---
title: "SNES emulator save not working — SRAM deleted, won't save, or save file lost (bsnes-hd / Snes9x)"
canonical_url: https://emudesk.com/issues/snes-emulator-save-not-working-sram-lost-fix
content_locale: en
source_locale: en
entity_type: issue
index_status: index
published_at: 2026-08-31T18:22:23.000Z
updated_at: 2026-09-01T00:45:02.791Z
freshness_status: fresh
---

# SNES emulator save not working — SRAM deleted, won't save, or save file lost (bsnes-hd / Snes9x)

SNES games with battery-backed save RAM (Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and many others) store saves in a .srm file alongside the ROM. When this file is missing, misnamed, or in the wrong folder, your game starts fresh every time — appearing to "delete" your save.

Common symptoms that bring users here:

  "My save file disappeared" — the game starts at the title screen with no save slots.
  "SRAM keeps resetting every time I launch the game" — saves appear to work during a session but are gone on the next launch.
  "I moved my ROMs folder and now saves are gone" — the emulator can no longer find the .srm because the ROM path changed.
  "Save state loaded instead of SRAM" — save states and battery saves are different; accidentally loading a state after the battery save was deleted.


The most common cause is a filename mismatch: both bsnes-hd and Snes9x key the .srm file to the ROM's base filename. If the ROM file is renamed, the emulator creates a new empty .srm instead of loading the old one.