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

[Pickysaurus]

Did you check your INI settings as I mentioned?

The INI controls the folder the game looks in to read your saves. 

[vibeWme]

@7531Leonidas You said modded saves might be hidden right? But that’s the only saves I have. The three saves I made after installing the mod. It’s all the vanilla saves that are missing. Like they just vanished from Skyrim after the mods were installed. 
 

Out of curiosity, if I deleted the mod and Vortex, would it bring my saves back? I honestly can go without having an easier way to sell things if it means all my saves are put back. 

Edited yesterday at 11:53 AM by vibeWme
I didn’t want to get the two people mixed up.

[vibeWme]

@Pickysaurus I think so. I can go through what I did step by step if it would help. Docutments-> My Games-> Skyrim Special Edition-> Saves

All the files outside the saves folder have .ini. after it with baked and base. Is that where it is? 

[7531Leonidas]

@vibeWmeThe skyrim.ini that Picky is referring to is in the folder that holds the Saves folder, so

22 minutes ago, vibeWme said:

Docutments-> My Games-> Skyrim Special Edition

is where you should be looking.  My [General] section looks like this, only look at the SLocalSavePath value in yours:

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH
sTestFile1=Dawnguard.esm
sTestFile2=HearthFires.esm
sTestFile3=Dragonborn.esm

uExterior Cell Buffer=36
iNumHWThreads=14
SLocalSavePath=Saves\  ***** this is the one you need to check.

 

[7531Leonidas]

@vibeWmeAnd it is just the Skyrim.ini that needs to be checked here - none of the others.

[vibeWme]

@7531Leonidas I don’t know what SLocalSavePath value is. But the files under my general Skyrim Special Edition section are as follows:
 

Saves

Skyrim

Skyrim.ini.baked

Skyrim.ini.base

SkyrimCustom

SkyrimCustom.ini.baked

SkyrimCustom.ini.base

SkyrimPrefs

SkyrimPrefs.ini.baked

SkyrimPrefs.ini.base 

I honestly have no idea what any of them do. I’m going off of what you all are telling me and that’s it. I have tried googling this and looking through reddit to see if this has happened to someone else but I can’t find anything. And my lack of comprehension on how computers work isn’t helping. If it can’t be fixed then I’m just going to keep playing and save from here. Though, I’ll probably uninstall the mod and Vortex and just play base game. 

[7531Leonidas]

@vibeWmeWhen in that folder, you need to go to the 'View' command in the ribbon and check that 'file name extensions' has been checked.  Both the Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini in that folder are not displaying their extensions.  I am on W10 Pro, W11 might look slightly different, but the option should be there.  You will see the files that you need to see, with their complete names.

[vibeWme]

@7531Leonidas I am on windows 11 but I did manage to do what you told me. They have the right display name now. But when I open Skyrim.ini I see what your general looks like except for iNumHWThreads=14. But I checked the SLocalSavePath=Saves\ and it looks just like yours. 

[7531Leonidas]

OK, at least you can identify the .ini files you can safely modify, should the need arise.  Sorry that I couldn't be of more help in solving the problem.

BTW, you should consider leaving the file extensions viewable on your entire computer.  One way that malware is placed on a computer is to give it a different, or extra extension.  That way, if you d/l a file, you can see if it is xxx.jpg or xxx.jpg.exe - the last would indicate a file that could be run on your computer.  There are many such extensions, you should read up on it some time.  Most antivirus stuff does a good job of catching them, but you never can be sure.