The only official word we've really had is from Pete Hines the PR guy telling us it will "fix long-term play on PS3" which is vague and unhelpful really, and I have no idea if they have even noticed this issue at all. Basically we just have to wait and see...

This is what I have always done with games that allow copying saves. It has saved me a lot of grief over the years. I "backup" clean starts on these bethesda games at the creation screen. In this game I saved just as you get off the cart at the start. Then again for each char after they are out of Helgen.

Then just copy those saves to another user account on the ps3 and they are always available to use over again later. I also periodically copy saves in strategic places along my life in the game in case for whatever reason I realize I porked up and have to start from before a certain spot where I messed it up.


I don't understand the one save thing in a game like this. There is no reason not to save as many as you like unless you just don't have the space on your hd.


I used to do a rotation of about 3 or 4 saves but now I basically make a new save every couple of levels just incase of the need to backtrack from an earlier spot.


p.s. I have seen people claim that multiple saves can be a problem for your game, but that's just not possible. The game only refrences the save you load up. None of the other saves on your HD matter in any respect other than space taken on your hd.

Just an update, I just got a reply from this guy here (http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1286922-my-save-file-is-gone/) and he found the reason and sollution. While its very simple, its a grotesque and outrageous bug that Bethesda should've looked for before releasing the game.

I had this happen to me too.

Simple reason and dumb reason is:

Skyrim creates a saved file under the title "Prisoner" when you start a new character in the "First Save Slot" automatically. When you created this Nord character you saved over this file (as many of us also did) with your new character.

By doing this and not saving another game in the "Second Save Slot" you overwrote your save game with the "Prisoner" one again.

It pissed me off but this is why. I kept the "First Save Slot" as "prisoner" and saved all my other characters on other slots and it's been fine since.

Hope this helps and I completely agree it's a stupid bug and I was at least 20 hours in.


I just tested it and it worked. Dont replace the prisoner file and save everything in a new save slot. Just leave the prisoner save file intact and you will be fine.

Hey Bethesda, could you fix this?

I had the same problem. Had a lvl 8 mage, felt like starting a warrior, mage was deleted.

Easy to fix though, just make a save right before character creation and you won't lose previous saves.

OMG thank heaven i decided i didnt want to watch the cart scene over again and not overwrite that loooooooooooool.now i got multiple saved accs <3

Wait, so because you saved over the autosave slot you are angry that it saved over your character. This is your fault for never saving your character in an actual slot.
Doko has 6 characters and none of them have been autosaved over. User error is not the games fault, PEBKAC.

Also those other character saves that are autosaves are not character specific, they will be filled by the next characters autosaves. Please remember to save at least 1 time in a manual new save slot.

Yes the game could have a better system to manage characters such as a separated list for each character, however it is not too difficult now to check where you are saving before you do so.

Read the replies again. It is NOT an autosave slot. You can't save over those anyways.

It is a manual save slot, that you are able to save over, that the game creates for you when you first get off the wagon. There is absolutely no reason why you should not be able to save over this slot. The game does not warn you that it will overwrite this save every. single. time. you watch the introductory cut-scene.

The "wagon save" is flagged by the game. If you save over it, then start a new game at some point, you will lose that save.

Yes that first save is an auto save, most people understood that and made there own saves. We are sorry that some people such as yourself could not comprehend that without it being expressly hidden from being over written.
PEBKAC.

Ok. Let's get something straight here. An auto-save can't be saved over. That initial save slot is created automatically, yes, but it is not considered what we would strictly define as an auto-save by the game. Semantics, I know, but roll with it.

Most people made their own saves, because in a game like this they know you should always have multiple saves. Including me. So I don't know where you get off assaulting my comprehension. This did not negatively affect me in any way. Sadly, this is the internet, and anyone that throws PEBKAC around needlessly.. well... lol.

I see you're the type to have no compassion at all for those that assumed they could save their game over this slot? Is it that hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes? It's not a difficult mistake to make as the game does not warn you of this and, to my knowledge, most games don't do this.

Obviously the first autosave can be saved over as it is a testing slot. Used for testing out a new racial build quickly, and is an autosave as it is done automatically.
Doko has no compassion for people that "report" "bugs" that are not bugs but instead user error. It was obvious to Doko and others that the first save slot was indeed an autosave slot, that should not be used for more than a temporary character testing slot.

Doko questioned your comprehension as you did his stating he did not read the discussion as he did, which made him come to the conclusion many of you do not understand that it was an autosave, and you should never count on autosaves.
And yes it is hard to see Doko in those shoes as it was obviously a volatile autosave, most games do this with autosaves. Doko is sorry that you could not comprehend the first autosave as an autosave.

Dear Mr Doko,

Unfortunately, it seems that you lack capability to understand. You are blindlesly standing up for a game that thousands of players have been complaining that is broken in many forms, which you may call glitches, bugs, whatever you want to name it.

If you didnt have any problems so far, good for you, I hope you enjoy your game as many of us arent.

However, your weird posture is only bringing flaming and trolling to our discussion, and it would be great if you could keep your offenses and sarcastic coments to yourself, or bring something helpful to the thread.

Best regards,

I'm quite insulted to actually, as someone said above auto-saves CANNOT be over-written so why should I not save my game over that slot, as to people saying "you should create multiple saves with this type of game anyway" I'm sorry but that's ridiculous, I have NEVER saved more than one save (unless I have created another character) and it has never done me any harm (not even now because I saw this save thing happen to someone else I know so I tested it myself but backed up my character to another user account on my ps3 first). It was obviously not tested or it was very short-sighted to not have this work the way nearly all games do. Now I wont see anyone's reply to this because this topic has seriously veered off course and I am not going to watch it anymore (less I get even more emails lol)

Yeah... We're done here.

For the record, it is not "Obviously" a volatile testing slot for racial builds. Maybe you figured that out. Kudos. But this is far from "Obvious". How, pray tell, did you KNOW that this was a volatile save? If this discussion never happened, and you never made a new character, there is no possible way you would magically KNOW, for a fact, that this save is volatile and would be overwritten upon starting a new game. You must be some sort of wizard.

Truth to be told if that save file wasnt meant to be overwritten and if it could be overwritten, then something should be texted saying DONT OVERWRITE ME. Or something.

But it can as it can be used for testing a new build early on before swapping races. That is what doko used it for. No need to have tons of random saves for temp toons.
It's like putting a warning on a knife... warning edge may be sharp.

What scares the hell outta me is thinking how they could possibly launch such a beta state game.

This is the first and last Bethesda game I buy. Now im going to play Dark Souls. Glitchless, lagless.

Dark souls is mad glitchy, and lags terribly if you play for long periods of time. Not to mention piss poor controls, and unresponsive at times.
I said that when oblivion destroyed what morrowind had built, and when fallout 3 killed off the gem fallout.

It's an auto save and that was obvious. Auto-saves are never safe areas.
Was the save made by you or the game? If it was the game that made the save it is an auotsave. Just because it was not hidden from idiots does not mean it was not an autosave.
Seriously this is pathetic you are the types of people that have caused every product to have 30 warning labels plastered all over it.

The problem isnt with the auto-save feature.

I saved my new char over his own Prisoner save file. The game then assumes that this is your main and overwrites all old saves, including other char game files.

Every and any game I ever played never gave me this kind of issue. Dark Souls for instance, allows me to save char after char without a single problem. Your posture is incomprehensible and smells like really devoted fan.

If that mechanic is that obvious for you, thats good, maybe you should use your self assumed smartness for more useful ends, instead of flaming threads and acting like an elitist moron. We are trying to get some improvements here, since the powerful Bethesda couldnt think about it before releasing the beta game. Will you excuse us?

It isn't an autosave as those are labeled as such. It's a hard save which forcibly happens automatically and that slot gets overwritten each and every time that a new game is started.

No it doesn't it simply overwrites the autosave that it did in the beginning of the game. Doko has saved over it before and all his other saves are still there. If you actually saved your character as in made a new save you can save character after character with no problem. Stop blaming the game for user error.


So your saying it is an auto save. thanks.

Auto-save: a save that happens automatically... yea it is an autosave.

LMAO - have you SEEN the list of stuff they're fixing in their next patch?

Im sorry, I shouldnt bring another game to the discussion as an example of how things should be done.

We just want to save safely and play without lag.

Ugh... I just started a new game and lost the character that I've spent over 120 hours on. Guess I should've checked the forums for any problems with that considering the problems that I knew already existed.

Not read whole topic but just like to add that I had made another character.. went past the cart section and my save was fine.. I just had 1 more.

This may be my first post but I've been reading this forums for well over a week now and all I can say is there are som seriously dimwitted sons of **** for people here. Are so many of you really that ignorant to think that so many people lost their characters due to user error? Overwriting your own save? Sure it happens anyone can do it but if people are telling their stories about, "no I didn't just rely on autosave" "I saved manually" "I saved on an empty slot" etc...

This happened to me. I had played for 45 hours, done the main quest and got some nice stuff but still had lots to discover. I made a new character so I could try out another skill build, when I first go to save I can't see my other file so I save on AN EMPTY SLOT, there was no save fil to overwrite to begin with. I try to load the game and still I don't see my previous file. I quit the game and try to load from the mainscreen and the only thing that is there is my new level 1 character that I made 5 minutes ago. I restart my PS3 and check my PS3 saves, all my other saves from OTHER games are there and the only save for Skyrim is my new level 1 character, my 45 hours of playing with my first character is GONE. Get that [censored] in your head. Now come and tell me I [censored] up and overwrote my own file and I'll seriously bash some [censored] heads in, I'm tired of [censored] blaming the players when this issue is CLEARLY the developers fault.