Basically every week a [user reports loosing their progress}(https://krita-artists.org/t/autosave-file-disappearing/108389) because they don't understand that the auto save does not create a proper save. I mentioned this on [krita-artists already](https://krita-artists.org/t/rename-auto-save-functionality-to-recovery-file-in-ui/93769). It happens often enough that people mistake the auto save for a legit save and don't understand what it actually does. I believe this can be fixed by simply renaming the *auto save* feature to *recovery save*, because that's what it really is, that's the purpose of the file and a better name for the feature. It is not an automatic save like other applications do it, that persists between sessions. I can completely understand the user's confusion and believe a simple change in terminology can prevent that confusion.
I am not sure this is a good idea. "recovery save" isn't used anywhere else, and autosave _is_ the canonical name for this feature and has been so for decades. Changing this would mean people who have been using software for years and years will have to look for something unfamiliar, and it will still not help people who don't know what a file to learn about files.
While I do agree that this is how it was called since like as long I'm using computers there is a shift in usage and terminology lately, and that's why some Krita users (the typical "not computer people", who can barely tell a website from an app) have trouble understanding this. Even big software corporations seem to do the shift. Microsoft office also now calls the *former* auto save a recovery save and what is now the new auto save is an actual persistent file. > AutoSave is a new feature available in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 subscribers that saves your file automatically, every few seconds, as you work. Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-is-autosave-6d6bd723-ebfd-4e40-b5f6-ae6e8088f7a5 The article does not mention that you can even go to previous versions of the auto save, it basically acts like Krita's incremental save option but automatically on a timer. > For example, in Microsoft Office, this option is called AutoRecover and, by default, saves the document every ten minutes in the temporary file directory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosave I guess that's why some Krita users make this mistake, because the come from the big corpo software's who call it different already and it becomes more common for auto saves to be the "I hit the save button for you" function instead of "I keep a backup in case something goes wrong". If we don't change it, how can we make it more clear to the inexperienced user that this does not substitute a manual save? We want Krita to be accessible for professionals and beginners alike and I believe we are leaving the beginners behind, here. And the experienced users, while they might rise an eyebrow first, will probably understand what is meant with (crash) recovery file.