[Solved] Save game backup and cloud sync broken

[Ssafjee]

OVERVIEW:

For some reason, the save game files in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Pathea Games\My Time at Portia as protected in some special way that prevents renaming them, even with administrator access privileges. As such, creating a backup of save games crashes the application. This probably also explains why the Steam cloud syncronization also fails continuously.

STEPS:

Start the game, access the load menu with all save games, pick any one and press backup => Crash.

Alternatively, open the Explorer and navigate to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Pathea Games\My Time at Portia. Renaming any of the save games seems impossible.

RESULT:

Game crashes.

EXPECTED RESULT:

Retain specific save games permanently and proper synchronization with the Steam cloud.

Additional Information

I started playing My Time in Portia on a different machine first. There none of this was an issue. Switching to my main gaming machine, downloading the cloud save games fails. Starting new characters on the gaming rig works and new save games are produced when going to sleep forthe day. But making backups isn't possible and uploads into the Steam cloud simply don't happen.

This is a stack trace taken from the output.log file:

UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path "C:/Users/ME/AppData/LocalLow/Pathea Games/My Time at Portia\20200714-183534_20200714-183622_1Y1M2D_0h0m56s_edff45d4-b371-4a1b-84ab-93fa8512c534_Final 2.0.139880" or "C:/Users/ME/AppData/LocalLow/Pathea Games/My Time at Portia\20200714-183534_20200714-183622_1Y1M2D_0h0m56s_edff45d4-b371-4a1b-84ab-93fa8512c534_Final 2.0.139880.locked" is denied.
  at System.IO.File.Copy (System.String sourceFileName, System.String destFileName, Boolean overwrite) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Pathea.ArchiveNs.Archive.SaveLockArchive (System.String savePath, System.String lockPath) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Pathea.ArchiveNs.Archive.LockArchive (Pathea.SummaryNs.Summary summary) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Pathea.UISystemNs.ArchiveUICtr.LockCurrent () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at UnityEngine.Events.InvokableCall.Invoke () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at UnityEngine.Events.UnityEvent.Invoke () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at UnityEngine.UI.Button.Press () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at UnityEngine.UI.Button.OnPointerClick (UnityEngine.EventSystems.PointerEventData eventData) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at UnityEngine.EventSystems.ExecuteEvents.Execute (IPointerClickHandler handler, UnityEngine.EventSystems.BaseEventData eventData) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at UnityEngine.EventSystems.ExecuteEvents.Execute[IPointerClickHandler] (UnityEngine.GameObject target, UnityEngine.EventSystems.BaseEventData eventData, UnityEngine.EventSystems.EventFunction`1 functor) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:Internal_LogException(Exception, Object)
UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object)
UnityEngine.Logger:LogException(Exception, Object)
UnityEngine.Debug:LogException(Exception)
UnityEngine.EventSystems.ExecuteEvents:Execute(GameObject, BaseEventData, EventFunction`1)
InControl.InControlInputModule:ProcessMousePress(MouseButtonEventData)
InControl.InControlInputModule:ProcessMouseEvent(Int32)
InControl.InControlInputModule:ProcessMouseEvent()
InControl.InControlInputModule:Process()
UnityEngine.EventSystems.EventSystem:Update()
Pathea.UISystemNs.EventSystemAssist:Update()

Reinstalling the game doesn't change anything.

Validating the game files doesn't find or fix anything.

There are no crash dumps produced that I could upload. Though I have send you crash reports twice, as the game offered to do right then and there.

I'm afraid that on my gaming machine there is some setting hidden deep in the Windows registry that affects how Portia is handling the safe game files. Or do you possible have an other idea what could be wrong?

Thank you for your time and support!

Best regards,
Ssafjee.

[Team17_Assist]

Hey Ssaafjee,

Sorry to hear you are having this issue.

Thank you for sending all of this information over.

Can you try to delete a file called InControlNative.dll from the directory:
Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\My Time At Portia\Portia_Data\Plugins

And see if this helps at all?

Regards,
Team17 Support.

[Ssafjee]

Hi Team17 Support,

thank you for your suggestion. Sadly, deleting the file did not improve the situation on either the cloud synchronability or the save game backup system (which still leads into a crash). Validating the local game data, of course, restored the file, but still the behaviour stays the same.

Any more ideas, please?

Best regards,
Ssafjee.

[Ssafjee]

I came to realize later, that the deletion of the specified file might not help for pre-existing save files, I tried again. InControlNative.dll is deleted once more and I produced a new save game for my character. But the error stays the same. Making a backup of that new checkpoint crashes the application and renaming the file via Explorer is not possible.

[Team17_Assist]

Hey Ssafjee,

Thanks for trying that for us.

Have you loaded the game in administrator and tried to save a backup?
Do the files say 'locked file' next to them? This is shown when the save is already a back-up.

It may be some corrupted files, if you remove all the old save files and only have new saves, can you then back up at all?

Regards,
Team17 Support.

[Ssafjee]

Hello again.

Have you loaded the game in administrator and tried to save a backup?

I used to have administrator privileges on my account before this issue. Because I wanted to make sure that doesn't cause the problems, I created a new non-administrator account for playing. Sadly, that didn't help, obviously.

Of course, I've verified several times over, that my current account ownes the save game files and should have all rights to access them.

It may be some corrupted files, if you remove all the old save files and only have new saves, can you then back up at all?

As said before, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the game several times already. Every time I made sure that all save games were removed (by deleting the Pathea Games folder). Because the cloud synchronization is broken, they are not restored after the game's installation. Thus every time I have to start a new character anyway, with brand new save games. No, those cannot be renamed to have a '.locked' suffix, neither by the game application, nor through Explorer.

Thank you again for your support!

Best regards,
Ssafjee.

[Team17_Assist]

Hey Ssafjee,

Thanks for that information!

Do you see any saves here:
https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

Can you also go through this page and follow the troubleshooting on the steam cloud:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6736-QEIG-8941

We hope this helps.

Regards,
Team17 Support.

[Ssafjee]

Do you see any saves here:
https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

Yes, I do. Many in fact, including some from My Time In Portia. Those were uploaded from the computer I started playing Portia on. Downloading them fails to store the files directly into Apathea GamesMy Time at Portia (not enough access permissions), but I can put them somewhere else. A random file downloaded with Firefox can be stored in that directory.

The trouble shooting guide advises to check the network connectivity, which cannot be responsible for my issue, since everything else works fine. I don't need the internet to rename a file through Explorer, which is not possible with Portia's save games only.

Next hint is about anti-virus software and this actually seems to be the case. I've McAfee Endpoint Security running and looking into its event protocol, I found many reports about Portia save games. Seems McAfee is paranoid about files that have a .locked suffix and protects them. A very simple test to verify that is to rename one of the save game files to something else but .locked and that worked.

So, I'm very sorry to have bothered you, Portia seems to work just fine. I'm restricted by my anti-virus software to create backups of my save games. Cloud sync doesn't work, because there are a couple of locked save games in there, too. The work around that I'm already using is to copy the save games I want to keep somewhere else, where they are not garbage-collected by Portia.

This issue is now understood and you may close this thread, if you like.

Best regards,
Ssafjee.