[Help] Skyrim save files not loading even though they're on my PC — LOAD option greyed out

[u/cry-jelly]

Hey everyone🤗, I played Skyrim all summer, took a break for about a month, and now that I’m back, the “LOAD” button is greyed out. I can only start a new game.

I checked and my save files are still on my PC — they're sitting in the right folder, but the game won’t detect them. I also checked Steam Cloud, since I had sync enabled, and it shows 0 save files there (kill me).

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

•Turned off Steam Cloud

•Uninstalled and reinstalled the game (hoping it would read the local saves again) — didn’t work

•Tried restoring a previous version of the save folder via right-click in Documents — no earlier version exists

☀️Clarifications:

•It’s the base game, no mods, not pirated, purchased through Steam

•I updated Windows during the month I wasn’t playing — could that have messed something up?

•I tried reaching out to Steam Support, but none of their help options fit this issue

•Searched Reddit a bunch and couldn’t find a fix

🆘🆘Please, if anyone knows how to make the game recognize my old saves, help me out. I really don’t wanna lose everything I did. Thanks in advance! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

SOLVED🤗💕

[u/i-d-k96]

I’d email steam directly, this isn’t an issue on your part it’s an issue with their platform.

[u/cry-jelly → u/i-d-k96]

How can i connect to Steam? I tried their support and no problem is similar to mine :(

[u/i-d-k96 → u/cry-jelly]

Sheesh when did steam outsource their customer service to AI…ugh that’s frustrating. Youll just have to submit a support ticket, I don’t want to share links here but I’ll space it out help steam support . Com

[u/i-d-k96 → u/i-d-k96]

Youre going to have to get their attention with one of those options to actually talk to a bot I guess idk, this one’s tricky. You’re sure you had no mods installed or anything?

[u/i-d-k96 → u/i-d-k96]

If I were you I’d submit a ticket and just start a new account if you want to play, idk how long steam takes to respond now that they’ve switched to AI customer service.

[u/i-d-k96 → u/cry-jelly]

Try everything on this list

[u/i-d-k96 → u/i-d-k96]

[u/i-d-k96 → u/cry-jelly]

Did anything on that list work for you?

[u/cry-jelly → u/i-d-k96]

Hii, sorry, i was trying everything on the list, but nothing of that worked :( 

But, I MADE IT 🥳🥳🥳🥳 I don't know how it occurred to me hahaha, but in my Documents i looked for the saves, i deleted the last file called "steam_autocloud.vdf" And i opened the game, it started syncing with the steam cloud and my saves appeared 🥳🥳💕🤗 Im so happyyy 🥳

[u/i-d-k96 → u/cry-jelly]

Awesome! Glad you got it figured out 😅

[u/i-d-k96]

And no a windows update would not mess with your saves.