Blender For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Auto Saves and Session Recovery Don't Work

The problem of auto saves and session recovering not working is mostly unique to users of Microsoft Windows, but even if you're on another operating system, it's worth it to double-check. This problem happens because your Temp directory is improperly set to a folder that doesn't exist on your computer. If this path isn't set properly, your auto saves and Blender's session recovery (FileRecover Last Session) don't work. The Recover Last Session feature is particularly important to have for those cases where you close Blender without saving your project. It's amazing how many people have lost hours of work because Blender crashed (it happens sometimes!), or they accidentally closed Blender without saving. Blender won't warn you if your file hasn't been saved, so don't be that person!

By default, Blender sets the Temp path at /tmp, a directory that doesn't exist in Windows. Two solutions to this problem exist:

• Create the /tmp directory. In Windows, you'd create C:\tmp. After you create this directory, all auto saves and recoverable sessions are stored there.
• Change the Temp path in the File section of User Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U) to a directory of your choice that already exists. Many people like to use C:\Windows\Temp.

Get into the habit ...