How can I delete all saved game data except for the last one or last few per game?

Question

My kids and I have saved game data for many games, and for each game there are literally hundreds or thousands of saved game data files. We've reached some sort of limit on some games (Skyrim and Uncharted 3) or perhaps on all. Anyhow, I know if we delete a few, we can then create new save points in the games instead of having to overwrite previous ones.

Deleting the save data files one by one is ridiculously time consuming. How can we delete thousands of save data files, but preserve on the very latest (and do it without spending hours of our lives)?

Answer 1

I strongly advise against messing with the backup utility/etc methods; the backup doesn't backup everything so if you erase certain DRM stuff you can't get it back (transfer utility seems to be the only magic way to do this). I would avoid messing with the restore tool at all unless you've actually lost your data.

There is now a way to easily delete all or most or multiple save files on a more recent version of the PS3 software.

Go into Saved Data Utility, then press square until you see "group by title", you'll see folders for each game. Go to a game with a large number of save files and press triangle on any one save file. Check "Sort By" and make sure it's sorted by "update date v", then go to Multiple in the menu. You'll see a list of checkboxes.

You can pick and choose which files to remove, or in the case of a very large set of files, pick "select all" to mark all of them for deletion, then uncheck (press X) specific data you want to keep. If you sorted the items properly above, the top files should be your most recent ones.

Select OK to delete all checked files. Repeat for all games you want to do this for; you should only need to do it for games with very large numbers of save files (many games don't let you make more than one or store multiple saves in one "file").

Answer 2

I'd probably do the following:

• Copy only the last saves to a memory stick;
• Delete all savefiles from the PS3;
• Restore the last ones from the memory stick;

Answer 3

Go to the game save utility, press triangle. Move to second from top and click "delete multiple" you can then go to the right, select "select all" then back to the left to uncheck those you want to keep (the top save for each group of saves - keep in mind, the last in a group is usually options, profiles or settings, don't delete them either)

Answer 4

I'd try use the backup utility under system setting to back up everything to an external HD, delete the stuff you don't want from the HD, then just restore it. I've never done this before so I don't know if the backup will be browse-able. It's worth a shot though if you have an HD lying around.

Answer 5

Sorry I did not notice it was on PS3 and assumed it was on PC :) Either way, the only way to do it is trough XMB, or if you are running a jailbroken PS3 you can use a standard file manager and delete them manually.

Answer 6

• Go to the game then Saved Utility. All your saves are there.
• Push Triangle -> Delete selected saved games