Help Index → Opening, saving, and protecting your data → Use case 4
The app edits one context from the loaded save. Main maps to BaseContext and Season maps to ExpeditionContext according to the decoded ActiveContext marker. There is no visible context selector for switching between them.
Before you start
- Load the intended live save and retain its slot/account identity.
- Keep No Man’s Sky closed. Do not edit JSON or save simply to test which context is active.
- Before any sync, Pretty Print or structured refresh, copy EACH pending Raw JSON pane’s complete text to a separate external file. Successful tab sync refreshes ALL Raw JSON panes and can erase pending text elsewhere.
Steps
- If several panes contain wanted pending work, preserve ALL before any refresh. If applying it, reapply and verify one non-inventory tab at a time; never simply sync each changed tab. Keep inventory text externally and reproduce supported changes with structured tools instead.
- Inspect recognizable bases, ships or inventories in the loaded tabs. These are views of the context chosen at load time, not separate Main and Expedition workspaces. (control reference)
- For another read-only inspection, choose Tools > Export 'BaseContext' JSON to Clipboard and paste into a separate inspection tool. Check recognizable context contents there. (control reference)
- Treat the export label as a fixed menu name: for a Season load, it exports the loaded Expedition context, not the inactive Main context. (control reference)
- If you need an explicit Main/Expedition confirmation, invoke File > Save NMS Save File only with all tabs synchronized, read the slot and context in Confirm Live Save Write, then choose Cancel. (control reference)
- If the identity is not what you intended, stop and reopen the appropriate save. Do not try to change context by altering a tab’s JSON. (control reference)
Expected result
- Main selects BaseContext; Season selects ExpeditionContext. An absent marker is accepted as legacy Main-only only when ExpeditionContext is absent.
- Unsupported or ambiguous markers and invalid selected contexts are rejected rather than silently falling back to another branch.
What changes, and when to save
Inspection changes no live files. Export replaces clipboard text. Canceling save confirmation writes nothing. A real confirmed save writes edits only into the context retained at load. A refreshed pane is not proof that pending text survived; compare the intended values with your external copies before authorizing a live write.
Check the result
- Use the confirmation’s context name with recognizable loaded content; names alone can be similar across contexts.
- Cancel the save warning during inspection; no save success notice should appear.
Important details and recovery
- The context export is not the entire decoded save wrapper and does not include both contexts.
- There is no UI operation here to activate or convert an expedition.