Loading last save takes forever, sometimes up to half hour. Also takes long time to view inventory, I'm sure I'm not the only one experiencing these issues... any help???

Does an earlier save have this problem?

It's been progressive. If I go back to like level 20, its ok,then I can load to current save point, which loads faster, but still encounter the same problems when I get there. Getting very irritated, love the game, but not the waiting when searching, or changing weapon, etc.

Sounds like save game bloat. What size is your last save game?

Save game bloat? How do I fix that? Game started loading at 3:23, it is now 4:15... no gaming yet! Hit PS button to go back, and I get a moving timer in upper corner that took another 3 minutes just to quit! Now game finally popped up at last save point. 4:19. Wow. Last save is 13 MB. Save before that was 15 MB.... ??? How's that make sense?

Have you notice that when you kill someone their weapon/shield is left on the ground? Well if it stays even though the body is gone your console/PC has to load each adn every thing, the more junk you have layen around a city or even the wild the more info. has to be saved/loaded which in turn creates " bloated saves" which creates longer load times, even crashes and such if I'm not mistaken. I've taken a side job while walken the world of Skyrim and try and pic up any and all junk that I come across, by doing this I've notice a difference in my load times( I'm on 360 )

Is this a character you started after the 1.4 patch? Or one that was played earlier then went through the patching?

I would start a new character as it maybe more than bloat causing this, it could be a corrupted save. It happens when you rely on Autosaves. Turn off all the Autosave features and instead get in the habit of making manual saves slots.

1. Save before you travel somewhere or enter a new cell
2. Only save in a cell once it has loaded and you have been in it for 30 seconds or so. Saving as you need to while in the cell is fine, just avoid making saves right after enter.
3. Keep a save before you start any quest, one for during the quest, like at quest stages, and one for when it is over. This way if you have a quest glitch, you can go back
4. Keep milestone saves along the way, so if you have to go back, you don't have to go back far.

I didn't know that auto save has a chance of causen a curropted file!? I dabble in both habbits, I save alot but I also have auto save set for every 5min. in menu( cause I'm always cheken my inventory ) so i end Up with 3 autos for every 15mins. or so pluse how ever many saves I did just in case I do forget to save.

Also make sure you don't have the "duplicating key" problem. Look at the keys in your inventory and see if any are spawning, e.g., "Dwemer Museum key (1,000)" or something. One person in the xbox forum experienced your problem and found over 30k of those buggers in his inventory.

If this is the case, deposit all but one of the keys in the nearest corpse asap so that they'll disappear from the game when the corpse despawns.

Edit: Typo.

A loading time of half an hour?!

My save files are 11-13 MB for a level 64 character. The loading time for a fast load with F9 is at ~5 seconds on a PC.

Check your hard drive and make sure you defragmented the file system.

Are you using any mods? What are you playing on? A console or a PC? ...

Might be wise to consult the proper technical forum.

To Sdac: Playing on PS3... and closer to an hour... I have noticed there are over 1000 keys in my inventory. So, I'll drop those.. Carrots; I have had this character from the beginning, don't want to do it all over again. Almost to level 48. Have the 1.4 patch, I think thats when I started encountering more problems....

53,428 keys to dwemer museum!!!

Theres your problem!!!! Watch the stuff out on the roads too is what I ment, if you come across a sword with no owner or anything that should have a arm attached to it then you should pick it up and deposit it in a container that you don't own or some random corpse so that it will dissapear when it respawns, the random stuff out and about will have the same effect as the 53,428 keys did and will lagg your save file down, other wise know as " bloated save files". I did notice a big diff. in mine once I started to "think green" for Skyrim, not only is it good for the enviroment but for your save files as well.

The Autosave every 5 minutes is probably OK, although I would extend that out to 15. It is the constant saving each and every time you go into your menu or travel or sleep or sneeze that get corrupted after a while. I think the Vanilla game is probably fine as we have not seen too many corrupted save related posts. Until the CK came out.......

In addition to the hints given, it's often helpful to rest for an extended period... 30 days or so... every once and a while to force the game to reset.

Just to make sure you understand, don't just "drop" the keys. If you do, at best, it'll take the game a lot longer to kick 'em to oblivion (so to speak) and, at worst, they may not cleanup at all. Hence, the suggestion that you move (i.e., store) them to a generic corpse (not one from a uniquely named NPC) as they are the fastest to cleanup (three days in-game max).

Thus, if I were you, once you can get your game loaded, head out and kill the first wild animal/creature you find, then move (store) all but one of the duplicating keys to the corpse; then head back to a small intererior cell (a home if you own one, or an inn) and wait there for three in-game days (four days maybe to be sure). Now head back to where the corpse was, and if it's gone, you should be good to go.

Now save your game. Quit the game. Power off the console. Power it back on and hold down the both the LB/RB and 'x' button (what button is that on the PS-3? ... just whichever button you'd use to sheathe your weapon) to clear the game cache. Once the game loads, load your save. It should load lickety-split compared to what you're -- now -- used to. (Note: because you cleared the game cache, some of your menu page accesses and initial cell loads may be slightly longer than normal as the cache rebuilds -- though they'll still probably seem lightening fast compared to what you've been experiencing.)

Good to know!! I will make a mental note and change my habbits to fit accordingly, thanks guys.