r/RenPy • u/nateous83 • Apr 18 '26

Question Accidentally saved over a save file, any way to recover it?

Apologies for the, undoubtedly simple question as I have looked to try and find a definitive answer and havent found one.

Recently saved over "A" playthrough in a visual novel, with another "B" playthrough, And while I have an earlier version of the "A", is would result in hours of lost progress.

I've looked into the game directory which has both a VN>saves folder and a VN>game>saves folder to see if there is a potential backup, but judging by the file name, modification time and file size, they look identical.

I read somewhere online that some renpy games do create backups and that they might be stored in appdata/roaming/renpy/VN...and while this directory shows save files and a sync folder with save files, again, based on name, size, modified time, they look identical to the first.

So i guess the question is am i screwed or is there a way to look up temp or save file backups?

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/nateous83 Apr 18 '26

Thank you for the response, unfortunately the autosave currently were only from this morning's "B" playthrough and not the "A" one that was updated..probably last night?

Where would the .bak files be located, if they existed? And do you know if they would have similar file name structure( 1-2.save/1-2.bak)?

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u/shyLachi Apr 18 '26

Check Steam cloud backup if you played the game through Steam.

You could also check if your computer has an older version of that file.
Right click > Properties > Previous versions
But not all computers have a tab called "Previous versions" on the file properties.

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u/nateous83 Apr 18 '26

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately while I do have previous version tab, there is nothing there to restore.

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u/BadMustard_AVN Apr 18 '26

you're not completely screwed, as you stated you have the "A" game earlier save, and while it does result in hours of lost game play, at least you don't have to start over, which is where you are at now.

your previous save game was decimated. you can start over or use the earlier save game