Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online come with an autosave feature that keeps track of your progress while you play. However, it can be tricky to determine when the last autosave occurred. To prevent any loss of progress, players might consider creating manual saves and triggering forced autosaves. This guide will walk you through the process of saving your game in Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online.
GTA 5: How to Save
Sleep at a Safehouse
In GTA 5’s Story Mode, players have the option to create a manual save by taking a nap in a bed located at a Safehouse. Just to clarify, Safehouses serve as the main and secondary homes for the game’s characters, and you can easily spot them on the map by the white house icon.
Once you step into a Safehouse, head over to the bed of the GTA 5 protagonist and use one of the designated buttons to sleep and access the Save Game menu.
- Keyboard: E
- Controller: Right on D-Pad
Use the Cell Phone
If players prefer not to spend time visiting a Safehouse, they can quickly save their progress using the in-game cell phone. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the cell phone by pressing the up arrow key on a keyboard or up on a controller’s d-pad.
- Select the cloud icon to open the Save Game menu.
- Confirm the save.
GTA Online: How to Save
In contrast to the Story Mode of GTA 5, GTA Online lacks a Save Game menu for manual saves. However, there are various methods to trigger autosaves while playing online. To ensure you don’t lose any progress, it’s a good idea to adopt one of these strategies.
Change Outfits/Accessories
In GTA Online, players can initiate an autosave by altering their outfit or even just one accessory. Fans can follow the steps provided below to make these changes. After completing the process, they should look for a spinning orange circle in the bottom-right corner of the screen. If they don’t see the orange circle, they can repeat the steps until it appears.
- Open the Interaction Menu by pressing M on a keyboard or the touchpad on a controller.
- Select Appearance.
- Select Accessories and swap an accessory. Alternatively, swap Outfit.
- Exit the Interaction menu.
Swap Character Menu
Players can initiate an autosave by heading to the Swap Character menu, regardless of whether they actually change characters in GTA Online. Here’s how to find that menu:
- Open the Pause Menu by pressing Esc on a keyboard or Start on a controller.
- Navigate to the Online tab.
- Select Swap Character.