Autosave stops working in AutoCAD products

Autodesk Support

Jan 13, 2025

Products and versions covered

Issue:

When working in AutoCAD or its toolset products, the autosave keeps turning off or is not properly saving files.

Causes:

  • The autosave file path is not a valid save location or is read only.
  • File name extensions are not visible to identify the SV$ files.
  • A script turned off Autosave.
Notes: 
  • Autosave can be temporarily turned off and then not turned on again due to a script or operation that turned it off not completing successfully. For example, some LISP routines turn autosave off at the beginning, run some commands, and then turn it back on when finished. If the LISP routine does not complete or is interrupted, autosave remains off.
  • There are also several operations in AutoCAD that turn off autosave while the command is executing (for example, in the Block Editor). If the program crashes while autosave is temporarily turned off, it remains off.

Solution:

Test if an autosave or error has occurred

  1. Type SAVETIME on the AutoCAD command line and set the value to 1 (minute).
  2. Perform an edit in a drawing and then wait for the autosave to occur. 
  3. Press F2 to display the command line history. Check the history to see if an autosave has occurred or there are any errors displayed.
 

To resolve the issue, do the following:

  1. Change the save path in Options to a valid location. See the article: Change default location for automatic save files. 
  2. Sometimes, changing the autosave time restores the program to acknowledge the feature again.
  3. Configure the System Variable Monitor (SYSVARMONITOR) to show changes to the autosave setting: 
    1. On the command line in AutoCAD, type SAVETIME and set it to the desired setting (the default is 10 minutes). 
    2. Type the SYSVARMONITOR command to open the System Variable Monitor, and then click Edit List. 
    3. In the left pane, search for SAVETIME in the Available System Variables list. 
    4. Select the ">>" button to move the SAVETIME system variable to the Monitored System Variables list. 
    5. Click OK twice. 

Now if the SAVETIME variable is ever changed, the System Variable Monitor status bar icon will be displayed. Then, the monitored system variables can be reset back to their preferred values. 

Notes: 

  • Also, set SYSMON to 2 to see a balloon alert notification whenever monitored variables change. 
  • Script command (not available in AutoCAD LT)
 

To keep autosave on, create a LISP file that runs each time AutoCAD starts up. 

  1. Create a text file using Notepad and paste in the following line of code: 
    • (setvar "SAVETIME" 15) 
  2. Save and close the file and then rename it to acaddoc.lsp. 
    1. Use right-click > properties to see the full file name. 
    2. Be sure it does not end with .lsp.txt after renaming. 
  3. Put the acaddoc.lsp file in the AutoCAD support folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 20xx\Support).
 

Check File name extensions 

After navigating to the Auto-Save file location, that is listed on the Files tab of the options, ensure that the display of File name extensions is enabled in the Windows Explorer settings.

  1. On the Windows Explorer, switch to the View tab. 
  2. In the Show/hide panel, check the checkbox for File name extensions to display.

Products:

AutoCAD for Mac; AutoCAD LT for Mac; AutoCAD Products;

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