Re: Star Wars: Squadrons doesn't save - Steam

Is there any suggestion for those of us who still lose progress whenever the application closes, but who do not have 'Controlled Folder Access' enabled?

I'm having the same symptom (where all progress is lost when the application closes - or crashes), except in my case 'Controlled Folder Access' is not enabled for my machine. I've verified this in the registry and in my group policy settings. 

Same here. Microsoft Defender isn't even activated, still losing progress.

Read somewhere it might be read & write-protection of the save game folder.

I am not sure if i found the right folder but deactivated read & write-protection under Documents/Star Wars Squadrons.

Hey all, 

After a lot of iterative troubleshooting, I managed to sort it out on my machine. For those who still have the issue regardless of the 'Controlled Folder Access' setting, here's what worked for me:  

1. First, since I installed from Steam and save games were not saving at all, I disabled Steam Cloud synchronization. [This may not be needed for everyone, but it was part of the process that worked for me, so I mention it]
   • Open Steam library,
   • Right click the game,
   • Click properties
   • Click Updates tab
   • UNCHECK 'Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for STAR WARS Squadrons" 
2. Then, go to the application install folder, for me it was here: [drive_letter]:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\STAR WARS Squadrons\
3. Inside that folder, locate both the launcher (starwarssquadrons_launcher.exe) and the application (starwarssquadrons.exe) files.
4. Right click each and go to the 'Compatibility' tab.
5. For both, ensure the 'run as administrator' checkbox is checked.
6. After that, to be sure that the progress is actually saving, go to the directory where the save data is stored and check the date modified timestamps for the contents of that folder are updating. Note: this is NOT the same folder as the installation folder. For me, it was here: drive_letter:\Users\your_user_name\Documents\STAR WARS Squadrons Steam\settings
7. Once in that folder, check the timestamps for these files:
   • BootOptions
   • ProfileOptions
   • ProfileOptions_profile
   • ProfileOptions_profile_synced
   • [Note: You may need to launch the game again for these files to appear, but once they exist, you're on the right track.]
8. The timestamp for each of these should be the same, and reflects the last time the game saved progress.
9. Leave this folder open so you can watch the Date Modified time stamps in real time. 
10. Launch the game again, and go through the "name your pilot" steps again (hopefully for the last time if this works for you). 
11. Keep an eye on the timestamps for those files! If you see them updating when you save the settings, then continue. 
12. You'll see them update again as you complete each checkpoint of each mission. As long as you see the timestamps updating as you progress in the game, then you should be ready to perform the final test. 
13. Exit to the main menu and quit. 
14. Launch the game again. This time you should see it load to the menu and not to the "name your pilot" screen. 

It took me a while to sort it out and verify the steps, so I wanted to share the process with anyone else out there having the issue. May it work for you as it worked for me. 

Good luck out there, pilots. May the Force be with you. 
El Diablo Penguino, signing off. 

@Capt_Silvasco  - Forgot to tag you when I replied to this. ^^

Hi all,

i got the same problem, i try both solutions from this topic, but does not work. The app is not blocked in windows defender and there is no setting folder on STAR WARS Squadrons Steam folder.

can anyone solve it another way?

Regrettably, I've tried this, but the timestamps don't update. Any idea what else might be the issue?

This solution didn't work for me. (like others, the particular setting wasn't there)

This other one didn't either:  Squadrons does not save my progress - Answer HQ (ea.com)

 one odd note, my 'STAR WARS Squadrons' folder was directly in the C drive instead of within a user's documents folder. it had 3 folders, but no settings folder.

Here is what worked for me - I logged out of my main/normal/primary windows account and created a new account.  This account happens to be secured by a password (my normal user account only uses a pin). For some reason, this works.  This 2nd account creates the 'STAR WARS Squadrons' folder within the documents folder of that user, and that folder has the settings folder within it!

Playing the intro for the last time right now!

For those of you who still have the problem with saving progress, i have found another possible cause of this issue. I have tried all another proposed solutions (with Controlled folder access, OneDrive, etc) but it didn't work for me. So I start Process Monitor and start trying to understand what exactly prevent save game files creation. Found that the game tries to create files in folder "C:\Users\%myname%\Documents\\Star Wars Squadrons" (with double slash after 'Documents'). Then go to Shell Folder configuration in the windows registry and discovered that the alias for this folder ends with the slash (%USERPROFILE%\Documents\), when all another aliases has no trail slash (e.g. '%USERPROFILE%\Desktop', '%USERPROFILE\Downloads%', etc). I think these difference somehow related to the OneDrive issue. It's can make it own alias to the folder and add trail slash. After removing that slash from the end game start save games correctly. At Last! So the steps to fix it the following (at your own risk, of course):

1. Open Registy Editor (Win+R, type 'regedit', Enter)

2. Go to the: 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders'

3. Find all registry keys '%USERPROFILE%\Documents\' and remove slash symbol at the end

4. Reboot computer.

5. Enjoy (I hope).