Chances are, if you already own Skyrim on PC, you’ve been playing it with mods. Unfortunately, despite saves being compatible across the original game and Skyrim: Special Edition, if you’ve used any mods on the former, your save won’t work on the latter.
Speaking of which, here’s our list of the best Skyrim mods.
Earlier this year, Bethesda said saves “should transfer” over, but that vague language, ‘should’, was clearly used for a purpose. Bethesda were likely aware that mods could cause compatibility issues.
Previous to that, there was an announcement that existing mods should also carry over, though they have to be modified to work.
It looks like those two features won’t work together though, as Bethesda made clear in a release sent out with review code, via Eurogamer.
“Existing save games from the original PC game will work in the PC version of Skyrim: Special Edition,” it says. “Simply copy your old saves from My Games/Skyrim to My Games/Skyrim Special Edition.
“Only use original saves that have never been used with mods. Do not use your original save game if this error appears when you load it in Skyrim Special Edition: ‘This save relies on content that is no longer present.'”
To be fair, it’s probably a better idea to start again than to try remember why your character is halfway down a Dwemer Ruin in the arse-end of nowhere anyway.