Save guide / Protect progress
How to Save in Low-Budget Repairs
Use manual and automatic saves in Low-Budget Repairs, understand a greyed-out Save button and protect progress when a job behaves incorrectly.
The short version
Update 4 improves saving painted walls and assembled objects, but it does not guarantee every state. Keep multiple slots and a folder backup; one post-patch report describes dismantled furniture that could not be rebuilt after loading.
Last verified:
Update 6 save status
The September 21 changelog names missing purchases or placed items, emptied trunks, reset installed objects, cables, fuses and objectives, disappearing window parts, repeated dialogue and saves made mid-assembly or repair. These are official fixes, not proof that an already damaged slot can be restored.
- Keep an untouched copy of the last working save.
- Install the current update and test the exact task once.
- Report any remaining issue with mission, save and object details.
Create a manual save
- Reach a stable moment outside an active dialogue or transition.
- Press Escape to open the pause menu.
- Choose Save Game.
- Select Create New Save at the top of the list instead of replacing your only working slot.
- Confirm the new entry appears before starting a risky placement or retry.
Manual saves and autosaves are different
A manual slot gives you a deliberate return point. An autosave is created by the game and may capture a different moment. An autosave can still exist when the manual Save button is unavailable, so inspect the Load menu before assuming all recent progress is gone.
Use a small save rotation
For troubleshooting, keep more than one return point when the interface permits it. A practical editorial routine is a pre-job save, a mid-job save after a stable objective, and a post-job save after the completion state. The exact number of available slots is not asserted here; the goal is simply to avoid overwriting the only known-good state.
- Before accepting or entering a long job
- After a major objective registers correctly
- Before unpacking or installing a mission-critical object
- After the final hand-in and return to normal play
Recover in the least destructive order
- Stop overwriting existing manual saves.
- Take a screenshot of Work Plans and carried or truck inventory.
- Open Load Game and compare timestamps before selecting a slot.
- Try the newest plausible autosave once.
- Return to the last known-good manual save if the broken state repeats.
- Update Steam and document the exact loss before reporting it.
When it looks like a real save problem
- No recent autosave appears after ordinary free movement
- A previously working manual slot loads into an empty or invalid state
- Carried, truck or placed items vanish after loading
- The same loss returns after Steam installs the current update
- Manual saving stays unavailable after the scripted sequence or job state has ended
What to include in a report
Record the game version, save timestamp, job and objective, whether the slot was manual or automatic, and what inventory or placement changed after loading. That evidence is more useful than repeatedly overwriting the same slot while searching for a workaround.
Single post-1.0.15 report of disappearing slots
This is a new community report, not confirmation of a universal regression or reversal of older save fixes.
- Do not overwrite the last known-good slot.
- Copy the whole save folder before reproducing the issue.
- Record the sequence: source slot, new slot, autosave and restart.
- Include the game version and Player.log in a report.
Trunk materials disappeared after a job
One report after Robbery concerns inventory state and may require an earlier save for recovery. Do not save over the same slot again until you have checked the backup and material list.
What Update 4 confirms—and what it does not
Painted walls and assembled objects are the officially named save improvements. The dismantled-furniture post is one post-patch case, not evidence of a universal regression.
- Do not overwrite the pre-dismantle save.
- After loading, test one object without saving again.
- Preserve both slots and Player.log.
Source log
Where this answer comes from
- A developer explains manual saves, autosaves and short sections where saving is deliberately unavailable.
- Current player reports. A discussion title or workaround is not treated as developer confirmation.
- community sourceSteam Discussions — manual save slots disappearSingle recent report that creating a manual save removed other slots and autosave did not recover them.
- community sourceSteam Bug Reports — trunk materials missing after RobberySingle recent report of materials disappearing from the trunk after the Robbery mission.
- Single August 30 report that furniture dismantled before saving could not be rebuilt after loading.
- official sourceOfficial Update 4 — August 27 changelogOfficial Update 4 notes covering save and objective-state improvements, hanging-object placement, mission changes, crash and progression fixes, collectibles, tiles, optimization and localization. The announcement does not publish a numeric version.
- official sourceSteam — Update 6September 21 save, mission, interaction and language changes.
Found a stronger source or an outdated fact? Send Andrew a correction.