Downloaded vortex + one mod and now all my Skyrim SE saves are gone

[vibeWme]

I am completely new to playing Skyrim and modding in general. But I was having a ton of trouble selling expensive items to merchants because they ran out of money. So I looked up a tutorial and downloaded Vortex, along with a rich merchants mod for special edition skyrim. I install everything and it seems to go smoothly. Until I actually go to play and all my saves are completely gone. I spawn in at my last save but my manual save files in game are completely gone. I went on Vortex and restored every save file it had but that did nothing. I disabled the mod and it still didn’t work. I tried open save games and the files are there under documents but I have no idea how to transfer them back to my game. I’ve tried looking up everything I can think of. Is it possible to get my saves back at all? I’m completely new to this and very confused so I’m sorry if this is a bit dumb sounding. Also sorry if the tags are wrong, too. I’ve never posted on nexus forums before. 

[Pickysaurus]

Vortex doesn't delete your saves (unless you do so in the "Saved Games" section). But it might've moved them if you selected "Profile specific" save games. 

Go to the Mods tab and then select Open -> Open Game Settings Folder. Then, look in the "Saves" folder and see if there are subfolders that contain your saves. 

[vibeWme]

Tysm for replying. I looked where you said and I see all my save files. But I have no idea what to do with them. When I try to open them it just tries to send me to different writing applications on my computer. I know embarrassingly little about computers and how they work. Do I move the save files to a different folder? 

[Pickysaurus]

You can move them all to the "Saves" folder, but this may break whatever you've set up in Vortex regarding saved game handling. 

[vibeWme]

Unfortunately, they already are under saves. It shows they are all here. But when I load up the game they aren’t. They show up in Vortex and in my files but not in my game. The game runs perfectly, even with the mod. Nothing crashed. My saves are just gone. I can make new saves and quicksave but the old ones never show up again. 

[Pickysaurus]

Your Skyrim INI may be pointed at a different folder. 

Check your Skyrim.ini file and look for the [General] section. Then check the SLocalSavePath value. If it's anything other than "Saves\" then change it back. 

[7531Leonidas]

Here's a long shot - go back to the 'Saves' folder in the 'Open Game Settings' as described above, then open that folder, right-click on any empty space in the window, choose the 'Refresh' option in the context menu, then try to play the game/access your saves in Skyrim.  Probably won't help, but it shouldn't hurt anything, either.

@vibeWmeOn second thought, have you d/l and installed anything to allow achievements for modded saves?  That might be the problem if you haven't, the game itself may be hiding the modded saves.  I sure seem to remember that being a possibility in the past.

[vibeWme]

That’s what all my saves are under. They are under the saves folder in my general Skyrim Special Edition files. They appear everywhere they’re supposed to except actually in game. Everything seems fine until I load up Skyrim and check the load section in system but the only saves that exist are the ones the game made after I installed the mod. But when I disable the mod the saves don’t come back. Idk if I just uninstall the mod or what to fix it. 
 

Also, I did refresh the saves just to see if it would work. Unfortunately, it did not. But thank you for telling me that! I didn’t know I could do that. 

[7531Leonidas]

Just in case you find that you need them - Achievement Mods Enabler ( https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/245 ), and its .dll helper (if you don't have SKSE64 installed - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3619 ).

[vibeWme]

@7531Leonidas I don’t think I do. I think I saw something say my achievements were off when I loaded up my game after downloading the mods. I have no idea what I’m doing. I followed a tutorial on yt to download Vortex and install the mod. I don’t think achievements were even brought up in the video.