I keep losing progress since 4.0

[dogg]

It happens randomly but it just happened for the 3rd time. There's no crash and everything seems normal but the game just starts over with the opening video and all game progress reset.
I had complete runs for about a dozen characters and had just made the first 2 zones with Hatsune. Quit for dinner, came back and restarted Steam and the game and everything was back to square one :(
\
Help?

[Scintilla]

I don't know whether it's the same problem, but I lost all my speed run records in character select room too, and don't know how to recover it.

[dogg]

Yeah, all my runs were reset (about a dozen) plus all the unlocked loot and NPCs.
Everything was like my first time playing. Never did it before the patch.

[Scintilla]

I created a bug report on discord. Devs say that the times displayed in the char select room are not accurate, but we didn’t lose anything. If we check the speed leaderboards we should still find our time. But actually I found it doesn't exist on leaderboards too. Maybe you can also provide your details there.

[Marukyu]

Originally posted by dogg:

It happens randomly but it just happened for the 3rd time. There's no crash and everything seems normal but the game just starts over with the opening video and all game progress reset.
I had complete runs for about a dozen characters and had just made the first 2 zones with Hatsune. Quit for dinner, came back and restarted Steam and the game and everything was back to square one :(
\
Help?

Hi! Sounds like your user data files are being reset (either by the game or by Steam Cloud), which contain both your settings and game progress.

The save files should be located in a specific directory, depending on your operating system (the numbers in the file name will be different, based on your SteamID):

• Windows: %AppData%/NecroDancer/SynchronyUser_76561197989376705.lua
  
• macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/NecroDancer/SynchronyUser_76561197989376705.lua
  
• Linux: ~/.config/NecroDancer/SynchronyUser_76561197989376705.lua

A few questions to help narrow down the issue:

1. Does the game properly create these files for you, or are they missing or empty?
   
2. Which operating system (and OS version) are you using? We mainly test on Windows 10, macOS Ventura (M1) and SteamOS (Steam Deck), and it's possible there are some OS-specific issues involved here.
   
3. Do you have Steam Cloud enabled for this game?
   
4. Did Steam ever bring up a "Cloud sync error" when attempting to launch the game?
   
5. Is there a file named "CloudMigrationBackup.lua" in the config directory mentioned above, or any other files with "backup" in the name? These might be helpful to recover any lost progress, as the game writes to them when resolving cloud sync conflicts or when a fatal error occurs.

We received some reports that Steam is running into cloud sync errors more frequently since a recent update. If Steam Cloud does indeed turn out to be the culprit, it's possible to disable it via the properties dialog in the Steam library entry for the game, or by adding the launch parameter --no-steam-cloud to the launch options. You can verify that the game is saving your progress correctly by going through the intro/calibration/tutorial screens, closing the game, then reopening it. If you no longer see the intro, the user data files have been saved/loaded correctly and you should no longer lose any progress.

Some players reported similar, though even more severe issues, where the Steam API failed to initialize altogether (so far, this has only happened on Windows). This would not only manifest in cloud saves failing to load, but also prevent DLCs, leaderboards, achievements and multiplayer from working. In those cases, fully uninstalling and reinstalling Steam itself seems to be the only consistent fix.

[Marukyu]

Originally posted by Scintilla:

I created a bug report on discord. Devs say that the times displayed in the char select room are not accurate, but we didn’t lose anything. If we check the speed leaderboards we should still find our time. But actually I found it doesn't exist on leaderboards too. Maybe you can also provide your details there.

Did you achieve the speedrun times before v4.0.0? When we released v4.0.0, we performed a "soft reset" of all SYNCHRONY speedrun and score leaderboards: all old leaderboards remain on Steam in a read-only state, while a set of new, empty leaderboards has been created on our own external server (to allow for cross-platform rankings with consoles).

You can access them in-game by opening the "Leaderboards" menu, then selecting the topmost menu entry to open a selection menu. If the SYNCHRONY DLC is enabled, there should be a subcategory for "Archived" boards, which will contain the highest scores and fastest times achieved between v3.1.0 and v3.7.5 (SYNCHRONY DLC).

To avoid mixing SYNCHRONY Early Access records (which may no longer be beatable due to balance changes, especially on Chaunter) with post-v4.0.0 cross-platform records, the character selection screen only pulls times from the cross-platform leaderboards.

If you're running into this issue without the SYNCHRONY DLC, or if your times are shown on the current, non-archived leaderboards (you can tell the difference by checking if there are blue PC icons next to most names), that would be a bug.

[dogg]

.....A few questions to help narrow down the issue:

Does the game properly create these files for you, or are they missing or empty?

- Yeah, the SynchronyUserxxxx.lua is there - Located in the \AppData\Roaming
folder.
Details say it's saved in sync with my playtime atm.

Which operating system (and OS version) are you using? We mainly test on Windows 10, macOS Ventura (M1) and SteamOS (Steam Deck), and it's possible there are some OS-specific issues involved here.

- Windows 10 all current no probs.

Do you have Steam Cloud enabled for this game?

- Nope, Disabled globally in Steam settings.

Did Steam ever bring up a "Cloud sync error" when attempting to launch the game?

-No

Is there a file named "CloudMigrationBackup.lua" in the config directory mentioned above, or any other files with "backup" in the name? These might be helpful to recover any lost progress, as the game writes to them when resolving cloud sync conflicts or when a fatal error occurs.

-Yes, it's in the same folder as the SynchronyUser file and details say it's not been
updated since installed.

- No problems since Just before my original post. Thanks

[Scintilla]

Yes, I achieved the speedrun times before v4. I now know the difference between new and old leaderboards, and I can find my different times in new and old leaderboards. But I'm worried that these data only exists on your leaderboard server, but no more on my local save data, because as I was testing and relaunching the game several times, the only two remainders of my times(I'm sure these two were achieved after v4) in character select room were disappearing one after another, though they still exists on leaderboards. That's why I didn't feel worried before, but now I think it's a little bit serious. I can achieve these speedruns after v4, but if they keep disappearing, these will be useless.

If you need, I can provide more information too.
1. These files are there, and not empty.
2. Windows 10.
3. Yes, Steam cloud enabled.
4. No cloud sync error for this game these days.
5. Yes, CloudMigrationBackup.lua exists, and was created 2023/07/08, last modified same date same time.

[dogg]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!!
It just reset again and I had about 20 hrs of new progress, after losing the 600 hrs plus before that. WTH is going on?

All the unlocks
All the characters
All the zones

I mean, I love the game but I'm getting sick of having to start over :(

[Marukyu]

Speedrun times disappearing from the Character Select room is a known issue related to how the leaderboard query results are cached locally, and is unrelated to the save data loss issue.

Progress/unlocks being lost is a much more severe problem, and it seems to be caused by the game's configuration file being deleted or corrupted. Usually, when this happens, the Steam Cloud save file is merged with your local save file to avoid loss of progress. However, because Steam Cloud is disabled in this case, there's no backup to merge with, and if the file is truncated, the game will be unable to read it on the next startup.

File system write failures (especially on application exit) are unavoidable, but we plan on addressing this problem by saving a secondary backup configuration file if Steam Cloud is disabled, hoping that at least one of the two save files remains readable and can be used to restore any lost progress.

Assuming you've unlocked most of the game's content thoughout your 600 hours of playtime, you can use the game's debug console to restore your progress manually:

1. Open the options menu
   
2. Press Ctrl+F and type advanced, then tick "Show advanced settings"
   
3. Press Ctrl+F and type debug, then set "Enable debug console" to "On"
   
4. Press Shift+F4, type unlockAll() and press Enter (make sure to match the capitalization exactly), then press Up and Enter again to confirm your choice
   
5. Close the menu and press the Quick Restart hotkey in the lobby - all characters and zones should now be unlocked

[dogg]

Ah thank you for the replies. Glad to hear you have the issue in your sights. As frustrating as it is to rehash the content for this reason, it's really no biggie. Like I said, I really love the game :)

[ChekinNooget]

unsure if this is related but i did an all chars run online with some people, after we won all my characters had the 2+ hour thing beneath them

[dogg]

Can't really say. The game will reward me just fine with story progress, char unlocks and will display completion times for any chars that do the all zone mode etc. All progress was kept for months and I had several complete runs.
Then a few days after the 4.0 update I started the game and was shown the intro movie along with the calibration process. All my progression was wiped and the game basically was running for the 1st time.
So I started over. Bought Hatsune Miku and played some zones and characters.. then a few days later it did it again... and again.
Been about a week now since the last one. Keeping my fingers xx'd.

[dogg]

Well ♥♥♥♥. Another loss of progress, so I used the debug commands you guys gave me.
It unlocked the character list and zones 1-5 but all of the items I had unlocked were lost and the filters reset. Takes many many diamonds to get through the list.
I don't want to be 'that guy' about this, but WTF ?

Something's broken still and the temp fix is partial at best.

[Marukyu]

Originally posted by dogg:

Well ♥♥♥♥. Another loss of progress, so I used the debug commands you guys gave me.
It unlocked the character list and zones 1-5 but all of the items I had unlocked were lost and the filters reset. Takes many many diamonds to get through the list.
I don't want to be 'that guy' about this, but WTF ?

Something's broken still and the temp fix is partial at best.

We've implemented a backup save file when playing with Steam Cloud disabled. Since we're unable to reproduce the issue (and the fix might have side effects), it's specific to the `v4_testing` beta branch for now. Use the beta key plasmacannon to access this branch.

If the issue still occurs, please use the in-game "Send feedback" menu to send a bug report in the same session (i.e. without closing the game). Make sure to enable "Include session log" to include any debug messages the game might have printed while trying to load the save file.

[dogg]

Okay, will-do. Thanks.