Failed to load save data. Select "OK" to try again.

[Davidian]

There was some sort of network issue, the game complained about losing connection to the elden ring game servers and said it was returning to the main title menu. I hit ok to let that happen. Then, and I'm not sure exactly when, the game crashed. Just totally closed back to the desktop. Now when i load it I get this error about my save data failing to be able to be loaded.

Tried alot of stuff I've found online, but nothing seems to be able to get my save file working again. I have a backup of it, but anytime I try to run the game with that file i get this error again.

I'm seeing alot of people online making similar complaints. Sounds like there are a variety of root causes.

This was my first foray into playing a "Souls" game. I was over 160 hours in. Had only just reached the fire giant. Rather invested in this character at this point.

Does anyone know what the status is with this? Sounds like Bandai/Namco knows about it. I'm really surprised at how common this seems to be.

[Davidian]

Originally posted by Darth Invader:

multiple

I appreciate all the info you've shared. Yeah, I think it's pretty likely I'm not going to be able to gain access to my character again. Last night after griping about this to my wife again she said it seems like I'm going through a grieving process. lol
FWIW, I've opened a ticket with Bandai/Namco and I've attached a copy of the corrupt file that I backed up immediately after the problem happened. I asked them to repair it.
Beyond that if I'm feeling motivated I might try to delve into the data structures within these save files to see if I can come up with a solution.
I'll definitely post any updates here.

[Davidian]

Originally posted by Darth Invader:

...
%appdata% > Roaming > EldenRing > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

X = a bunch of random numbers
...

FWIW, it's not random numbers, it's your SteamID.

[Darth Invader]

Originally posted by Davidian:

Originally posted by Darth Invader:

...
%appdata% > Roaming > EldenRing > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

X = a bunch of random numbers
...

FWIW, it's not random numbers, it's your SteamID.

Ahhh... That would make sense I guess.

Thanks for keeping the thread updated. I've subscribed to it, and am curious to see what Bamco customer support says.

Thanks again and GL and have a nice day!

[dark-breed]

you could try to use this tool

https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/214?tab=files

[Davidian]

I found another tool meant to address this issue. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. But, I feel like it got me closer than anything else has so far.

Thought I'd share it here in case it works for anyone else. Here's a link to a video explaining how to use it, and a link to the tool itself in the description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6BfQpxjzDc

I think it goes without saying that you should do these sorts of things offline. And that probably means actually disconnect your PC from the internet. Unplug your ethernet cable, turn wifi off etc. I haven't been banned yet, but from what I can tell, Bamco has software in the game, on their servers or both that analyzes your save file for "inappropriate" activity. I can only assume this is to prevent people from cheating, which makes sense. But, modifying your save file outside of the game, even if you're just trying to fix it, could cause you to get banned from playing online. And I suspect, that ban might be applied to your SteamID, not just your character. I assume Darth Invader knows more about this.

[dark-breed]

Originally posted by Davidian:

I found another tool meant to address this issue. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. But, I feel like it got me closer than anything else has so far.

Thought I'd share it here in case it works for anyone else. Here's a link to a video explaining how to use it, and a link to the tool itself in the description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6BfQpxjzDc

I think it goes without saying that you should do these sorts of things offline. And that probably means actually disconnect your PC from the internet. Unplug your ethernet cable, turn wifi off etc. I haven't been banned yet, but from what I can tell, Bamco has software in the game, on their servers or both that analyzes your save file for "inappropriate" activity. I can only assume this is to prevent people from cheating, which makes sense. But, modifying your save file outside of the game, even if you're just trying to fix it, could cause you to get banned from playing online. And I suspect, that ban might be applied to your SteamID, not just your character. I assume Darth Invader knows more about this.

the tool i posted is able to copy one char from a file to a new one, if you lucky enough and the char data is intact you could overcome the broken steam information of the file and yes do such things as i wrote earlier offline.

[Davidian]

Originally posted by dark-breed:

you could try to use this tool

https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/214?tab=files

I appreciate you. Unfortunately, that one's been suggested to me a few times and it doesn't work for me. I gather it has worked for many other though.

[Davidian]

Originally posted by dark-breed:

Originally posted by Davidian:

I found another tool meant to address this issue. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. But, I feel like it got me closer than anything else has so far.

Thought I'd share it here in case it works for anyone else. Here's a link to a video explaining how to use it, and a link to the tool itself in the description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6BfQpxjzDc

I think it goes without saying that you should do these sorts of things offline. And that probably means actually disconnect your PC from the internet. Unplug your ethernet cable, turn wifi off etc. I haven't been banned yet, but from what I can tell, Bamco has software in the game, on their servers or both that analyzes your save file for "inappropriate" activity. I can only assume this is to prevent people from cheating, which makes sense. But, modifying your save file outside of the game, even if you're just trying to fix it, could cause you to get banned from playing online. And I suspect, that ban might be applied to your SteamID, not just your character. I assume Darth Invader knows more about this.

the tool i posted is able to copy one char from a file to a new one, if you lucky enough and the char data is intact you could overcome the broken steam information of the file and yes do such things as i wrote earlier offline.

So yeah, I've come across at least 2 tools now that try to solve the problem by having you create a new character file and a new character. Then use one of the tools to copy the character data from the slot in the damaged file overtop of the newly created character. So far that's gotten me closer, I can see my old characters info, but when I try to start it within the game from the new file i either get another error about corruption or the game actually crashes immediately.
I feel like the outlook is pretty bleak for me.

[Darth Invader]

Originally posted by Davidian:

I found another tool meant to address this issue. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. But, I feel like it got me closer than anything else has so far.

Thought I'd share it here in case it works for anyone else. Here's a link to a video explaining how to use it, and a link to the tool itself in the description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6BfQpxjzDc

I think it goes without saying that you should do these sorts of things offline. And that probably means actually disconnect your PC from the internet. Unplug your ethernet cable, turn wifi off etc. I haven't been banned yet, but from what I can tell, Bamco has software in the game, on their servers or both that analyzes your save file for "inappropriate" activity. I can only assume this is to prevent people from cheating, which makes sense. But, modifying your save file outside of the game, even if you're just trying to fix it, could cause you to get banned from playing online. And I suspect, that ban might be applied to your SteamID, not just your character. I assume Darth Invader knows more about this.

Oh yeah I totally agree you should do all this stuff offline, even unplugging the ethernet and putting Steam in offline mode doesn't hurt at all. You can never be too careful, because as far as I know, the minimum ban is 6 months. And yeah you're right, it bans your entire Steam account, not just the character.

I'm really not too familiar with how Elden Ring handles these things, because I don't know much about how EAC works. I spent a lot of time researching DS3's worthless anticheat, because cheating was TERRIBLE in that game, probably still is, haven't played that game at all in like 2 years, ever since the RCE scare a while back.

I'm going to check out that video in a bit, I'm sure there's some good info there.

Thanks again and cheers!

[dark-breed]

Originally posted by Davidian:

Originally posted by dark-breed:

the tool i posted is able to copy one char from a file to a new one, if you lucky enough and the char data is intact you could overcome the broken steam information of the file and yes do such things as i wrote earlier offline.

So yeah, I've come across at least 2 tools now that try to solve the problem by having you create a new character file and a new character. Then use one of the tools to copy the character data from the slot in the damaged file overtop of the newly created character. So far that's gotten me closer, I can see my old characters info, but when I try to start it within the game from the new file i either get another error about corruption or the game actually crashes immediately.
I feel like the outlook is pretty bleak for me.

in this case most likely the char data is corrupted too, it is sad and i do not think bandai can repair your savefile.

[Glutton]

Ok same problem for me, the game crashed just after the loading screen probably because i was downloading something with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ network but ever since it crashed every time after the loading screen, I have verified the game files, still the same problem. Even if I only have 30 hours, I do not want to launch a new game, I will just forget about it and start over in few months when i will be bored but it's a shame not to have at least one backup save in the game.

[Glutton]

Hey, maybe I have a solution, I have launch a new game without deleting the corrupted save, just died after the intro boss in that new game, quit to the main screen , then i deleted the new save and reloaded the ancient one and it worked. I do not know how and why but it worked so I hope it would work for you too

[dark-breed]

Originally posted by GoodMood:

Hey, maybe I have a solution, I have launch a new game without deleting the corrupted save, just died after the intro boss in that new game, quit to the main screen , then i deleted the new save and reloaded the ancient one and it worked. I do not know how and why but it worked so I hope it would work for you too

The problem of the op is different he get a message in the start menu that the savefile is corrupted.

In your case there are different causes possible like raytracing in use or a shader cache damage prevented to load the char by start a new char the game delete the shader cache and compile a new one, by load after this the original char the same happens, so most likely your shader cache was corrupted or you updated your gpu driver and did not deleted the shader cache.

[Davidian]

Originally posted by GoodMood:

Hey, maybe I have a solution, I have launch a new game without deleting the corrupted save, just died after the intro boss in that new game, quit to the main screen , then i deleted the new save and reloaded the ancient one and it worked. I do not know how and why but it worked so I hope it would work for you too

Originally posted by dark-breed:

Originally posted by GoodMood:

Hey, maybe I have a solution, I have launch a new game without deleting the corrupted save, just died after the intro boss in that new game, quit to the main screen , then i deleted the new save and reloaded the ancient one and it worked. I do not know how and why but it worked so I hope it would work for you too

The problem of the op is different he get a message in the start menu that the savefile is corrupted.

In your case there are different causes possible like raytracing in use or a shader cache damage prevented to load the char by start a new char the game delete the shader cache and compile a new one, by load after this the original char the same happens, so most likely your shader cache was corrupted or you updated your gpu driver and did not deleted the shader cache.

I appreciate you guys, but yeah, the issue with my save file is different. Pretty sure I've been through every known trick. My character's save data is actually corrupt within the slot within the file.

Beyond that, I think I now know why From Software doesn't have the game keep at least one previous save as well. Too much concern from the community over saving scum. Even though there's no way they can actually prevent that, I think they don't want to upset their more vocal fans, and be perceived as supporting it in any way.

Unfortunately that means, when you play From Software games, there is a non-zero chance you've end up in the situation I'm in.

[redcapekiller]

this happened to me and I have no idea what to do it wont even let me create a new character