The Lands Between and the Land of Shadow in Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree are filled with all sorts of treachery, but none of it is meant to lead to the dreaded permadeath. This horrible fate can only be brought about by corrupted save files that prevent players from continuing their playthroughs. And thankfully, most of the time, these corrupted save files can be fixed. Recommended Videos
One of the hallmarks of Souls games is the absence of a save game option in favor of a system that automatically records every bit of progress. And for the most part, this works incredibly well. But there’s a very good reason why it’s recommended that you properly close the game via the menu. Any issue that causes the game to crash or the PC to reset in the middle of a play session can potentially corrupt the save file as the game doesn’t save and close correctly. And at some point, even hackers could mess with your saves:
Nowadays, if any problem causes the save file to no longer be recognized by the game, you’ll encounter one of the following messages:
Screenshot via Destructoid/Image via Reddit
I first experienced this issue a few years ago while playing Sekiro after a thunderstorm caused the lights to go out. I immediately panicked, thinking I’d lost over ten hours of progress. Luckily, I was wrong, but back then the process was much more complex and less automated. The modern save fixing process might seem a bit daunting at first, but it’s actually quite simple and effective if you follow all the steps correctly.
How to fix saves on Elden Ring
It’s always a good idea to try Steam’s automatic file repair. To do this, click on Elden Ring in your Steam Library, hit Properties, select Local files, and then click on Verify Integrity of game files. Once the process is complete, restart Steam, re-open Elden Ring, and see if this has resolved your problem. If it has, then you’re good to go. In the more likely scenario that it doesn’t, we need to perform manual save file maintenance.
First, we need to locate your save files. They are located in C:\Users\(your name)\AppData\Roaming\EldenRing. You’ll find them inside the numbered folders.
Screenshot via Destructoid
- Cut the.SL2 file and set it aside in a new separate folder.
- Rename the.back file by simply deleting the “.bak” part of the name. This will make the existing backup the default save file.
- Turn off Steam Cloud saves. You can do this by selecting Elden Ring in your Steam Library, going to properties, and then in the General Tab, set keeping game saves in the steam cloud to OFF.
Screenshot via Destructoid
Just deleting or replacing the corrupted save file with the backup won’t work if Steam Cloud is enabled because the game will immediately re-download the corrupted file and overwrite the working save with the bad data. I highly recommend having Steam Cloud turned off regardless, as it’s a common cause of this issue.
- Check if this solves the problem. If it does, then delete the old.sl2 file you set aside and continue playing the game.
- If not, then add.bak to the end of the new file and put the old.sl2 file back in the folder.
Since the problem persists, we’ll have to tinker with the save files themselves. Download the ER Save Repair utility here.
- Make sure you already have the original.sl2 save file set aside. Back it up if you don’t.
- Launch the Save Repair program (ERSR).
- Enter your Steam ID (it’s the big number on the folder containing the saves).
- Select the file you want to repair.
- Select the number of save slots, if there are multiple.
- Click Run. Don’t use your mouse or keyboard during the process, as the creator of this app warns that it may interrupt the process.
This process doesn’t have a 100% success rate, but it remains the best, simplest, and safest way to remove the corruption from your Elden Ring save files.
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