Save File Lost

[HiDaeus]

Not sure if anyone else has had this particular problem. I started playing this game a while ago. Judging by the dates on my option files, it was last year in January. Last time I loaded the game was back in September of 2024 on my old computer. Never had a problem loading my save. I built a new computer and installed the game. I recently launched it and it took me to the initial screen. No saves at all. Already backed up folders from old computer. I restored them. No dice. I checked my save files in the steam cloud (store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage).

It has exactly 3 files:
SavedUserOptions.sav
SavGameList.sav
Input.ini

My SavedGames folder has the first two above and this one.
steam_autocloud.vdf

I've seen people claiming that you can get the save back by using your old save file, something like HL-00-00 or something like that. The problem is, I do not now have nor have I ever had any such file. I checked my old drive where the files are intact. No such file exists in my SaveGames folder, yet I never had a problem loading my game from my old computer. I can no longer launch the game on there to see if it would actually work.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem in this way. Does anyone know where my actual save files would be located? Did I play the game before or after some change that caused save files to be created that were not created when I started playing? It's very confusing because I cannot use the trick everyone else claims to use, and if that file had been created and stored in that folder, it would be on my old drive right now. How was I able to load just fine on my old computer but not the new one even with all my files transferred? I don't know if I'll ever play this game now as I have no interest in starting completely over.

[Zigamus Wizard]

Do you know computers well enough to explore the Registry file? If not DO NOT go in there, you could completely cripple your machine.
But if you are able to do so, search for the game and it's Keys, compare them between the two computers, may find some hints there.

[HiDaeus]

Thanks for your reply and for trying to help. I figured out what was wrong. This game does not save in the same place for everybody it seems. All documentation, including PCGamingWiki, suggested I'd find my saves in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Hogwarts Legacy. All I found there were out of date files with no saves, and it appears that the synchronized files for steam cloud were from this folder, so it did not have a backup of any of my actual settings or game saves.

Thanks to a very helpful YouTube video, I discovered that the game also saves to another folder: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Phoenix. I hopped on my old drive, which still has all my data, and found the folder. Voila, there were all my settings and saves. I moved them to the new computer and placed them in the Hogwarts Legacy folder and everything worked. I tried placing the Phoenix folder on the new computer, but the game ignored that directory on the new computer for some reason. Now, steam shows all of those files uploaded to the cloud as well after syncing.

If anyone else has a similar problem, maybe my experience can be of assistance to them.