Animal Crossing: New Horizons has both an auto-save and manual-save feature. Early in the game, a prompt will stress the importance of saving the game before you exit it. This is likely due to the data needing to be synced to your Nintendo Switch clock. Below, we’ll show you how you can manually save and exit Animal Crossing safely.
This guide was created during the first week of Animal Crossing: New Horizons release on the Nintendo Switch. Depending on when you’re reading this guide, some thing may be different due to future updates. However we’ll always try to come back and update these guides! For more of our Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guides & Best-of lists, make sure to check out our dedicated area here!
How to Save the Game
Before exiting Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it’s important to save your game. To save manually, you need to press the – button on your left Nintendo Switch Joy-Con.
You’ll receive a prompt, asking if you are ‘Ready to wrap things up for now?’. You can choose to Save and end the game, or to continue playing. After you choose the option ‘Save and end’, you will be taken back to the main menu, only then can you finally close the game.
Again, it’s very important to never exit Animal Crossing: New Horizons before doing the process above. The game needs to sync with your time and date to make sure everything is working as expected next time you jump back in.
