HELP! My project.godot has been lost!

EmberS671 · April 10, 2026, 2:43pm

Godot Version

4.6.1 stable

Hi everyone,

I ran into a serious issue and I’m hoping someone can help me recover my project.

What happened:

I opened the Godot 4.6 launcher on Windows 10.
I accidentally double-clicked my project in the list. (windows habit, sorry.)
I realized Godot doesn’t work that way so I clicked “Edit” to open it normally.
The project opened, but when I ran it, Godot returned to the Project Manager.
The project was now marked as “Missing Project”.

What I found:

The original project.godot file is no longer present.
In its place, there are two .tmp files with unusual names.
Attempting to re-import the project fails because project.godot is missing.

Concerns:
I’m worried that renaming the .tmp files incorrectly could make things worse or corrupt the project.

Here is an image of my explorer:

Any help would be greatly appreciated — I’d really like to avoid losing this project.

Thanks in advance.

gertkeno · April 10, 2026, 2:47pm

you could open the project.godot...tmp file and check how it looks or paste it here if you aren’t familiar with the config file like format. Renaming it is probably fine, project.godot only stores the project settings so it may be a hassle to re-create if you use lots of non-default settings and/or lots of globals but the project will work again if you have to recreate it.

May be a good time to look into version control solutions like git, these will help to backup every little change you want and let you go back in time if anything breaks.

Arkrion · April 10, 2026, 2:47pm

same thing happened to me go into your documents folder and the file of the project should be there

EmberS671 · April 10, 2026, 2:53pm

Below I’ve pasted both of those files. (they look same to me??)

project.godot~RF17634.TMP

; Engine configuration file.
; It's best edited using the editor UI and not directly,
; since the parameters that go here are not all obvious.
;
; Format:
;   [section] ; section goes between []
;   param=value ; assign values to parameters

config_version=5

[animation]

compatibility/default_parent_skeleton_in_mesh_instance_3d=true

[application]

config/name="war-zone"
run/main_scene="uid://dpchq7cpasq6l"
config/features=PackedStringArray("4.6", "GL Compatibility")
config/icon="res://icon.svg"

[display]

window/size/mode=2

[input]

thr_up={
"deadzone": 0.2,
"events": [Object(InputEventKey,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"pressed":false,"keycode":0,"physical_keycode":87,"key_label":0,"unicode":119,"location":0,"echo":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventJoypadMotion,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"axis":3,"axis_value":-1.0,"script":null)
]
}
thr_down={
"deadzone": 0.2,
"events": [Object(InputEventKey,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"pressed":false,"keycode":0,"physical_keycode":83,"key_label":0,"unicode":115,"location":0,"echo":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventJoypadMotion,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"axis":3,"axis_value":1.0,"script":null)
]
}
fire={
"deadzone": 0.2,
"events": [Object(InputEventMouseButton,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"button_mask":1,"position":Vector2(133, 13),"global_position":Vector2(140, 50),"factor":1.0,"button_index":1,"canceled":false,"pressed":true,"double_click":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventKey,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"pressed":false,"keycode":0,"physical_keycode":70,"key_label":0,"unicode":102,"location":0,"echo":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventJoypadButton,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"button_index":10,"pressure":0.0,"pressed":true,"script":null)
]
}

project.godot8245003.tmp

; Engine configuration file.
; It's best edited using the editor UI and not directly,
; since the parameters that go here are not all obvious.
;
; Format:
;   [section] ; section goes between []
;   param=value ; assign values to parameters

config_version=5

[animation]

compatibility/default_parent_skeleton_in_mesh_instance_3d=true

[application]

config/name="war-zone"
run/main_scene="uid://dpchq7cpasq6l"
config/features=PackedStringArray("4.6", "GL Compatibility")
config/icon="res://icon.svg"

[display]

window/size/mode=2

[input]

thr_up={
"deadzone": 0.2,
"events": [Object(InputEventKey,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"pressed":false,"keycode":0,"physical_keycode":87,"key_label":0,"unicode":119,"location":0,"echo":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventJoypadMotion,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"axis":3,"axis_value":-1.0,"script":null)
]
}
thr_down={
"deadzone": 0.2,
"events": [Object(InputEventKey,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"pressed":false,"keycode":0,"physical_keycode":83,"key_label":0,"unicode":115,"location":0,"echo":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventJoypadMotion,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"axis":3,"axis_value":1.0,"script":null)
]
}
fire={
"deadzone": 0.2,
"events": [Object(InputEventMouseButton,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"button_mask":1,"position":Vector2(133, 13),"global_position":Vector2(140, 50),"factor":1.0,"button_index":1,"canceled":false,"pressed":true,"double_click":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventKey,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"window_id":0,"alt_pressed":false,"shift_pressed":false,"ctrl_pressed":false,"meta_pressed":false,"pressed":false,"keycode":0,"physical_keycode":70,"key_label":0,"unicode":102,"location":0,"echo":false,"script":null)
, Object(InputEventJoypadButton,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,"button_index":10,"pressure":0.0,"pressed":true,"script":null)
]
}

gertkeno · April 10, 2026, 2:59pm

They both look perfectly fine, you can rename either one to project.godot they seem to be identical.

gertkeno · April 10, 2026, 3:00pm

Can you clarify this statement too? I’m fairly certain you can double click projects in the project list to edit them normally. Maybe you ended up opening the project twice, once by double click and again by edit, locking the project.godot file in a weird state

EmberS671 · April 10, 2026, 3:05pm

I think that’s what happened. Only, I’ve always thought that double clicking won’t work and used the edit button.

gertkeno · April 10, 2026, 3:05pm

The UI is too intuitive! it just works! lol

EmberS671 · April 10, 2026, 3:06pm

I tried renaming. I’ll try searching online too.

gertkeno · April 10, 2026, 3:07pm

Interesting, maybe it’s that phantom godot instance. You may have to check your task manager to close any Godot editors that are still hanging. If you can’t find any try to restart your computer. Windows loves to lock files if they are touched at all

EmberS671 · April 10, 2026, 3:15pm

I restarted my PC and renamed again. It opened and normally and ran.

Thanks.

Me playing it~ (proof build trust, I think…)