Auto‑Save Recovery Limits: Selecting the Correct File When Multiple Auto‑Saves Share Modification Time

Auto‑Save Recovery Limits

Blender’s Auto‑Save system creates temporary files in the same directory as the active .blend file, prefixed with a tilde and suffixed by a timestamp. When Blender crashes, the Recovery dialog offers the user a file to restore. The selection algorithm, however, relies solely on the file’s modification time, ignoring the embedded timestamp in the filename. If two or more auto‑save files have identical modification times—due to file‑system clock precision, manual copying, or network share quirks—Blender may present an ambiguous choice or default to the first file found. This behavior can lead to inadvertent data loss, especially in shared project directories where multiple auto‑saves accumulate.

The unresolved question is whether Blender’s recovery logic can be configured to consider the embedded timestamp, or if a future release might offer a per‑scene or per‑file custom directory for auto‑saves to mitigate clutter and ambiguity.

• Which file does Blender actually offer when multiple auto‑save files share the same modification timestamp?
• Does Blender provide any option to prioritize the embedded timestamp over the file modification time during recovery?