Troubleshooting EIG "Failed to Save" Error

The Edit in Game feature in CAW can give the vague and incredibly unhelpful error message of "Failed to save world" or something similar. It doesn't tell you why, it just throws up an error. Sometimes you'll find that some info did in fact save even though it insists it didn't, but none of us want to live with an error message and be unable to trust the results.

I've found that several things can cause this error in EIG. This post will be a list of different things you can consider and check if you get this error. If you find any other situations that cause the error, please post the original issue and resolution so that I can keep all of the tips in this first post.

• After updating to the Generations expansion, a save error is received whenever a save is attempted in EIG. The work that has been done appears to be irrelevant. The error will always occur. Hopefully this will be patched by EA, but the workaround is to minimize EIG, close the CAW program, then maximize EIG and attempt the save again. I experienced this error and this fix worked for me. After saving successfully and exiting EIG, I received a different error (I think it was for a called function), but my personal opinion is that it's trying to dump the world back into CAW which is no longer open.
  

• Lot spaces should not be placed in EIG. This will cause a save error. Empty lots should be placed in the CAW program and then the lot can be filled in EIG, whether by building directly in it or by placing a premade lot in it. If an empty lot space has been placed in EIG and the save error occurs, the save error will continue to occur when using EIG on this world in the future until the offending lot has been removed. This will occur even after a prebuilt lot has been placed in the empty lot space. You will need to bulldoze the lot until it's been completely removed and then place the space using CAW only. Then the prebuilt lot can be placed in the lot space using EIG. From my personal experience, you can change the lot type of a lot space in EIG (from residential to community or vice versa) without causing a save error. You just can't do the initial placement.