The AutoSave tool automatically saves your open scene at configurable time intervals while you're working in the Unity Editor (not in Play mode). It creates timestamped backups in a dedicated folder inside your current scene’s directory.​

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Files Involved

There are 3 main scripts involved:

1. AutoSave.cs

2. AutoSaveScriptable.cs

3. AutoSaveSettingsProvider.cs

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AutoSave.cs – The Main Background Saver

This is the engine behind the auto-save functionality.

How it Works:

• Marked with [InitializeOnLoad], which means it runs as soon as Unity loads the editor (no need to press play).

• Registers a method (OnEditorUpdate) to Unity’s EditorApplication.update event – this runs every editor frame.

• Checks:

  • If auto-save is enabled.​

  • If Unity is not playing, building, or compiling.

  • If the Unity editor window is currently active.

  • If the scene has a valid path.

• If all is okay, it saves a copy of the scene into a subfolder named AutoSave, inside your current scene folder.​

• Scene name will be something like:
  SceneName Mar 12-31pm.unity

Save Frequency:​

• Controlled by AutoSaveScriptable.cs, default is every 5 minutes.

Logging:​

• If Logging is enabled, it prints Auto-saved at XX in the console.

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AutoSaveScriptable.cs – Config Data Storage

This script stores the configuration for auto-save.

Key Components:

• ScriptableSingleton<AutoSaveScriptable> – this is Unity Editor's way of saving persistent config data.

• AutoSaveConfig class:

  • Enabled: whether auto-save runs

  • Frequency: how many minutes between saves

  • Logging: whether to show messages in the console

Unity saves this config as a file:

Tools/Auto Save Config.volt

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AutoSaveSettingsProvider.cs – Unity Project Settings UI

This adds a UI to Unity’s Project Settings under:

Project > Tools > AutoSave

​What It Adds:

• Toggle to enable/disable auto-save.

• Integer field for save frequency (in minutes).

• Toggle for logging.

Details:​

• Uses Unity’s UI Toolkit (VisualElement, Toggle, IntegerField, etc.).

• ​Whenever a field is changed, it updates the config and calls Save().