solved Can't Save - Option grayed out - Normal Difficulty

[Navaar]

I'm currently playing on PC (Windows 10) and I am unable to save my game. I am not on Supernova difficulty (I'm playing on Normal) and the Save Game option is just grayed out. There's also no response when trying to use the Quicksave button.

I got up to the part where you get your first companion and was not able to save all the way up to this point. The game also did not auto save in any fashion, so when I had to quit the game and come back later, all of my progress was gone and the Load Game option on the main menu was grayed out as well. I started a new game and I am still unable to save.

Edit: This was solved for me and multiple others through multiple methods, please check the replies if you're experiencing this issue.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Navaar

[TribesShazBot]

I am having the same issue on all other difficulties. Unable to save and when i die, that's it. The game is not auto saving and i can't quick save. I will wait for the fix before i start up character creation again.

[Luvien]

Same Problem here... Already played for two hours, before i noticed...

[Wladi]

Same Problem. 

 

Played for an hour. Can not Save and the game does not Autosave. 

 

Got the game via Xbox Game Pass. 

Any Solution? 

[Pidesco]

This issue has been passed along to Obsidian.

[Auricle]

Having the same greyed out saved games option and no autosaving feature (even though before the main menu screen the 'AutoSave for this game' shows).

Made an account so that I might be able to post some of the things I  have tried in order to fix this, but has NOT worked for me. I have bought the game with the Epic Games Store and the first being uninstalling and reinstalling (multiple times and on different drives), and trying to verify the game files as well. As suggested by a friend, I had attempted to try taking the saved game folder "The Outer Worlds" and changing off of "read only" which did nothing because it kept reverting back to "read only". With this said while he was able to save his games no problem and have folders being made inside that "The Outer Worlds" folder for his autosaves marked accordingly. While in mine the only file i had in that folder was the achievement.dat . So at this point after many attempts of trying to get something to work, I was able to get his save file of his freshly landed character (only played for 1minute) and put that into my folder. From here I was able to "Load" a game and this character just fine, but STILL NO ability to 'save game'.

While I loved the few moments I am able to play the game itself smoothly, the inability to save a game fails at making the game being able to continued when you need to stop. So until this is fixed I am unable to even play the game with any enjoyment.

[Pidesco]

This just came to me, but perhaps you can try to run the game as an administrator, and see if it helps?

[Navaar]

4 minutes ago, Pidesco said:

This just came to me, but perhaps you can try to run the game as an administrator, and see if it helps?

Hello Pidesco, I have already tried this, but to no avail. I also attempted the steps that Auricle mentioned, as well as installing on my primary drive, just in case there was some weird permission issue but no luck yet.

 

Additionally, trying to set the exe to always run as Administrator causes the Epic Games Launcher to be unable to launch the executable, but that's not really related tbh.

[Auricle]

Running in admin mode has made no difference either.

[Laimma]

10 hours ago, TribesShazBot said:

I am having the same issue on all other difficulties. Unable to save and when i die, that's it. The game is not auto saving and i can't quick save. I will wait for the fix before i start up character creation again.

Same here:

On PC using xbox controller.

Windows 10.

[TheTechne]

Same here. Have deleted /installed twice now on different drives.

No Auto save or save option. (grayed out)

Started 3 new games still no luck.

PC Microsoft Game Pass

[Bull Durham]

I am having the same issue. It feels like a permissions issue. I have reinstalled several times, I have changed drives, I have run it as admin, I have run repair  and even uninstalled bit defender in case it was blocking it. I even opened onedrive in case it was trying to save on there with no success. I know someone who is running it no problem. I have not found where it saves games so maybe thats because it is not saving anything.

[Bad Penny Kenny]

Not sure if it's going to happen further into the game for me but I was able to do a game save after initial landing on planet. (Using PC Win 10)

[Phenomenum]

Same issue. No quicksaves, no autosaves... Is anyone know where this game stores savefiles?

[Laimma]

7 hours ago, Pidesco said:

This issue has been passed along to Obsidian.

7 hours ago, Pidesco said:

This issue has been passed along to Obsidian.

Have they acknowledged that they are working on it?

How will we know when it is fixed?

Many thanks.

[Pidesco]

They will let us know when it is fixed or if there is some sort of workaround. 

[Luvien]

Optional Windows 10 Update did it for me or Ccleaner update which I did at the same time. Now it works.

[Wladi]

17 minutes ago, Luvien said:

Optional Windows 10 Update did it for me or Ccleaner update which I did at the same time. Now it works.

what exactly have you done with ccleaner? 

[Alexandre Bertrand]

Thank god am not the only one , will wait for a fix 

[Techmage1982]

I got it to work on windows 7.

i only had the "Saved Games" Folder in "C:\Users\Default\"

I copied it to "C:\Users\Techmage\ "    ( Techmage  is my username)and now  i can save  the game.

 

[Hambonio]

1 hour ago, Luvien said:

Optional Windows 10 Update did it for me or Ccleaner update which I did at the same time. Now it works.

Neither of those worked for me, sadly.

[Laimma]

1 hour ago, Luvien said:

Optional Windows 10 Update did it for me or Ccleaner update which I did at the same time. Now it works.

Tried the same but it didn't help in my case. Glad you got yours working though.

[Alexandre Bertrand]

1 hour ago, Luvien said:

Optional Windows 10 Update did it for me or Ccleaner update which I did at the same time. Now it works.

This worked for me , did my window update and can save and autosave etc.... 

Edited October 25, 2019 by Alexandre Bertrand

[FLCL]

Bought  the game via Epic launcher and had the same problems.

This will happen when the installer don't create the savegame directories.

Have a try

 

Windows     %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\The Outer Worlds\
Microsoft Store     %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\The Outer Worlds Windows 10\<user-id>\
Linux (Proton)     <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/578650/pfx/[Note 1]

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Outer_Worlds#Game_data

[Auricle]

46 minutes ago, Techmage1982 said:

I got it to work on windows 7.

i only had the "Saved Games" Folder in "C:\Users\Default\"

I copied it to "C:\Users\Techmage\ "    ( Techmage  is my username)and now  i can save  the game.

 

I was able to make a new "Saved Games" folder into my "C:\Users\"My User Name"\Saved Games".

From there I moved the full folder "The Outer Worlds" which only had the file called " achievement.dat " into that saved games folder. (Not the game folder which is also named "TheOuterWorlds" with different files like Indiana and Engine and where the .exe is.) At this point when i launched the game on the epic launcher it asked if i wanted to sync data and looks like my in game save button is activated again along with F5 quicksave.

I HOPE this works for everyone else as well.