A big contributor to the issue of people losing their work (re: Auto Save (in case of system crash)) is that the UI does little to remind users to save their work.

Yes, the page title says "<<your project name>> - edited", but the hundreds of people reporting this issue make it obvious that people don't notice this.

It sounds like auto-save is in progress, but that it will take some time. In the meantime, how about implementing some much better "HEY! You need to save your work!!!" signifiers?

thanks!