After a Windows update, old saves (.F4se) not showing to load. New saves now have (.fos) extension. How do I retrieve my old saves?

[Dragonskin777]

Vortex : v 1.9.12     Fallout 4 - Steam     180 mods - running fine     Windows 10      32 gb RAM      x64

 

After a manual Windows update, I opened Vortex to get a red warning box about saves not loading - my apologies I did not think to take heed of the exact wording. When I get such messages I usually just close and reopen the program.  Restarting Vortex, I started the game to only have the option of "new game". None of my old saves are registering.

Searching the net I found one post referencing changes made in the profile settings of Vortex. Sadly the post did not give a solution to my problem,  but helped me understand a bit better.

All my old files are still in  Documents/my games/Fallout4/Saves   with a .F4se extension. If I start a new game, that save shows up in the same folder but with a .fos extension.

I tried copy and repaste all files, no luck. Switched my profile setting to "profile has its own save games"  - which creates a new folder, which I copied save files to, still didn't register.

My assumption is the game now doesn't recognise the old files for some reason. How do I get the game to load the old files?  MTIA

[showler]

".f4se" files are called co-saves.  There should be one for every regular save.

".fos" files are the actual game saves.

The game save file saves all the information the game normally uses and the co-save saves the information used by F4SE based mods that need to store extra information.

If you had a similar incident to me, you'll need to go into your Steam install folder (something like c:/programfiles(x86)/Steam), then find a folder called "userdata" and then you'll find a bunch of folders with numbers for names.  Sort by most recent and check them until you find your .fos save files and then copy them back to your "my games/Fallout 4/saves" directory so that they are back with the matching co-saves.

[Dragonskin777]

... and I'm back in the game!

You deserve a gold star ! 

[lharris10101111]

10 hours ago, showler said:

".f4se" files are called co-saves.  There should be one for every regular save.

".fos" files are the actual game saves.

The game save file saves all the information the game normally uses and the co-save saves the information used by F4SE based mods that need to store extra information.

If you had a similar incident to me, you'll need to go into your Steam install folder (something like c:/programfiles(x86)/Steam), then find a folder called "userdata" and then you'll find a bunch of folders with numbers for names.  Sort by most recent and check them until you find your .fos save files and then copy them back to your "my games/Fallout 4/saves" directory so that they are back with the matching co-saves.

So what happened?  Fallout 4 working fine last night, Then today all this happens??  I did do what you said above.  That worked.  Wow it worked.  Fallout 4 back working again.  Its seeing all the saves now.  Great, and Thanks