[WD] Lost save-files

[nasso]

My savefiles are just... lost.

I played through the entire episode earlier today. I continued from a savefile from yesterday. Worked like a charm.

When i sat down just now to play through the game again, a second time, to make other decisions i wanted to start from a new save file but i found out that my old was gone.

This was all done from the same computer. I haven't installed the game on any other machine.

I'm really bummed out because the decisions i made in the first save file are the ones i want to continue episode 2 with. And what happens if this happens again? What if i loose my save file when i have completed episode 4??!?!?!?

Has this happened to anyone else and how do i fix this?

Edit: when i started the walking dead game i was also starting up diablo 3. I got some errors about direct 3d from walking dead game and when i restarted the game it started in windowed mode 1024x768 so my settings where reset. this was just before i found out that the save files where missing.

Edit: im unable to reproduce this now. but i think i started diablo 3 first. is it possible that this is some racecondition that caused the walking dead game to fail to sync to steam cloud and reset its settings and save files? the windowed thing is weird though, i dont remember that being standard...

[nasso]

No one?

Is there anywhere i can file an official bug report?

[dant_ee]

Hey, I have the same issue......
it's borring, what a shame !!

=> yesterday I played walking dead twice, no problem. Today, my save is gone, and the only thing i Have done, it's playing Dota2 ....

[dant_ee]

there is nothing I can do ? ...

[WabbitTwaks]

Take a look at this and see if yours is the same. If it is, then try my "wish I had" step at the bottom. It may or may not change anything but I am curious to see if it does.

[altered_ego]

Mine was exactly the same. Got the error about the Direct 3D not being found, opened up in Windowed mode and then the save games could not be recognised.

Thing is, if you look on your computer, the autosave files are still there, so the game needs to be rebuilt.

This must be a fairly consistent bug then?
I'll try and see if WabbitTwaks ideas ring true once the kids go to bed.

So no, you're not on your own....

[dant_ee]

I think I have the old save, but there is nothing I can do to read them. I tried to get only the old files, but the date displayed on the slot game save is still the last one, and if I try to load it, I have a black screen
Anyway, I'm restarting (again) the game. I hope it's the last time.

And why do not you use the Steam cloud save system? I can't load my game from another computer...

[radioactivez0r]

My settings also reset (started in windowed mode, wrong res) on me after a launch hang, but I haven't played any other PC games since I last played TWD. I also can't see my save in the game, though the file is still on my PC.

[dant_ee]

The files seem corrupted.. What a bad thing
Just for my information, what means "after a launch hang" ? is it a crash ?

[Gman5852]

I'm just going to say that I replayed the episode and the saves are there when I reloaded. With any luck it will stay that way.

So the best I can say is to replay episode 1 if your save is gone.

[radioactivez0r]

Originally Posted by dant_ee

The files seem corrupted.. What a bad thing
Just for my information, what means "after a launch hang" ? is it a crash ?

When I launched the game, it sat at a black screen and never loaded.

[Siezemore]

So I was able to recover my save-files after I had a similar problem like the threadposter. The fix takes about 5 minutes.

What happened: Game crashed while it was starting up and when I restarted the game after the crash the game had no savefiles of my last gamesession. However, the savefiles were still present in users/my documents/telltale/The Walking dead. The game just did not recognise these files.

What to do:

1. Check if your 'lost' saves are still in your savesfolder (users/my documents/telltale/The Walking dead).
2. Take a backup of this folder.
3. Locate the savefile you want to 'unf**k'. Do this by checking the time of creation. The order the names of the savefiles suggest are not always correct. Take care to at least backup this save. Then delete the whole The walking Dead folder. The game will create a new, empty one if you start it.
4. Start the game and play long enough to have at least one savefile created. Playing until you wake up after the car crash should do.
5. Close the game and download SKTimeStamp (http://code.google.com/p/stexbar/downloads/list). Install the program.
6. Now locate your NEW savefile. Again, check the creation time. DO NOT think the higher the number in the name, the newer the file is. Right click it and select properties. Select the tab Timestamps. Now do the same with the old savefile that you wish to reinstate. Now change the three timestamps of your old savefile to the exact same values as your new savefile. Click 'apply'
7. Now name your old savefile exactly as the new one. (i.e. Save_2, if your new savefile was named Save_2). Delete your new savefile and replace it with your old, now named exactly the same, savefile.
8. start the game and get Lee killed.

Edit: It seems the situation is slightly different when this happens across different episodes. Some fine sleuthing from McHitman47 later in this thread delivered the solution:

THE SAVE FILE YOU WANT TO RESURRECT HAS TO BE PUT OVER ANOTHER SAVE FILE FROM ---THE SAME EPISODE---

For ex. you finished the first two episodes, and you finally want to start the third one and you get your saves deleted ?

You do all this holy man told us to do but just don't start from the first episode, start the second one, change the dates and all that good stuff and replace it with your save from the second episode.

Replacing a save from the 1st episode with a save from the 2nd or 3rd freezes the game completely.

[altered_ego]

works 100%. Thanks a million

cheers

Chris

[radioactivez0r]

I tried to make this work...except I uninstalled the Steam version as it just got worse with the crashing, and installed the TT direct file. Then started a game in it, got to a save point and quit out. Changed the timestamp on my backup save, changed the name and copied over but it just started me in the same place I was in the new file. Oh well...back to the beginning.

[AntonThaGreat]

Siezemore, your post saved my ass! I was right at the last part of the episode as well. Really didn't want to replay the whole thing again. Worked beautifully.

This is the second huge problem I've had with this game! First being that the game doesn't start with a Xbox 360 controller plugged in on Windows 8. Neither do any other telltale games. It's very strange. Telltale are making some amazing games, but they need to do more testing.

Anyway, can't wait until the next one comes out!

[nasso]

Sizemore: Wow! Thanks! It helped! Huge thanks!

There should be an sticky on this thread or atleast an reply from an developer to let us know if/that they are working on fixing this bug.

[zefiend]

Originally Posted by Siezemore

So I was able to recover my save-files after I had a similar problem like the threadposter. The fix takes about 5 minutes.

Thanks, worked perfectly.

[thepuddin]

Originally Posted by Siezemore

So I was able to recover my save-files after I had a similar problem like the threadposter. The fix takes about 5 minutes.

What happened: Game crashed while it was starting up and when I restarted the game after the crash the game had no savefiles of my last gamesession. However, the savefiles were still present in users/my documents/telltale/The Walking dead. The game just did not recognise these files.

What to do:

1. Check if your 'lost' saves are still in your savesfolder (users/my documents/telltale/The Walking dead).
2. Take a backup of this folder.
3. Locate the savefile you want to 'unf**k'. Do this by checking the time of creation. The order the names of the savefiles suggest are not always correct. Take care to at least backup this save. Then delete the whole The walking Dead folder. The game will create a new, empty one if you start it.
4. Start the game and play long enough to have at least one savefile created. Playing until you wake up after the car crash should do.
5. Close the game and download SKTimeStamp (http://code.google.com/p/stexbar/downloads/list). Install the program.
6. Now locate your NEW savefile. Again, check the creation time. DO NOT think the higher the number in the name, the newer the file is. Right click it and select properties. Select the tab Timestamps. Now do the same with the old savefile that you wish to reinstate. Now change the three timestamps of your old savefile to the exact same values as your new savefile. Click 'apply'



7. Now name your old savefile exactly as the new one. (i.e. Save_2, if your new savefile was named save_2). Delete your new savefile and replace it with your old, now named exactly the same, savefile.
8. start the game and get Lee killed.

You sir are a genius. Lost all of episode one after a crash. Thought I'd have to play through and remember what I did. Was really pissed off but your help has made this unnecessary.
Registered just to thank you.
Cheers!

[marcu5]

this just happened to me on the ps3, are there any fixes?

[pshomii]

Originally Posted by marcu5

this just happened to me on the ps3, are there any fixes?

This happened to me as well, on my third playthrough of Episode 2 as I booted it up, I got the message "Save Data Corrupted". One person here said I may have turned the PS3 off while it was saving.. I don't think so, because I don't normally do that.

It's not a coincidence that others are having this same problem as well. Well, I just have to start form Episode 1 again.