What is Save Cleaning?
If you’ve experienced any kind of crazy problems with mods, and then tried searching for some solutions to those problems, you’ve probably heard of something people call ‘clean saving’. But what does that mean? I get the feeling that a lot of people think that the process of cleaning a save is a foolproof and guaranteed way to clean up stuff from your save when weird things start to happen, and it’s definitely a safe step in the overall troubleshooting process. Today I want to clarify: It isn’t any of those things.
![Skyrim Clean Save Skyrim Clean Save](http://i.imgur.com/mVTHsAw.png)
Let’s start by defining this process. Most of the time when people talk about doing a clean save, they mean a relatively quick and simple process that more or less looks something like this:
- Load the save you wish to clean
- Make a new save
- Quit the game
- Uninstall the mods you want to remove
- Load the recent save
- Make another new save
Skyrim has to track the position of every cup you knock off the table, so the more you disturb the 'natural' world, the bigger your save file becomes. You can also allow time to pass (as you mentioned), turn off or reduce the number of autosaves, and keep 2GB of free space on your hard drive. Before fish goes on the taxidermist, requires certain steps to be taken to save it. Instructions 1 clean most dirt and debris heli-copter flight fish by operating clean water around The best way to Clean Bass Boats.
And if you are putting the mod back in for whatever reason, you would then quit the game, reinstall said mod(s), and load up the ‘clean’ save. Pretty easy right? Doesn’t really seem like something that could be potentially harmful, and I bet a lot of people may use this every time they uninstall or even install mods as part of their ‘best practices’ in modding.
This is where I get frustrated at the lack of proper information in regards to Skyrim modding, especially when you mod the game heavily. Part of the reason I started this blog was that it was difficult for me to find loads of information on a heavy modding set up, and proper modding in general, all in one place. There is a ton of good info out there if you know where, and even when to look for it. But there is no ‘Heavy Skyrim Modding for Beginner’s’ rule book. Trust me, I looked.
![Skyrim save game cleaner Skyrim save game cleaner](https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/38435-1-1374066114.jpg)
Now, if you’ve got some weird glitches happening in your game, and you want to try cleaning your save to get rid of them, in most cases the method I’ve outlined above doesn’t actually do anything. To explain why, I’m going to delve a little bit into what happens when you start using certain mods, and how your save becomes dependent on them.
There are indeed some mods that are completely safe to install and uninstall from your game at any time. In general, these mods are ‘replacer’ mods, ones that replace things from the vanilla game without adding or removing any objects. Texture packs, armor or weapon recolors, some sound mods will usually fall into this category. Texture replacements, for example, simply replace a texture file that is already in the game with a new or altered one. Only the specific files that are included in the mod are changed, and because the vanilla game files are always in the game data, the save has files to retrieve if/when the new texture is removed. Saves will never develop dependencies on these types of mods.
Some mods are relatively safe to add and remove from your game, but you may experience some problems. Mods that add or remove any objects, equipment, buildings, NPCs, or even perks and abilities are in this category. In general, adding these into a save is no problem. However, if you install a mod that heavily alters an outdoor world space, or an interior cell like an inn for example, and your character is in said space when you install and attempt to load the mod, you may have some glitching or even crashing because you are trying to alter a cell that is already loaded. The same goes for when you remove said mods and your character is again in the space you are trying to revert back to vanilla. In the case of mods that add equipment or spells, again, installing them is generally painless. If you remove them, though, the objects that were added now no longer exist, so they will be missing from your game. If you use a mod like SkyRe, the perk changes it makes won’t exist if you decide to take it out, but that means any points you spent in those perks go along with it. Taking these types of mods out may cause you to lose some items or spells that you will have to find or make again if you put the mod back, but there shouldn’t be too many game breaking problems (that can’t be resolved through the in-game console, anyway).
And last we get to the illicit substances of Skyrim mods, the scripted ones. There are many, many different mods that require scripts to run. They are mods that require the game to behave in a way that is different than it does in vanilla. A mod may needs scripts to tell the game when to initiate certain events, like spawning an army, or lighting a lantern, or starting a snow storm. Popular mods like Frostfall, Convenient Horses, Footprints, or Warzones are these types of mods, and things can get really hairy if you try to remove them. The reason for that is when you install scripted mods, the scripts will write themselves into your save data, and when you remove the mods, the scripts remain and continue to run. The problems start to occur when the scripts start calling on information that they need to work properly, but they can’t find anything because you’ve gone and removed the objects from your game. This can result in pretty consistent crashing, save game bloat, or other serious game breaking issues. Your save has become dependent on the mod and will not function properly without it.
If you really need to remove a scripted mod from your game, there is a method of cleaning your save to try an terminate orphaned scripts or other issues, but it isn’t the method I’ve outlined above. You can find the complete cleaning process on the S.T.E.P. Project wiki here. This is an extreme method, and I would recommend only doing it if you really have a ton of junk in your save game and you want to try getting it all out. If any method of cleaning was going to work, it would be that one. Not guaranteed though.
So When Should I Clean My Save?
The guide I’ve linked above recommends using the method as a sort of preventative measure every time you want to add or remove mods, but as much as I love the people at the STEP wiki I’m going to have to disagree. In my opinion, you shouldn’t ever try to clean your save unless it is completely necessary, and the simple method above should never, ever be used as a way to remove scripted mods. Always use the overkill method if you absolutely need to remove a scripted mod, and even then there are better ways to deal with removing these. The simple cleaning method should only ever be used if it is required when you are updating a mod, and intend to reinstall it after you’ve made the clean save. This is only required if a mod has undergone some serious changes to it’s functionality, and the mod data needs to be ‘reset’ in your save in order for it work properly. Generally, attempting to clean a save should be a last resort, and can be easily avoided if you know how to manage your mods properly. I’ll try and give you some guidelines:
- If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. If a mod is functioning properly, leave it alone. Many times I see people recommending uninstalling or disabling mods all at once as a method of troubleshooting, and hopefully you can see now why that is such a terrible idea. If some mods broke due to an update or some other random act of the gods, don’t go poking around the mods that are still working. If they aren’t broken, you have absolutely no reason to remove them, so don’t. All it does is suddenly take away objects or information that the save may need, which can cause more problems than if you have left the mod alone.
- Back up your saves. Before you install a mod, load up your save without the mod. Press ` to enter the console and type ‘save <insert name of save here>’. Make it a unique name, and try to indicate it is a save that isn’t dependent on whatever mod you are about to install, i.e. ‘Clean Save Pre-SkyRe’. Something to that effect. Then navigate to your save folder and copy the save to a safe location. This will ensure that you have a save to return to should you decide you don’t want whatever mod you were installing.
- Test each mod before you decide to keep it. After you have backed up you save and installed a new mod, play around with it. I recommend between 2-5 hours of play testing. When I say play testing, I don’t mean that in the sense that you are a beta tester and trying to weed out bugs from the mod. I mean play as you normally would, keeping an eye open for any issues that may occur, but keep in mind that you may lose whatever progress you make in that time if you decide to ditch the mod and go back to your independent save. This will drastically reduce the need for troubleshooting later down the line, and will make your life infinitely easier if a mod does cause problems because you will know exactly what mod caused it, and you won’t have any problems getting rid of it. This will remove the necessity of cleaning a save after trying to uninstall a scripted mod.
- Follow instructions! Always make sure you read any information the author provides on installing/updating/uninstalling a mod. Especially the uninstallation. Check the comments section for people having problems with the mod, read the changelogs. This will help you decide if you need to backup your saves before trying a mod out, or if you need to make a clean save before installing an update. Again, this will save headaches.
If you are having a problem with a specific mod (and you are sure that you know exactly what mod is causing the problem), you can try doing a simple clean save to troubleshoot or sometimes resolve that problem. Similar to updating a mod, you can try a clean save as a method of ‘rebooting’ mod data to solve whatever problem you are having. Be careful though, even if you put a mod back in, making a save without the mod can always cause even more problems, so make sure you backup your save before you remove anything. Then uninstall or disable only the mod you are trying to reset, and make sure you follow any uninstall instructions provided by the author, then make a clean save and load the mod back in. May or may not fix your problem, and it may or may not break something else entirely, but it is something you can try.
To Recap
Attempting to clean your save is risky, and should only be done if you absolutely need to. The simple method should only be used to clean a save from a single mod, and only when the mods needs to be updated or reset. The extreme method should be used as a last resort to try to recover a save after damage has already been done. If you backup your saves and test your mods properly, and read all instructions carefully, you should be able to avoid breaking your game.
I hope that’s been enlightening. Best of luck, and safe modding everyone.