Those are the seven words every Football Manager player dreads reading. We’ve all been there. You’re 20 seasons into your FM career and are about to lead Blyth Spartans into their first Champions League Final when you realise – to your horror – that the save file has been corrupted.

My worst experiences with this date back to Football Manager 2007. A career with Millwall in League One corrupted within a few in-game months, and I also lost an Arsenal save shortly after winning the League Cup with them. On both occasions, I didn’t have any backups to – pardon the pun – fall back on.

Once bitten, twice shy. Twice bitten, third time determined to never let it happen ever again. I have always taken precautions from FM11 onwards, and I haven’t had a single save game corrupt on me since.

I hope this guide helps you to back up your own Football Manager careers and protect them against corruption (that’s the data file kind, not the Manchester City kind):

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SET UP AUTO SAVES

If you haven’t done so already, and if you have ample free space on your hard disk or solid state drive, you should make sure that Auto Saves are turned on.

Go to your ‘Preferences’, and on the default page, there will be a section for ‘Saving’. Checking the box for ‘Use Auto Saves’ will make sure that the game automatically saves your game when you have progressed through a certain amount of time.

You can set the regular intervals at which FM saves your game, from as short as ‘Every Day’ to as long as ‘Every Five Years’. There is also an ‘After Matches’ option, which – as it suggests – will save the game as soon as you have finished playing a match.

Then you can set the ‘Auto save type’ you want. Setting it to ‘Single File’ will save your game to just the one file every time, which is not advisable in case there’s a problem during the saving process. You could set the game to create a ‘New File for Every Auto Save’, though if FM saves at regular intervals, be aware that this could take up quite a lot of storage space very quickly.

Another option is to use a 3, 5, or 10-file ‘Rolling Auto Save’. These options will save to your primary save file, whilst keeping the two, four or nine most recent backups. If your save file is called Career.fm, your backups will be named Career (v02).fm, Career (v03).fm, et cetera.

If you tend to save your games manually as well as automatically, consider checking the box for ‘Use auto save type when saving manually’ as well. This will use the auto save type settings whenever you choose to save the game on-demand. For example, having the ‘New File for Every Auto Save’ option selected will also create a new file for every manual save.

Even if you don’t have auto saves turned on, there is a new feature in FM19 that will always keep at least two versions of your current career. Whenever you manually save the game, the previous save will be retained and renamed as last save overwrite backup.fm. Sports Interactive introduced this feature as they found that many users who reported corrupted saves on FM18 had not kept their own backups. There is no option to switch it off.

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KEEP MORE BACKUPS

Having plenty of backup files on your drive is all well and good, but what if that storage device suddenly dies and you need to replace it? Unless you have your saves backed up elsewhere, you’re in a spot of bother.

If you have Steam Cloud enabled, you can store your save data on the cloud by selecting that option from the ‘Save Game As’ dialog box. The great thing with saving to the Steam Cloud is that it allows you to easily sync your saves across multiple computers. Do remember, though, that you have a limited amount of space, so you may only be able to store a few files at one time.

Aside from the Steam Cloud, there are tons of options to choose from when you want to backup your data. You can choose from a vast array of file-hosting services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive (for Windows) and iCloud (for Mac). Bear in mind that some services may struggle with uploading large files.

Having an external hard drive to store data on is another idea worth considering. Just connect one to your computer (usually via USB) and then use backup software to copy your files over on a schedule that suits you. One example of backup software is EaseUS ToDo Backup, which has a free version, though you can pay for more advanced options.

It’s also worth remembering that Windows 7 has a powerful, built-in Backup and Restore tool, which can still be used on later operating systems such as Windows 10. Mac users have a similar utility in the form of Time Machine.

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DON’T RUSH

So you’ve just saved your career after another long session. As soon as the “Saving game” box disappears, you’re clear to exit Football Manager and return to the desktop. Right?

Wrong. That dialog box might have gone, but FM is still saving the game in the background. Anything that interrupts that process – including shutting down FM or even turning off your computer – will likely corrupt the save.

I find it’s usually best to wait another 15-30 seconds after the “Saving game” box disappears before quitting FM, just to be safe. That might be a little frustrating if you play FM before you go to work and you need to rush into the office (or wherever), but a few seconds’ delay could help stop a few weeks or months’ playtime from being wasted. I’m sure your boss will understand.

I would also strongly recommend AGAINST turning off your computer while FM is loaded, especially via holding down the power button. That will cut off all power to the computer and could lead to greater problems than just lost data, including file system corruption (which might force you to reinstall your operating system). Only hold down the power button if your system has frozen and does not respond to any other input.

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CONFIGURE YOUR ANTIVIRUS

Most of you probably have at least one antivirus software program installed, from brands such as AVG, Avast, Kaspersky and Norton*. If you use such a program alongside Football Manager, be on your guard.

Whenever you have an FM career loaded, the game uses Temporary Files (TMP) to store data. If an antivirus program is scanning your system while you’re playing FM, it could mistake those TMP files for viruses and erase them. That could lead to some parts of your save – such as player histories – being corrupted, with no method to repair it other than reverting to an older save file.

To prevent against this, you should add any folders and applications related to FM to your antivirus exceptions list. I would include the Sports Interactive folders in your documents folder and the Football Manager folder in your Steam directory for added protection.

To be doubly safe, make sure your antivirus doesn’t automatically scan for viruses during the times when you would normally play FM.

Personally, I’m content with using Windows Defender as my antivirus protection. I’ve always found it to be a dependable and unintrusive alternative to commercial software… and it doesn’t interfere with FM at all.

* If you have Norton installed, I would personally recommend getting that bloated, intrusive, God-forsaken resource-hog off your system immediately, removing all traces of its existence, and then having a cold shower afterwards. The same goes for McAfee. The less said about that, the better.

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TEST YOUR DATA FILES

One more thing before I go. While this is not related to data corruption per se, it could help you avoid frustration further down the line.

If you are using any custom data files (from the Steam Workshop, FM Scout et al) that add leagues or make other major changes to the database, I would suggest testing them first before starting a career. When it comes to FM, little will match the disappointment you’ll feel when encountering a genuine game-breaking bug in a save that you’re just getting stuck into.

Start up a new game with those data files selected, add an unemployed manager, and then put them on holiday for a few seasons. Obviously make sure that the holidaying process runs at a decent pace and won’t knacker your computer first.

Once a few seasons have been simulated, take your manager off holiday and then explore the game world to see if all appears to be in order. If you spot any major bugs or glitches, then it’s perhaps best to avoid using that particular data file in your career for the time being. Let the person who created that file know about your problem, and then wait to see if they can figure out a fix for it.

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I hope my advice been useful to you in some way. If you have any further questions, or indeed any other hints or tips for keeping your Football Manager careers safe and stable, feel free to drop them in the comments.