Ctrl-S saving to file changes to saving to the cloud when I publish

[PeZsmistic]

Reproduction Steps
Reporting this feature request as a bug because the current behavior is objectively incorrect. See here for more background:

When I save to file, the Ctrl-S save location should never change even if I publish

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to make sure I’m saving my game where I expect to save it, which is dangerous and can lead to data loss. I currently edit my game by loading it from Roblox, and work in Studio. I save periodically to a local file by using Save As (it’s much faster, is more visible and assuring when it succeeds, and I prefer this also for other reasons), and then use Ctrl-S from then on as I work. When I’m ready to publish, I will publish to the website via File > …

To reproduce:

• Save the game via Save As in the file menu to a local file.
• See that Ctrl-S saves to that file.
• Publish the game to Roblox.
• See that Ctrl-S now unexpectedly saves the game to the cloud.

This started a while ago when Studio overhauled saving as far as I’m aware.

Expected Behavior
When I save my game to file, I expect Ctrl-S to always save to that file regardless of what I do with respect to publishing the game to the website. I only expect the target of Ctrl-S to be affected if I manually go to File and choose Save to File As or Save to Roblox As.

Ctrl-S should always be what I last explicitly chose. Do not automatically change it when I publish; this does not make any sense to anyone’s workflow. Publishing should have no bearing on where my game lives in a development context because the live version of the game is distinct from the in-development version of the game. This current behavior is wrong and unexpected.

People I know are annoyed by this issue, and some have lost work because of this issue.

Actual Behavior
Studio will spontaneously switch where Ctrl-S saves to when you publish the game (switching it to saving to the cloud), which breaks my workflow because I save my work to a local file, and not the cloud.

This inconsistency is a major hazard to me where I could lose work.

Workaround
I cannot trust Ctrl-S anymore because I publish to my staging game periodically as I complete features, and when I’m doing several small changes, this is often enough that I end up saving to the wrong place by accident fairly often.

To work around this, when I save to my local file while I’m actively working on unfinished features, immediately after publishing I have to manually go to File and choose Save As, and then locate the file I want to save to. This is awful.

Issue Area: Studio
Issue Type: Other
Impact: Moderate
Frequency: Constantly
Date First Experienced: 2021-12-15 00:12:00 (-06:00)

[bytechan (byte)]

This looks like that no-longer-beta feature to make the save shortcut contextual. To restore the behavior you (probably) expect, you could bind Ctrl+S to “Save to File” instead of “Save”. It may be annoying, but you should only need to do this once.

If Studio is resetting your shortcuts, that would be a bug. Otherwise, you’re just experiencing the fun side effects of new features.

[PeZsmistic]

The announce thread says nothing about publishing changing the save target. This is a bug or should be treated as one, this is wrong behavior.

The workaround is appreciated, but I do not want a workaround, I want this to be fixed. Other people are losing work because of this feature behaving unexpectedly, ruining user assumptions about where their work is being saved.

If we look at this quote from that thread that may be the reasoning behind this behavior if we assume this is an intentional decision:

If you edit a place that was last saved to Roblox Cloud, then Ctrl+S saves back to Roblox.

My argument is that publishing should not count as changing the save context. Publishing is user facing and thus is extremely different from saving to the cloud. I often publish from a staging game to a production game, publishing this staging game has no bearing on where I want to save as I continue to work on the game. This behavior does not improve my experience in Studio, is completely unexpected, and is downright harmful to workflow.

[Levi349 (Levi)]

i have been frustrated by this problem for months. i only work with local files, i am not interested in saving to the cloud, i do not want to rely on a cloud version. so after publishing, the local file version turns into a cloud version, for some bizarre reason. then, if i forget to immediately close this bizarre cloud version and re-open the local file version, i end up unwittingly saving subsequent changes to the cloud version. then when i come back at a later date and open the local file version, those changes are not in the local file version as i expect, then i publish over them and lose them forever and have to re-do them. it’s a source of frustration and i can’t understand why roblox doesn’t realize this and hasn’t remedied it yet. it’s been about at least a year. i agree with you that it is a major problem and that many devs are not clamoring about it is surprising. i guess most developers use the cloud. i don’t never will. i have greater control over the local file, and feel safer working with it.

[GreenStom_I (i3_6Core)]

You can just safe to file by clicking it manually right?
just like publish game at the first place.
or you can just check your save and version history.

[Levi349 (Levi)]

saving to file works fine, the problem arises when you publish. it then magically turns into a cloud version. i don’t want it to become a cloud version, i want it to remain my local file version.

[GreenStom_I (i3_6Core)]

you can do this.

and click this.

now you Ctrl + S will save to local file.
do that after you publish your game.
and it will set back to safe to local again when you press ctrl + s

[Levi349 (Levi)]

no. i use ctrl-s 100% of the time as a matter of habit. ctrl-s will save all changes to whatever you’re working with, if it’s a cloud version, it saves to the cloud. when you publish, it magically changes from a local file version, to a cloud version. is there any way to turn off this “turn into cloud version on publish” feature?

[GreenStom_I (i3_6Core)]

maybe you can save as the File you are working on before publish and then reopen again?

[Levi349 (Levi)]

i have to remember that immediately after publishing i must close the cloud version it turned into, and re-open my local file. but sometimes i forget to do this and proceed with more changes, then end up saving to cloud. when that happens, i eventually lose work because i will re-open the now outdated file later, and publish over my cloud changes.

[GreenStom_I (i3_6Core)]

there was a time when turning of wifi and turn it on again will change cloud file to local file, but not in the count of seconds

[PeZsmistic]

This is not helpful. There is no workaround for this than hoping that you remember to re save as after publishing so you don’t save to the wrong place.

This is still frustrating. Studio needs to stop pushing cloud as default and foresaking local work. Ridiculous.

[Focia19]

Following up on this issue as was discussed internally, this is not a bug but an intended behavior since we decided to make it this way because of the majority of developers that requested it.
We knew there was a set of users who want it “the other way”. Which was why there was always a workaround via shortcut:

Ctrl-S saving to file changes to saving to the cloud when I publish

This looks like that no-longer-beta feature to make the save shortcut contextual. To restore the behavior you (probably) expect, you could bind Ctrl+S to “Save to File” instead of “Save”. It may be annoying, but you should only need to do this once. ["File" menu: Advanced > Customize Shortcuts...] [Keyboard and Mouse window, with "Save to File" shortcut highlighted] If Studio is resetting your shortcuts, that would be a bug. Otherwise, you’re just experiencing the fun side effects of new fea…

In addition, we included features that helped in letting the users know the destination that they are saving to. This further mitigates and informs users where their saves are going.

Improved Save Messages & More

Hello developers, Continuing the effort started in the December release “Improved Save Experience in Studio!”, we have made additional Save experience improvements that enable you to easily track when and where your work saves. We want to ensure that saving in Studio is effortless, iterative, and worry-free. “Save shortcut is contextual” feature’s gradual rollout to 100% of users: In December, we announced the beta feature where Ctrl+S (Cmd+S in Mac) saves the place to the location you last s…

In the process of trying to hear and please everyone’s thoughts, we know there will be some unpleased users by our decisions, that’s why we are trying to give solutions to everyone the best we can.
We are working on improving this feature!

But unfortunately, I have to close this thread since it’s not a bug. However, you can leave your thoughts
in this feature request, and we will be reading your suggestions!

When I save to file, the Ctrl-S save location should never change even if I publish

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to make sure I’m saving my game where I expect to save it, which is dangerous and can lead to data loss. I currently edit my game by loading it from Roblox, and work in Studio. I save periodically to a local file by using Save As (it’s much faster, is more visible and assuring when it succeeds, and I prefer this also for other reasons), and then use Ctrl-S from then on as I work. When I’m ready to publish, I will publish to the website via File > …

Thanks for understanding!

[metatablecatmaid (metatablecat)]

@Focia19

that’s why we are trying to give solutions to everyone the best we can.

Since the Unsaved Changes prompt now defaults to Save to Roblox, can we at least have an option to save the file locally through this behaviour instead of to Roblox?