require this to be done to work, for instance.

[ErikModi]

My Steam is already on my D drive (actually a partition of my only harddrive, and the C partition is ridiculously small. . . grumble) so not sure if that's the issue.

[Pali]

Well, the only idea I've got left is to completely uninstall and re-install EaW from scratch.  Have Steam delete local files, then go into your Steam common folder and manually delete whatever is left, then re-download and install everything.  I've had game issues in the past where this has worked while just having Steam verify files has not.  What's the add-on you mentioned in your first post?  Any chance that's somehow causing issues now, though it wasn't at first?

[ErikModi]

Guess I'll give the restore a shot.  I'd upgraded to the latest version of ICW, then added Vulcanus' Balance & Flavor.

[Pali]

Ah.  Well, yeah, that shouldn't be the issue.  I've been running the Balance and Flavor mod for months.

[ErikModi]

Full reinstall worked.  Annoying, but hey, I can save properly again.

[Pali]

Yay!

[ErikModi]

Okay, just had the exact opposite problem.  Was playing earlier this morning, and everything was fine.  Saved, quit for awhile, just came back. . . and now my old saves are gone in the Load menu, even though they're still in the folder.  Started a new game to test, saved, and it appeared just fine, and is in the same save folder with the others. . . why the heck is my game suddenly flaking out on me like this?

[Pali]

...is your computer evil?  I'm seriously out of ideas.

[Mat8876]

I have the same problem with republic commando except rather than the save files it forgets my campaign progress.

[ErikModi]

...is your computer evil?  I'm seriously out of ideas.

There are days. . .

[boo99570]

So this is a huge necro, but I think I replicated the issue described in the thread and this is still the top Google result for it, so I want to share the actual fix that I found.

I've been saving a ton more since the new update for the Steam version that helped a lot with the save/load times, which is great, but means I had a ton of saves.  I was playing a full galaxy campaign as the Maldrood last night, saved my progress, and came back today.  The game wouldn't load the saves, even though they were in the folder.  I saved a few times to confirm, and found that saving was working fine, to the extent that when saving, the game could see the files I had just created, and the files from the other day.  I tried running it as admin, which didn't work.  I had recently launched the game using the swfoc.exe to launch mods, and thought it could be related to that—it was not.

Long story short, I think the game can only "see" 128 or so save files at a time.  I didn't get an exact count of the cutoff, (because I was more concerned with my trying to save my campaign save than science) but I deleted a bunch of old saves and the game starting letting me load the new ones again.  Guess the developers never thought anyone would have that many saves when it used to take ~10 minutes to make one.

My apologies for the necro and doubly so if this is a solved issue, but I didn't see much when I was trying to figure it out.