Lost all my progression... AGAIN!

[Frobacca]

Is this a known issue or has anyone else had this issue? I just got on for the first time in a while (before apex update) and ALL of my progress in the game was gone. I have the two maps unlocked and had both of them fully explored, I have 60 hours into this games and now when i log on i have none of the map explored and lost all of my player stats and equipment. This is the second time this has happened (the first time i didn't have as much stuff or explored as far so i wasn't as annoyed.

anyone else have this issue? have any thoughts on fixing it?

[PicSoul]

Do you happen to have any anti-virus programs running that may be blocking the game from saving? BitDefender perhaps? If so, you will need to add an exclusion to the program to allow the game to save. Even Windows Defender has been known to block the game from saving. Windows Controlled folder access has been problematic too.

Add an exclusion to Windows Defender

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028485/windows-10-add-an-exclusion-to-windows-security

Disable Controlled folder access

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046851/windows-10-allow-blocked-app-windows-security

[Frobacca]

Originally posted by PicSoul:

Do you happen to have any anti-virus programs running that may be blocking the game from saving? BitDefender perhaps? If so, you will need to add an exclusion to the program to allow the game to save. Even Windows Defender has been known to block the game from saving. Windows Controlled folder access has been problematic too.

Add an exclusion to Windows Defender

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028485/windows-10-add-an-exclusion-to-windows-security

Disable Controlled folder access

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046851/windows-10-allow-blocked-app-windows-security

Nothing preventing this from saving, and I'm not talking about just one session/save that was lost, This most recent lost was probably roughly 40 hours of in game lost of countless number of sessions that all had saved fine. There was a decent amount of time between this sessions where I lost everything and the previous time I played, and if i remember correctly there was a long time of not playing when it happened last time too. maybe it is correlated to the long breaks of not playing the game?

[astreamuser]

This has happened to others as well when they took long breaks from the game. Do you have steam cloud enabled? If so, disable it and make manual saves after each session.

[Frobacca]

Originally posted by tasx:

This has happened to others as well when they took long breaks from the game. Do you have steam cloud enabled? If so, disable it and make manual saves after each session.

I think I do, Ill have to look into it. thanks!

[DrSlickPrick]

does these comments get read by the devs?
i recently bought the game, yesterday i played and got to level 8 "from level 4" and i bought new gear in game, today that progression is lost and im back to level 4, and it really makes me want to shelf this game, as this issues is quiet old?

really sucks as i bought the game and every dlc

and how do i save my game manually, so i can re-log into the game and continue playing. i dont want to go back, and pick up from where the save game decides to save progression or not.

tips and tricks ive read online does not tell how to get progression back

[Frobacca]

Originally posted by DrSlickPrick:

does these comments get read by the devs?
i recently bought the game, yesterday i played and got to level 8 "from level 4" and i bought new gear in game, today that progression is lost and im back to level 4, and it really makes me want to shelf this game, as this issues is quiet old?

really sucks as i bought the game and every dlc

and how do i save my game manually, so i can re-log into the game and continue playing. i dont want to go back, and pick up from where the save game decides to save progression or not.

tips and tricks ive read online does not tell how to get progression back

its a long read but I also sent this issue to their support email and got this as a response:

"Hello,

If you just started playing (or recently updated your security suite), it may be that your machine's security settings/software is stopping COTW from writing the necessary save files to record your game progress. Could you please make sure your security settings / anti-virus software(s) has "THEHUNTERCOTW_F" whitelisted?

Unfortunately, theHunter: Call of the Wild saves data to your machine locally, as such, there is nothing we can do to restore things like gamesaves / trophies / progress / etc for you :(

This progress can be lost or completely wiped in the following cases:

Starting a new game

Files are corrupted due to PC crash (e.g. power cut)

Files are corrupted due to game crash

Deleting 'Documents' folder or subfolders

Starting the game on a different PC / different user account

Reinstalling Windows without backing up your files

Reinstalling the game without enabling Steam Cloud


This issue could be related to a Windows Defender setting, "Controlled Folder Access". To fix your issue, you will need to either disable this feature or create an exclusion within this feature. Both of these options require you to be an Administrator.



Steps to disable the feature:

Open Windows Defender (also known as Windows Security).

Go to Virus & threat protection settings.

Click manage settings.

Navigate to Controlled folder access.

Click "Manage Controlled Folder Access".

Turn the setting from "On" to "Off".



Steps to add an exclusion:

Open Windows Defender (also known as Windows Security).

Go to Virus & threat protection settings.

Click manage settings.

Navigate to Controlled folder access.

Click "Manage Controlled Folder Access".

Click "Allow an app through Controlled Folder Access".

Add an allowed app

Navigate to your steam games folder (...\steamapps\common\theHunterCotW\theHunterCotW_F.exe)


Finally, Steam Cloud Backups could be rolling back your game progress. You could try turning them off to see if that is causing your issue. You can read more about Steam Cloud Backups in this article.

It might be possible to restore some or even all of your data by loading a save “slot” or a Steam Cloud backup.

You can generally find your savegame data in the following location: C:\Users\Mike\Documents\Avalanche Studios\COTW\Saves\76561199173991025", where the long number at the end is your Steam64 ID. Once you've found your SAVES folder, there will be a folder called SLOTS. The "Slots" contain savegame backups. Backup everything in your current save to another folder, and then put the files from one of your save slots into your Saves folder.

You could also ask the community if they would be willing to give you a "donor savegame"."

For information about the Steam Cloud, please refer to this article(restoring a Steam Cloud backup will only work if the corrupted files have not overwritten the latest backup).

You could also check out this community thread on Reddit for troubleshooting corrupted saves.

Is there anything else we may assist you with?

[Frobacca]

I responded to their first email saying what my settings were and it wasn't any of the issues they mentioned. I also brought up that it seems to be a decent amount of people who've had the same or similar issues after not playing for awhile. I also understood they can't help get my files back as they're locally saved. Their response was bassically "we cant retrieve your files, sorry". Like this isn't a single event or a single person, they should be looking into it

[GrandTickler]

i had this issue before and it turned out to be my save file was stored in a back up folder somewhere, dont ask me how i fixed it though, i just remember it was hell.
this game likes to store save files in my documents>avalanche studios, then there are 2 folders.. COTW and theHunter Call of the Wild for some reason both contain save files. i think its just a programmer mistake that happened during one of the updates..

edit: btw the COTW folder also contains a slots folder, i believe those may be your backups but someone would need to confirm