AutoSave Plugin v1.61 (For Historical Reference)
AutoSave Plugin v1.61 has been replaced by v2.00 since September 2022. It is not listed in Plugins Admin. However, you might still be able to go to the repo and download the older version, and manually install it. Unless you desperately need the “Unnamed/new Files” features, it is highly recommended that you use v2.00 or newer, obtained from Plugins Admin.
When you first installed the AutoSave Plugin v1.61 manually (or years ago), the default configuration is to not have AutoSave providing any automatic saving, so it is doing nothing and you are still relying on Notepad++'s periodic backup (if enabled).
You will have to configure this plugin if it is going to do any automatic saving for you. You do this by going to the Plugins menu, selecting Auto Save, and picking Options. The following screenshot shows Auto Save v1.61’s default Options dialog:
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AutoSave When
These options control when AutoSave is triggered.
WARNING: If both options remain unchecked, there is no AutoSave occurring and the plugin is doing nothing.
☐ Notepad++ loses focus: If this option is checkmarked on ☑, then every time you move from Notepad++ to another window (a Windows explorer, or your browser window, or any other application, or even change focus to the Desktop or clicking on the Windows Start Menu), AutoSave plugin will trigger a save event.
☐ At timed intervals every _N_ minutes: If this option is checkmarked on ☑, then every N minutes, AutoSave plugin will trigger save event, even if you have never clicked outside of Notepad++.
If both of the options are checkmarked on ☑, then AutoSave will trigger a save event every N minutes and everytime Notepad++ loses focus. This saves the most often.
AutoSave What
○ Current file only: If this option is active ⦿, only the “current” file in Notepad++ (the active tab) will have AutoSave events. If you have multiple files open, the other tabs will not be AutoSaved.
○ All Open Files: If this option is active ⦿, all files currently opened in Notepad++ will be protected by AutoSave.
Only one of those two options can be active ⦿.
Ignore files larger than N KB: If this is set to 0 KB, all files will be AutoSaved. If this is set to a non-zero numbewr, files that are larger than that threshold will not be AutoSaved.
Named Files
○ Ignore/do nothing: If this option is active ⦿, nothing will happen for named files when AutoSave is triggered. This means that named files will not be protected by the AutoSave plugin in this configuration.
○ Overwrite existing file: If this option is active ⦿, when AutoSave is triggered, the plugin will send a “Save” command to the Notepad++ application, and the file will be written in the same location where you last manually saved the file (the same place it was when it was first named). Note: This has the side effect of telling Notepad++ that the file is properly saved, so Notepad++ will remove its periodic-backup file for this named file. This feature is basically equivalent to the Plugin hitting the SAVE button for you every time the AutoSave is triggered.
○ Save autorecover in the same directory: If this option is active ⦿, when AutoSave is triggered for the named file namedfile.txt, the plugin will create a file with ~ after the extension (namedfile.txt~) in the same directory as the original namedfile.txt. Note: This time, since the state of the main file in Notepad++ is still “unsaved changes”, the Notepad++ periodic-backup for namedfile.txt still exists; Notepad++ and AutoSave plugin will both treat this file as “unsaved”.
Unnamed/new Files
○ Ignore/do nothing: If this option is active ⦿, nothing will happen for unnamed/new files when AutoSave is triggered. This means that unnamed/new files will not be protected by the AutoSave plugin in this configuration.
○ Ask for filename: If this option is active ⦿, when AutoSave is triggered, the Plugin will prompt you for a name for the file. Once you enter the filename, AutoSave will tell Notepad++ to do a SaveAs to that location, and the file will now be a named file, and treated according to the Notepad++ and AutoSave rules for named files.
○ Save (overwrite) silently here: If this option is active ⦿, you need to choose a directory when you enable this option; the default $CDIR$\autorecover doesn’t seem to carry any meaning; choose a real directory. When AutoSave is triggered, the plugin will create a file called new # (matching Notepad++'s naming scheme) in that folder; from then on, Notepad++ and the AutoSave plugin will treat that file as a named file. Warning: This has the side effect of resetting Notepad++ new # numbering… so be careful, because creating another new file at this point might be given a number that’s already been used but saved by AutoSave, so AutoSave will try to put two files with the same name in the directory you specify.
○ Save autorecover here: If this option is active ⦿, you need to choose a directory when you enable this option; the default $CDIR$\autorecover doesn’t seem to carry any meaning; choose a real directory. When AutoSave is triggered, the plugin will create a file called new # (matching Notepad++'s naming scheme) in that folder; however, it still keeps the file that’s shown in Notepad++ as a new/unsaved/unnamed file, so Notead++ and AutoSave Plugin both treat the file as “unsaved” and “unnamed”. This configuration doesn’t reset Notepad++'s new # numbering, so new files created won’t generally collide with the existing autorecover files. When you close a new # tab without saving, the AutoSave plugin’s autorecover file will still exist; however, the next time you create a new tab, if Notepad++ re-uses that number, then the new autorecover file will overwrite the old autorecover file of the same name.