Some players are reporting problems with the save system in "Baldur's Gate 3". That is, they are unable to save or load at all, which is a bit of a problem in 2023's "Most Controversial Game About Save Scams". The good news is that if you are encountering this problem, Larian directs you to a help page on its website, which should hopefully resolve the issue. The bad news is that the save is broken and lost progress will not be returned.

The problem appears to be related to BG3's cloud sync service. Players who have encountered this bug report that their games get stuck in a never-ending sync loop and cannot be saved or loaded.

Larian's support page for those unable to save recommends stopping "all non-essential programs" before launching the game, especially "anti-virus and backup programs" that may interfere with the game's data operations. In particular, Windows Defender, Bitdefender, Avast, and AVG are programs that have historically interfered with BG3 and the game's executable files (and Larian Studios' AppData folder. [If none of Larian Studios' recommendations help, some players on the Steam forums have reported success by disabling cloud syncing altogether. Such players recommend turning off the game's "Cross Save" setting in Gameplay Settings before completely deleting the Baldur's Gate 3 folder in AppData/Local/Larian Studios. By removing the cloud save from the equation, the game should hopefully be restored. However, this may come back to haunt you in the future when you try to play on a console, though.

Hopefully, this won't be an issue for long. Larian told IGN that they are aware of the issue, and Larian CEO Sven Vinke tweeted earlier today that the game's first hot fix is already underway. With any luck, the problem will not last long for players affected by this issue.