Other IssuesErrors or crashes when loading savesCan you load older saves, if available?
If you start a new game, can you make a manual save and load it properly? Moving a bit from the initial character position can trigger an auto save, which might overwrite one from your current playthrough.
Are you shutting down all non-essential programs before starting the game, especially anti-virus and any backup programs, etc, that may be monitoring disk activity?
For example, a few people have had BitDefender block the game from being able to create files and folders, which has caused errors when loading. In those cases, including both the game executables and Larian Studios local AppData folder in BitDefender's trusted app and directory sections would fix the problem (Advance Threat Defense, Ransomware Protection / Safe Files, Application Access).
Windows Defender has also caused issues (generally file system errors); in that case an exception for the game can be made in Start, Settings, Updates & Security, Windows Security, Virus & threat protection, Virus & threat protection settings, Add or remove exclusions.
At least in patch 6 Avast and AVG have caused various save issues by blocking the game's access to the My Documents folder (one person reported it was the launcher that was the issue for Avast, and adding LariLauncher.exe to the trusted apps list fixed the problem; another reported that AVG quarantined the launcher). This has been less of an issue since patch 7, with the change to save the profiles in the local AppData folder. See the help sites for
Avast or
AVG, if applicable.
Try browsing to the 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\LevelCache' folder and delete the contents. A corrupt file there can cause problems when saving or loading. The easiest way to get there would be to copy
%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\LevelCache into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter.
Try verifying local files: in the Steam library, right click on the game and select Properties, switch to the Local Files tab and then click on the 'Verify Integrity of Game Files...' button.
With the GOG version, in the (optional) Galaxy client, select the game, then the settings icon at the top right (beside the Play button) and under Manage Installation select 'Verify / Repair'.
Try exiting out of the Steam client, or Galaxy for the GOG version, and starting the game directly from the '..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin' folder, by right clicking the executable (bg3.exe for Vulkan, or bg3_dx11.exe) and running as administrator.
If applicable, disable Steam cloud support either globally (in the client click on the Steam menu and select Settings, and then Cloud) or just for this game (in the library right click BG3 and select Properties, then switch to the General tab and check the Steam Cloud section).
Alternately, exit out of the Steam client, or Galaxy for the GOG version, and just start the game directly from the executable when required.
Next, try browsing to the 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios' folder and rename the 'Baldur's Gate 3' subfolder. The easiest way to get there would be to copy
%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter.
This folder contains the saved games, configuration files and a level cache folder. Deleting or renaming it will get the game to recreate it on startup; playing the game from a different Windows user account would effectively do the same thing. With Steam/Galaxy running and cloud support enabled, the client would just download the cloud copy of your existing profile.
If you played in patch 6 or earlier and still have those profiles and saves, also browse to the '..\Documents\Larian Studios' folder and rename the 'Baldur's Gate 3' subfolder there (or delete it if you don't want to keep the saves), so patch 9 does not copy the game's earlier Documents folder to the local AppData folder (as part of the startup procedure if there is no existing local AppData folder).
After that, start the game, and maybe check that you can start a new game and save/load. If that works, exit and copy a couple saves from the renamed folder into the newly created ..\PlayerProfiles\Public\Savegames\Story folder. If that continues to let you start the game and load the saves, move the rest of the saves over.
If loading still gives an error or crashes, delete the new BG3 folder and rename the original back again (as well as in the Documents folder, if applicable).
If a new game in a new profile folder also gives an error or crashes when loading:
Try doing a clean boot and then test the game. Click Start, or hit WinKey-R, type in msconfig and hit enter; in the General tab, click Selective Startup, uncheck Load startup items (if required) and leave Load system services and Use original boot configuration options checked. Next, click on the Services tab, check the box to Hide all Microsoft services, then click the Disable All button (maybe make a note of which are currently enabled/disabled), then click OK and reboot the computer.
Run msconfig again to switch back to the normal boot configuration.
Try creating a new Windows administrator user account, switch to that account and try starting the game from there, directly from the executable.
If a new game is fine but recent saves give an error or crash, please contact support with your latest save (or a Dropbox or Google drive link, etc), and if older saves are ok, the most recent save that you can load, and the oldest you can not.
In Explorer you can zip a file or folder by right clicking on it/them and selecting 'Send To | Compressed (zipped) Folder'.
Each save is a folder in the 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\PlayerProfiles\Public\Savegames\Story' folder. The fastest way to get there would probably be to copy
%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\PlayerProfiles\Public\Savegames\Story into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter.
No audio, or certain audio types missing (such as all/most voiced lines)If there is no sound at all:
Try right clicking the task tray volume icon and open the volume mixer, to make sure the game is not muted.
Right click the task tray volume icon, select Sounds and switch to the Playback tab, to double check sound is being output to the speakers/headphones you are using. This can be reset after installing new video drivers, for example.
For audio problems in general:
Try verifying local files: in the Steam library, right click on the game and select Properties, switch to the Local Files tab and then click on the 'Verify Integrity of Game Files...' button.
With the GOG version, in the (optional) Galaxy client, select the game, then the settings icon at the top right (beside the Play button) and under Manage Installation select 'Verify / Repair'.
Try changing the audio volume in the game options, as well as the speaker configuration.
If possible, try changing the default audio output in Windows (front audio jacks vs rear, for example).
If you are using speakers, do you have headphones you can try, or vise versa?
Check the configuration of the speakers / headphones;
having 2.1 devices configured as 5.1, for example, can cause voiced lines not to be audible.
- Right click the speaker icon in the taskbar and select 'Playback devices'
- In the Playback tab, right click the 'Default Device' (with a green checkmark) and select 'Configure Speakers'
- Make sure the 'Audio channels' configuration matches your speaker/headphone setup; press the 'Test' button to hear sound effects played on each speaker, while the corresponding speaker in the 'Speaker Setup' window is highlighted. You can also click directly on the speakers in the picture to hear the test sound effect on that speaker only.
Try changing the Windows sound quality settings (right click the volume icon in the task bar, select Sounds, in the Playback tab right click the default device and select Properties, then switch to the Advanced tab, etc).
Try
turning on spatial sound in Windows 10. If it is already enabled you could try disabling it, to see if that makes a difference.
Are you shutting down all non-essential programs before starting the game?
With D:OS EE, for example, a couple of people had sound problems with the Razer Synapse program running in the background (one with Razer Kraken headphones had it cut out completely after a few minutes, while another with a Razer keyboard and mouse was getting sound stuttering).
Try right clicking the bg3.exe or bg3_dx11.exe executable (in the '..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin' folder, or similarly for the GOG install folder), select Properties, switch to the Compatibility tab and check off the 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' option (set it to Application), run as administrator and disable fullscreen optimization, and maybe set a Win 7 or 8 compatibility mode. In Windows 7, check off the option to 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings', disable desktop composition and run as administrator.
Try doing a clean boot and then test the game. Click Start, or hit WinKey-R, type in msconfig and hit enter; in the General tab, click Selective Startup, uncheck Load startup items (if required) and leave Load system services and Use original boot configuration options checked. Next, click on the Services tab, check the box to Hide all Microsoft services, then click the Disable All button (maybe make a note of which are currently enabled/disabled), then click OK and reboot the computer.
Run msconfig again to switch back to the normal boot configuration.
Try creating a new Windows administrator user account, switch to that account and try starting the game from there, directly from the executable to test.
Check for updated drivers, and Windows updates in general. Just reinstalling the audio drivers may help, as well (at least it has for the case of voiced lines not being audible).
If that doesn't help, please contact support with details and a dxdiag report (WinKey-R, type in dxdiag and hit enter, then when it finishes loading click on the 'Save All Information...' button and save the report somewhere handy).
