Dead Island Save Game Corruption Bug Workaround

Brief Workaround for Save Game Corruption Bug

Section 01: What is the Dead Island Save Game Corruption Bug?

Dead Island Save Game Corruption Bug

The Dead Island Save Game Corruption Bug is a bug that causes your character saves to have disappeared from your list of previous playthroughs the next time you start Steam.
You may restart that character from the same point in the Main Story, or from an earlier point in the Main Story, but ALL your Inventory, ALL your found Weapon Mods and ALL your Side Mission progress will be LOST.
Subsequent progress made with that character will also be lost.

This bug has been present since launch and remains unpatched as of version 1.3.0 in Jan 2013.
It seems to occur for me after joining other people's games in online co-op.
This game is terrific otherwise and it's a shame that this remains unpatched so long after release.

It may explain why a game that was $60 at launch can 15 months later be had for as little as $6.79 in a Steam Sale (God bless 'em).
And perhaps why only half of players have continued playing Dead Island any more than 4 weeks after starting it for the first time (see stats for '28 Days Later' Achievement).
And why only one in every hundred players have completed Act 1 with each of the 4 characters (see stats for 'Right 4 Life' Achievement).

Read next Section for Preventative Measures you can take and read the third Section for a workaround if your Saves are already corrupted.

Section 02: Prevention is better than cure

For each new playthrough you begin, play a little and then quit out under the default online co-op settings WITHOUT JOINING ANYONE ELSE'S GAME.
Quit out of Steam for safe measure.
Then restart and play as you like.

Back-up your Save Game folder regularly to be safe ('Program Files > Steam > userdata > XXXXXXX(number) > 91310 > remote > out' folder contains your Profiles folder with all your challenge progress and your Save Game folder).
Copy each 'out' folder into its own back-up folder. Label each one clearly - eg: '2013-02-02 sat Backup 01' - to avoid confusion later on.

Read next Section for a workaround if your Saves are already corrupted

Section 03: If you're already suffering from Save Game corruption

Step 01: Back-up and Delete Old Game:

If you're already suffering corruption, first back-up your corrupted 'out' folder ('Program Files > Steam > userdata > XXXXXXX(number) > 91310 > remote > out' contains your Profiles folder with all your challenge progress and your Save Game folder).
Duplicate this corrupted 'out' folder into its own back-up folder. Label each one clearly - eg: '2013-02-02 sat Corrupted Backup 01' - to avoid confusion later on.
Then, from Steam, make a backup of Dead Island (put onto CD/DVDs for safe keeping).
Then ask Steam to delete all local Dead Island content.

Step 02: Restart Computer, re-Install Game but Don't Restart Game Yet:

Restart your computer just for fun, restart Steam and re-install Dead Island from your back-up.
Steam will also re-install your (corrupted) Save Games, so BEFORE starting Dead Island again Trash your 'out' folder mentioned above. Delete it (but don't delete your backed-up corrupted 'out' folder).

Step 03: Start Entirely New Game:

Restart all your characters again under default online settings, for convenience begin them in the same order as your corrupted ones so they have the same Save numbers.
For each new game start, play a little and then quit out under the default online co-op settings WITHOUT JOINING ANYONE ELSE'S GAME.
Quit out of Steam for safe measure.
Then restart and play as you like, your games should now save properly.
Copy and back-up this new functioning 'out' folder for safe keeping.

Step 04: Replace Uncorrupted Games from Before:

This will only work for uncorrupted Saves, if they're all corrupted, wave goodbye, take a deep breath and start the whole game again.

When you're feeling brave, using your duplicated corrupted 'out' folder from Step 01, copy back in the Save Game files from any uncorrupted characters you had before.
Your first character will be 'save_0.sav', then 'save_1.sav', 'save_2.sav' etc.
Your Challenge progress is contained in the 'profiles' folder so copy that back in as well if you prefer not to start the Challenges again from scratch.
Quit and restart Steam and Dead Island between each one to double check that each one works.

It is good practice to duplicate and back-up each new working 'out' folder each time as well so you can easily step back to the most recent working state.

PS: Dead Island Save Editor, DISE

Some commenters below including Dr Headshot recommend trying the "Dead Island Save Editor" or DISE to also solve this problem.

I haven't tried it and can't vouch for it but by all means check it out. Research other people's experiences with it on the web before making your decision and always back up your working Save Games first as described above just in case anything goes wrong.

PPS: Thank you for all the comments, it is good to know that this guide is of use to people and that people are still enjoying this otherwise terrific game!

[Sargeist]

Yeah i just got a new Imac and am playing Dying Light. Year and a half later still no responce from that shit company Deep Silver about fixing their game. This issue and the game crashing randomly during co-op play are game breaking, I want a refund. aparently Silver Just re-released this shitfest again a "definitive" edition" with the same bugs.

[Paint]

My pc is to slow for Dying Light.

[Drawings Freeman]

Don't think they will, they've moved on to other things. My computer's not new enough to play Dying Light but it sounds and looks brilliant.

Happy you're enjoying it, despite the bugs it's an awesome and atmospheric game!

[Paint]

I can agree!
I was worring about it cuz I have some awesome items on riptide.

Btw I suffered from this save corruption, I hope they can fix the original Dead Island soon.

[Drawings Freeman]

I think they fixed it and they made the looting system more relevant too. Riptide is also immense fun.

[Paint]

I never knew, does this happen to Riptide?

[Drawings Freeman]

Nooooooooooo! Yeah, losing your saves is soul-destroying at times. Other times it's a good excuse to start again!

[Caedo]

This bug also happened to me, i lost both my save and profile files, fortunately i had my save backed up but completely forgot about the default.pro, lost all my challenge progress and my arena achievements :( so cut, was sooo close to finishing my challenges!!!! wish i saw this before lol

[The Black Hen]

Wow! Very very easy to backup save files, then replace when it becomes corrupted! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCHHHH!!!!

[Svitov]

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