Skyrim players urged to change one setting to save their game data

If you’re still playing Skyrim in 2025, you may want to think about changing one setting to save your playthroughs.

Now almost 14 years old, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is still one of the most popular games on Steam, with an average of 18,000 concurrent players in the last 30 days alone.

This is not only because Skyrim is a pretty large game, but it’s also down to the huge modding potential the game has, with new expansions and mods uploaded online every day.

However, if you’re a Skyrim player who loves to mod their games, there’s one thing you may want to look out for. And you might also want to change a specific setting to avoid losing your save file.

As a Reddit user posted on the Skyrim Reddit page, you may want to think twice about updating your game if you have any serious modded playthroughs.

“I thought I was in the clear after the last recent update, but now it seems that semi-regular updates are back,” the user wrote. “And now my modded save seems ruined just as I was about to get into the DLC content.”

The reason this occurs is because new updates can break compatibility with older mods that are installed, meaning you can’t access your modded save files without also updating your mods. The problem is, not every mod gets updated, and creators can move on.

It seems that Bethesda still likes to bring out new updates for Skyrim from time to time. SteamDB lists January 2024 as the last time a new build was pushed, which would have required players to update their games.

There are ways to get around this. As one fan wrote in the comments, “Turn off auto update and only launch with SKSE.” As most Skyrim modders will know, SKSE refers to Skyrim Script Extender, a tool that expands the modding capabilities of the game.

To disable auto-update on Steam, right-click on the game and select Properties. Then navigate to Updates, and select “Only update this game when I launch it”.

When combined with launching with SKSE, you’ll essentially never be forced to update your game and can continue playing your modded saves until the end of time.