Ren'Py identifies "devices" (or distinct installations) using this unique string ID.
No. The phrase "renpy this save was created on a different device link" is a user's wish for a feature that does not exist. However, by cloning the persistent file (Method 1), you effectively create a hard link between the devices' identities.
You can try using the renpy.load_save function to load the save file manually. This function allows you to specify the save file to load.
renpy.load_save("save_file_name")
Replace "save_file_name" with the actual name of your save file.
If possible, try loading the save file on the original device or platform where it was created. This can help you determine if the issue is device-specific.
"This game may show 'This save was created on a different device' when loading saves moved between platforms or after updates. If you can, open the save on the original device and use the game's export feature or copy the save files to the same folder on the new device. If that isn't possible, try loading an earlier save. Developers: add export/import, include a clear save version in metadata, and implement migration to avoid this issue." renpy this save was created on a different device link
Aubrey pressed the screen with just enough force to wake the old handheld, its cracked plastic warm from her palm. The visual novel's title glowed: Meridian Skies. She smirked—she had replayed the prologue a dozen times—but the message that blinked beneath the load bar stopped her smile.
This save was created on a different device.
She blinked, then tapped. The game froze on the line as if it were a secret passed between strangers. Meridian Skies had always been ordinary: branching conversations, key items that unlocked side quests, sunsets rendered in pixel gradients. It was never a thing to write home about—until now.
The save file carried a name she didn't recognize: "M. Hawke — 12/03/21." Not hers. Not her handwriting. The date felt wrong, as if the digits had shifted like teeth. Aubrey's finger hovered over "Load." She had three choices—delete, overwrite, or import—and none felt like an answer.
She chose import, because curiosity has the gravity of a drowning thing. The screen breathed and, with an appalling tenderness, unfolded a memory. Replace "save_file_name" with the actual name of your
Meridian's protagonist in that playthrough was a cartographer named Marin, whose job was mapping storms that danced above the floating island of Halden. Marin's companion was a machine called Sable, a mechanical raven that spoke in static and old jokes. The choices in the file were precise, small mercies: Marin had rescued a child named Ivo from a collapsed market, had refused the mayor's bribe, had left a letter tucked beneath a bench for a woman everyone called "the lantern-keeper."
Aubrey didn't remember any of it. Yet when Sable clicked through line after line of dialogue, the machine's voice sounded like an echo of something she used to say aloud when she was six—an old cadence she used to mimic when she read her mother's letters. Her chest tightened. The save file felt less like data and more like a note that had traveled through time.
She followed Marin's route as if retracing someone else's fingerprint. The streets of Halden shimmered with choices that bent toward quiet generosity. Marin fixed a leaking pipe in the artisan quarter instead of selling the spare gears. Marin answered a child's question with a joke that made the child laugh until he hiccuped. At the lighthouse, Marin left the bench lighter: the lantern-keeper's note had been found and read aloud, and the keeper had stopped keeping watch to plant marigolds.
Between scenes, the save file tucked in fragments: a photograph of a woman standing by a train window, blurred; a voice memo of someone whispering "safe" into a pocket; a poem about tides that didn't rhyme but fit anyway. They were unsent letters disguised as backups, small flares of living.
Aubrey realized, with the slow certainty of dawn, that these were choices she might have made. Not because she had, but because they were choices she would make. It was as though the game had siphoned possibility from her—an artifact of parallel patience. She'd always been the sort to leave kindnesses undone for the convenience of speed. This file read like a ledger of the person she intended to be. key items that unlocked side quests
She dug into the save's metadata like archaeologists brush dirt from bone. Device model: Unknown. IP: redacted. Notes: "Keep for Dawn." The line "Keep for Dawn" made her laugh and then cry; it held the naive hope of someone bookmarking themselves for a morning they never got to wake for.
Aubrey's phone chimed
If you are seeing the error "This save was created on a different device and cannot be loaded" (often referencing a "solid piece" or similar code mismatch) in Ren'Py, it means the Save ID of the game you are trying to load does not match the Save ID of the game installed on your current device.
This is a security feature designed to prevent save-scumming and cheating, but it can be annoying if you are legitimately transferring saves.
Here is how to fix it.
Ren’Py generates a unique device-specific identifier (based on hardware, OS, and Ren’Py version) and embeds it into each save file. When loading, the engine compares the save’s device ID with the current device’s ID. If they differ, the error appears.
Common causes: