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To import a career in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, finish the earlier game, keep its completed career save, launch the next game from the Legendary Edition launcher, and choose its import-character option. On PC, saves must be in the matching ME1, ME2 or ME3 folder under DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSave. Original PC Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 saves can be copied into those folders; original 2007 Mass Effect 1 saves cannot be imported directly because the remaster changed that game’s save format.
This guide separates three things that are often confused: importing story decisions between games, copying save files into Legendary Edition on a PC, and moving saves between console generations. They use different procedures and have different compatibility limits.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Mass Effect Legendary Edition - PlayStation 4 | $69.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Mass Effect (Legendary Edition) - For Xbox Series X | $19.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
|
Mass Effect Legendary Edition (Import) | $18.90 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
Mass Effect - Legendary Edition (Xbox One) | $22.50 | Buy on Amazon |
What carries over between Legendary Edition games
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a single collection containing the single-player content for Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, plus more than 40 downloadable-content items. Electronic Arts lists releases for PC, PlayStation and Xbox. Its intended continuity path is to complete one game, retain the resulting career, and import that career when beginning the next game.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →An import is a story-continuity operation, not a universal file-transfer feature. When the next game accepts the career, it can use the previous Shepard’s level and decisions that affect the following game’s story. The official Mass Effect 3 PC manual describes this as importing Commander Shepard from Mass Effect 2 while maintaining the old character’s level and decisions that affect Mass Effect 3.
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The procedure applies to these transitions:
| Transition | What you need | Normal action |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary Edition Mass Effect 1 to Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2 | A completed Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition career | Open Mass Effect 2 and select its import-character option |
| Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2 to Legendary Edition Mass Effect 3 | A completed Mass Effect 2 career | Open Mass Effect 3 and select IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER |
| Original PC Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3 to the matching Legendary Edition game | A compatible original PC character folder | Copy the folder into the corresponding Legendary Edition save directory, then use the in-game import menu |
| Original 2007 PC Mass Effect 1 to Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2 | No supported direct-import path | Play Mass Effect 1 in Legendary Edition and complete that career instead |
Before you start
Complete the earlier game
Make a normal end-of-career save after finishing the earlier game. Do not rely only on an autosave or a temporary checkpoint. For a PC game, make a second copy of the save before changing folders. Mass Effect 3’s manual states that the completed Mass Effect 2 career becomes available through IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER; an unfinished career is therefore not a substitute for the completed save the import menu expects.
Use the same edition for the intended story path
For the cleanest ME1-to-ME2 path, finish Mass Effect 1 in Legendary Edition and import that Legendary Edition career into Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2. The collection is designed for this hand-off. A save from the original Mass Effect 1 release is a separate case and is not made compatible merely by changing its location.
Back up PC files before copying
Close the game and copy the entire Save directory to another location before replacing or adding files. Keep the backup untouched until the next game has detected and loaded the intended career. This gives you a recovery point if a folder is misplaced or a save is overwritten.
Import a career inside Legendary Edition
- Finish the current game. Create an end-of-career save and, on PC, make a second backup copy.
- Return to the Legendary Edition launcher. Exit the current game normally so the completed career is written to disk.
- Open the next game. Start Mass Effect 2 after Mass Effect 1, or Mass Effect 3 after Mass Effect 2.
- Choose the import option. In Mass Effect 3, the documented label is
IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER. Mass Effect 2 provides the equivalent option for a completed Mass Effect 1 career. - Select the career. Choose the Shepard career you just completed rather than starting a new one.
- Verify the result. Continue only after the game shows the expected character and career. The imported level and story decisions are the information the next game uses for continuity.
If the career is not listed, do not repeatedly start new games while guessing. Quit the game, check the PC folder structure if you are on Windows, and confirm that the earlier career was actually completed. Console players should first restart the game and verify that they are launching the correct Legendary Edition title; console file placement is not managed through the Windows Documents path.
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Where Legendary Edition saves go on PC
The documented Windows save location is:
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSaveME1Use the equivalent directory for the other games:
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSaveME2
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSaveME3The character folder must be inside the matching game directory. A folder placed directly in Save, in the wrong game directory, or one level too deep will not be where that title looks for the career.
Check the nesting before launching
- The parent directory is named exactly
Mass Effect Legendary Edition. - The next directory is exactly
Save. - The final game directory is the correct one:
ME1,ME2orME3. - The character folder is nested inside that game directory.
- You copied the folder while the game was closed.
Windows may hide file extensions and make similarly named folders look identical. Use the folder names and nesting above as the test rather than relying on a shortcut or a recent-files view.
Copy an original PC Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3 save into Legendary Edition
GameSpot reported in May 2021 that original PC Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 saves can be copied into the corresponding Legendary Edition directories. This is a file-copy operation followed by the normal in-game import menu; it does not mean every original-trilogy save is interchangeable with every Legendary Edition title.
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- Find the original game’s character folder. Locate the folder belonging to the original PC Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3 career you want to use.
- Back it up. Copy the original folder to a separate backup location before modifying anything.
- Open the matching Legendary Edition directory. Use
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSaveME2for an original Mass Effect 2 career, or theME3directory for an original Mass Effect 3 career. - Copy the character folder into that directory. Do not put it beside
Saveor directly in the collection’s root folder. - Launch the corresponding Legendary Edition game. Open its import-character screen and select the copied career if it appears.
- Keep the backup until verification. Load the imported career and check that it is the intended Shepard before deleting or reorganizing anything.
This procedure is for compatible original PC ME2 and ME3 saves. It does not convert an original Mass Effect 1 save, and it does not move a career from one console to another.
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Why an original Mass Effect 1 save does not import
The original 2007 Mass Effect save format is the important exception. The remastered first game received larger changes and improvements, and the original format is incompatible with Legendary Edition’s Mass Effect 1 data. GameSpot reported that attempting to use the old file can produce a corruption message.
There is no reliable folder-placement fix for this case. If your only source is an original Mass Effect 1 career, the supported continuity choice is to play Mass Effect 1 in Legendary Edition, finish it, and then import that new completed career into Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2. Do not promise yourself that renaming the folder, copying individual files, or placing the save in ME1 will make it readable; the limitation is the save format itself.
ME2-to-ME3 import details
Mass Effect 3’s official PC manual explicitly labels the menu command IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER. The command is available after Mass Effect 2 has been completed and is designed to preserve the prior Shepard’s level and decisions that affect Mass Effect 3’s story.
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- Select
IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER. - Choose the completed Mass Effect 2 career.
- Confirm the selected Shepard and continue into Mass Effect 3.
Do not confuse this with starting a new Mass Effect 3 character. A new game bypasses the completed-career selection and will not use the ME2 save you intended to import.
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If the career does not appear on PC
- Exit Mass Effect 3 completely.
- Check that the character folder is under
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSaveME2, notME1orME3. - Confirm that Mass Effect 2 was completed and that the save belongs to the career you want.
- Restore the backup if you moved or renamed files during troubleshooting.
- Launch Mass Effect 3 again and reopen
IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER.
Importing on PlayStation and Xbox
On a single console, use the import-character option in the next Legendary Edition game; the game manages the local career rather than asking you to browse to a Windows save directory. The PC path above therefore does not apply to PlayStation or Xbox.
Moving a Legendary Edition save between console generations is a separate issue from importing ME1 into ME2 or ME2 into ME3. EA lists Legendary Edition support for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A GameSpot report from May 2021 said Xbox supported moving Legendary Edition saves to a newer system, while PlayStation did not support cross-generation save transfers at that time. Console platform policies can change, so verify the current policy for your exact console generation before deleting the source save or assuming that a cloud transfer will work.
| Question | Story import between games | Moving a save between machines or generations |
|---|---|---|
| Example | ME2 career into ME3 | Xbox One save onto a newer Xbox system |
| Where it is initiated | Inside the next Legendary Edition game | Console account, cloud or platform transfer system, if supported |
| PC folder path involved | Yes, when the career is on PC | Not necessarily; console transfer rules apply |
| Main limitation | Incomplete careers and incompatible original ME1 format | Platform-generation policy differs by console and date |
For controller, console-login or performance problems, EA directs players to the relevant PlayStation or Xbox support channel. Those issues are separate from a missing PC save folder.
Troubleshooting by symptom
“The import menu is missing”
- Open the next game, not the game that created the save.
- Confirm that the earlier game has been completed.
- For the ME2-to-ME3 transition, look specifically for
IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER. - On PC, close the game and verify the folder path and nesting.
“The career list is empty on PC”
- Check the exact root:
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSave. - Check the matching subfolder:
ME1for an ME1 source,ME2for an ME2 source, orME3for an ME3 source. - Make sure the character folder is inside that subfolder.
- Confirm that the save was created by a compatible PC edition.
- Restart the game after correcting the files.
“The game reports corruption”
First identify the source edition. If it is an original 2007 Mass Effect 1 save, stop changing folders: the cited compatibility reporting identifies the original ME1 format as unsupported in Legendary Edition. If it is an original PC ME2 or ME3 save, restore your backup, recopy the complete character folder into the matching directory, and try the import again.
“I copied the save but it still does not show”
- Check whether you copied a single file instead of the complete character folder.
- Remove an accidental extra nesting level, such as
SaveME2CharacterFolderCharacterFolder. - Ensure the folder is not in the original game’s directory when you intend to use Legendary Edition.
- Verify that the earlier career was completed and that you are opening the correct next game.
- Use the untouched backup to undo unsuccessful experiments.
Safe backup and recovery procedure
- Close every Legendary Edition game.
- Copy
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSaveas a complete directory to a separate location. - Give the backup a date-based name so you can distinguish it from later attempts.
- Make only one change at a time: correct the folder, copy the character folder, or restore the prior version.
- Launch the game and test the import.
- Keep the backup until the imported career has loaded successfully and you have confirmed it is the correct Shepard.
Backing up the complete save directory is safer than preserving only one visible file because the game’s career data is organized in character folders. It also lets you return to the last known-good arrangement without guessing which file was changed.
Quick Recap
Quick decision guide
| Your source | Use this approach | Do not do this |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary Edition ME1 career, moving to Legendary Edition ME2 | Finish ME1, open ME2, choose the import-character option | Start a new ME2 game if you want the prior decisions |
| Legendary Edition ME2 career, moving to Legendary Edition ME3 | Finish ME2, open ME3, choose IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER |
Look for the career in the ME1 or ME3 save folder |
| Original PC ME2 career | Copy its character folder into Legendary Edition’s SaveME2, then import it |
Copy it into SaveME1 or directly into Save |
| Original PC ME3 career | Copy its character folder into Legendary Edition’s SaveME3 |
Expect it to become an ME2 career |
| Original 2007 ME1 career | Replay ME1 in Legendary Edition and complete a new career | Keep trying folder changes to force a direct import |
| Console-generation move | Check the current policy for your PlayStation or Xbox generation before transferring | Assume that an in-game story import and a machine-to-machine transfer are the same feature |
Final checklist
- You completed the earlier game and kept an end-of-career save.
- You opened the next game in Legendary Edition and selected its import-character command.
- On PC, the path is
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSaveME1,ME2orME3, matching the source game. - The character folder is nested inside the matching game directory.
- You copied only compatible original PC ME2 or ME3 saves.
- You did not attempt to use an original 2007 ME1 save directly.
- You backed up the complete
Savedirectory before changing files. - You treated console-generation transfers as a separate, policy-dependent operation.
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