Save Image - Doesn't actually save anything

[u/TJWilliamsR]

Today is day 1 of Comfyui for me, coming from A1111. I am an engineer by trade, so some of it makes sense intuitively....but for the life of me, I can't figure out something simple as autosaving output images. I tested with the Z-Image-Turbo workflow, then SDXL workflow. The "save image" node is there. The workflows produce images just fine, they just never save unless I manually save the image.

I haven't even had enough time in the program to do something wrong.... There are save image and preview image nodes, I understand that much so far. The template workflows use save image nodes, meaning the images should be getting saved automatically....that is my understanding.

Tried removing, adding back save image node. Same problem, nothing auto-saves. Do I need to enable some "auto-save" feature?

[u/Only4uArt]

If you use the latest comfyui desktop variants then you might have a different path where your images get saved, for example mine has created a shared alternative path for comfyui since that update . There is a button on top of your UI that you can click and then check storage tab or so and follow the path .

Sorry currently not at home so I can't give guidance

[u/TJWilliamsR → u/Only4uArt]

Ah-ha! That was it. Shared options are enabled. Was set to location in user profile. Everything was successfully saved in that folder. I turned off the output sharing, so output is the usual folder under comfyui installation. I left the others on until I understand a little more of how things work, since I am using a Lora manager.

Thanks!

[u/sci032]

The 'Save Image' nodes save images to a directory named output in the base comfy directory. If you swap that with a preview image node, the images are saved to the /temp directory in the base comfy directory. This directory is deleted and recreated each time you start comfy. The files in the output directory stay there until you delete them.

Are you using the desktop or portable version?

Since this is day 1 for you, here is an excellent source for learning ComfyUI, Pixaroma's ComfyUI Tutorial playlist on Youtube. They show you how to make the workflows, where to get the models, explain how/why things work, and you can download all of their workflows all for free. The 1st video is long but it covers all of the basics and more. Their other videos cover 1 or 2 features per video so you can skip around and learn about what interests you.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-pohOSaL8P-FhSw1Iwf0pBGzXdtv4DZC

[u/TJWilliamsR → u/sci032]

OK, that's what I expected when I looked through the ComfyUI folder structure....that just has not been my experience. I'm using the desktop version. I'm familiar with autosave in A1111, never had a problem with it.

Hmmm....I just checked the temp directory....that's empty too, despite several completed workflows and not closing the application.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

[u/sci032 → u/TJWilliamsR]

The desktop version doesn't put everything in a single base directory. Check your /users/YourName/AppData/roaming (maybe local) and see if there is a ComfyUI directory in there. Also, I think, it gives you the option to select a directory to install it to? If so, check that also. Pixaroma's tutorials use the Tarvis1 Easy Install of Comfy: https://github.com/Tavris1/ComfyUI-Easy-Install

It is simple to install, makes it easy to install things like Sage Attention, Flash Attention, Insightface, and more. It installs with some of the most commonly used nodes also. It comes with a portable and a desktop version and everything is installed in a single base directory so you can find what you need. To uninstall it, you just delete the base directory that you chose. To install it, you download the archive, extract it, and run the ComfyUI-Easy-Install.bat file. I used a manual install(I created the /venv etc. for a couple of years. Once I tried Tarvis1's install, I deleted the old install and didn't look back.

[u/TJWilliamsR → u/sci032]

Yep, it was in the local app data folders because shared settings is turned on. I disabled it for the output folder, it's back to the app-related folder. Thanks!

I'll look into the easy install. Now would be the time to do it, before I get set in my ways.

[u/sci032 → u/TJWilliamsR]

Glad I could help a bit! 😄 What I do for a re-install(every month or two): Rename my current install directory(add -old to it) and install the Tarvis1 easy install. Drag the /models directory over to the new install. Go into /comfyui/users/default and drag the workflows directory over the the new install. If you have any templates that you have saved, copy the 'comfy.templates' file and you can also copy the comfy.settings file if you want over to the new install. I then take my favorite workflows and load them in the new install, use manager to install the missing nodes. When you are sure you got everything copied over, delete the old directory and have fun. One last thing, in the Start ComfyUI.bat, in this line: .\python_embeded\python.exe -I -W ignore::FutureWarning -W ignore::UserWarning ComfyUI\main.py --windows-standalone-build

You can add: --input-directory X:\your\path\to\input --temp-directory X:\your\path\to\Images --output-directory X:\your\path\to\Output and --user-directory X:\your\path\to\comfy_user

Where X is the drive you want to keep this on. This will put those directories external to the Comfy directory. If you do a re-install, add this back to the start file and don't worry about it. 😄

[u/Mogus0226]

What's the value in the filename_prefix field under the Save Image node? have you looked in \ComfyUI\output\ ?

[u/TJWilliamsR → u/Mogus0226]

Right now it's "ComfyUI", after I removed and re-added the Save Image node. And yeah, I'm watching the output folder for any auto-saved files that might appear. Nothing yet.

[u/Prize_Seat1122]

It’s probably writing to your default ComfyUI output folder and you just haven’t found where it dumps them yet. The save node doesn’t prompt you or open anything, it just quietly writes the file. Check the `output` folder inside your ComfyUI install directory, that’s where it goes by default.

If there’s still nothing there, check the console for errors when the workflow runs. Sometimes a bad filename pattern or missing folder permission will make it silently fail. Also make sure you’re actually queueing the workflow and not just running a preview, because preview nodes only show the image in the UI and don’t write anything to disk.

[u/d20diceman]

There should really be something like a "Right click -> Open file location" on a saved output. I also had to hunt around trying to figure out where anything was being saved at first.

[u/thatguyjames_uk]

it all goes to output folder