In this short tutorial, we’ll go over some information about Auto Save and, more generally, backing up our projects in Blender 4.5.
Video Transcript
Hello everyone! In this short tutorial, we’ll go over some information about Auto Save and, more generally, backing up our projects in Blender 4.5. Among other things, we’ll see how to create multiple Auto Save files with timestamps using a free extension. We’ll also see how to make Blender save more than one file with the extensions blend 1, blend 2, and so on, every time you save.
First, let’s talk about Blender’s Auto Save feature. By default, this feature should already be enabled in the Preferences window, under the Save And Load section. Next to the Auto Save checkbox, there’s a field where you can specify how many minutes Blender should wait before overwriting the Auto Save file for the current project.
If you change these or other settings in the Preferences tab, remember to enable Auto Save Preferences, or save them manually using the menu at the bottom left of the window.
If the Auto Save checkbox was already enabled, Blender has been saving recovery files for all the projects you’ve worked on so far. To see where they’ve been saved, open the File Paths tab in the Preferences window and look for the Temporary Files path. If the field is empty, it doesn’t mean the files weren’t saved. It means they’re located in your system’s temporary files folder.
On screen, I’m showing you the Blend files that Blender saved for me in that default folder. Notice that there’s also a file called Quit, which stores the last Blender session when you closed the program. As you can see, these files can take up quite a lot of space, so it’s a good idea to open that folder from time to time and clean it up. A tip I recommend is changing the Temporary Files path in the Preferences tab to a dedicated folder on your Desktop. That way, you’ll be reminded to check it occasionally and free up some space.
To load an Auto Save file, open the File menu and click on Auto Save under the Recover section. A File Browser window will open with the location of Blender’s Auto Save files, and from there you can recover the project you need.
As I mentioned earlier, Auto Save files are stored one per project, meaning Blender will overwrite the current project’s Auto Save file at the time interval specified in Preferences. However, if you want multiple Auto Save files to keep a history of changes, you can install the Incremental Auto Saves extension from the Extensions tab in Preferences.
After installing the extension, go to the Add Ons tab, search for it there, and adjust the parameters as you prefer. Don’t forget to click Save Preferences before closing the window if the Auto Save Preferences option isn’t enabled. For this example, I set a different save folder from the default one and waited a few minutes before recording the video. In the folder I chose, multiple save files were created at one minute intervals, each with a timestamp in the filename. Of course, one minute is very short; I only set it that way for demonstration. It’s better to set 5 or even 10 minutes, depending on your needs.
In the Save And Load tab, you may have noticed the Save Versions field. This field controls the number of backup versions Blender creates when you choose Save from the File menu, overwriting the current project file. The default value is 1, and the backup file created is called blend 1. I’m cleaning up the folder where my current file is located, removing the Auto Saves, so I can show you an example of Save Versions.
I set the Save Versions value to 10, save the changes, and then save the current project file multiple times, both using Save from the File menu and with the Control S shortcut. Now, in the project folder, you’ll see multiple backup files with progressive names like blend 1, blend 2, blend 3, and so on.
To recap: Blender provides Auto Saves as a last resort in case of a crash without saving. We also saw how to use the Incremental Auto Saves extension to have Blender create multiple files for the current project, each with a timestamp in its name at regular intervals. I also showed you how to change the save path for these files so you can keep an eye on them and clean up periodically, since they can take up a lot of disk space. Finally, we looked at how to set multiple backup files with Save Versions when saving with Control S, which overwrites the project file.
You probably already know this, but just for completeness: it’s also a good habit to use the Save Incremental function from the File menu. This function will create a new file with an incremental numeric suffix each time you save, so you’ll keep a history of previous versions in your project folder. The shortcut for this function is Control Alt S. That’s all for this tutorial! If you found it useful, you can thank me with a Like and by subscribing to the channel. See you next time!
