Life is Strange: Reunion Save Bug: How to Stop Windows from Nuking Your Progress
If your save file for Life is Strange: Reunion keeps vanishing overnight, the game probably isn't the problem, a built in Windows security feature is quietly blocking it instead.
Losing progress in a narrative game hits differently than losing progress anywhere else. There's no boss to grind back through, just choices you made and conversations you sat through that are gone the moment you relaunch. If you've booted up the game expecting to see Max and Chloe right where you left them and instead landed back at the tutorial, that's a legitimate reason to be annoyed.
Why This Keeps Happening
The short version is that Windows has a feature called Controlled folder access, and it's a little paranoid. It watches sensitive spots on your drive, especially the Documents folder, and it's designed to stop ransomware from encrypting your personal files. The problem is it can't always tell the difference between actual malware and a game just trying to write a normal save file. When Life is Strange: Reunion tries to drop a new save into that folder, Windows sometimes steps in and quietly blocks it. The game thinks everything worked fine. Your drive says otherwise.
There are two ways to deal with this. You can whitelist the game specifically, or you can turn the whole feature off. Whitelisting is the better move since it keeps your PC protected everywhere else.
Whitelisting the Game
Open the Start Menu, search for "Windows Security," and open the app. Head to "Virus & threat protection" in the sidebar, scroll down to "Ransomware protection," and click "Manage ransomware protection."
You'll see a toggle for Controlled folder access. If it's on, that's almost certainly what's eating your saves.
Click "Allow an app through Controlled folder access." Windows will probably ask for admin permission, so approve that. From there, choose "Add an allowed app," then "Browse all apps."
Now you just need to point Windows to the actual game file. If it's installed through Steam with default settings, the path usually looks like this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\LifeisStrangeReunion\LifeIsStrangeReunion.exe
Select that file and confirm. Once it shows up as an allowed app, Windows should stop interfering with anything it writes to Documents.
If You'd Rather Skip the File Hunt
Turning Controlled folder access off entirely fixes the issue immediately with no file browsing required. It does leave your system a bit less protected against actual ransomware, so it's only worth doing if you're careful about what ends up on your PC. Whitelisting the game specifically is the safer bet if you've got a minute to spare.
Confirming It Actually Worked
Don't just assume the fix took and dive back into a long session. Start a new file, play until you see the autosave trigger, close the game, and go check the folder yourself.
The default location is:
C:\Users\(Your Username)\Documents\My Games\LifeisStrangeReunion\Steam\Saved
If nothing's there, check the AppData version instead:
C:\Users\(Your Username)\AppData\Local\LifeisStrangeReunion\Steam\Saved
Seeing a file called SaveSlot_1.sav sitting in either folder means your progress is actually being written now, which means you're free to keep going without worrying about it.
When the Fix Doesn't Fix It
Whitelisting the game handles most of these cases, but if saves are still disappearing after that, something else on your system is probably interfering too. Here's what tends to cause it.
None of these fixes are complicated, they're just a little tedious to track down the first time. Once your saves are actually landing on your drive, you can get back to the part of the game that matters, which is just sitting with Max and Chloe and letting the story play out without wondering if it's all going to disappear the second you close the app.
