It could happen to you!

Common sense for ensuring your precious game data will be safe no matter what.

The Problem with the EA App

Let this be a warning to you all.

We take the integrity of our game saves for granted, as we should. We entrust Steam to cover our precious data (for all applicable games, of course) for when we switch computers, or when the online cloud servers somehow get caught in a kerfuffle.

Now let us add the complication of a second necessitated launcher on top of the Steam client to run your games. For the most part, it's more a hindrance than a true liability, but the more complications involved in managing your game data, the more likely "something" is gonna make all your hard work go poof as if it never existed. Enter the EA App.

It can't possibly happen to you, right?

What you can do to ensure your peace of mind

Clearly, there is an enormous problem with the EA App mismanaging a few(?) unfortunate individuals into irreversibly losing their data forever and consequently having to start over from scratch. How likely this is certain to occur is unknown, most players are (un)likely to play their games long enough to experience this happening.

The author of this guide, incidentally, is unfortunate enough to lose data for multiple games due to suspected mismanagement of data due to the transition from Origin to EA App. Had I the diligence to manually back up all my saves in anticipation of this, I would still be playing them to this day.

Fortunately for you, it doesn't have to end this way. To ensure the integrity of your game saves, you will have to be your own manager of cloud saves.

Back up your saves!

You should already know how to do this, but most people don't bother. Whether you entrust EA to safeguard your progress is completely up to you, but if you truly value your data you will have to keep up semi-frequent manual saves in case the inevitable happens.

Your mileage may vary.

Assuming a Windows 11 system, go to:

%USER PROFILE% > Documents > Need for Speed Unbound(TM) > SaveGame

Copy the entire SaveGame file, and paste it to a special folder on your computer or hard drive where you can entrust it to be safe. If you are saving multiple saves of the same game, be sure to mark the files with exact dates so you can be sure you can find the one you want. It is wise to do the same for every other game that requires the EA App launcher to run.

SAVE FILE (NOT) FOUND

At this point, you should have a defense for all your precious games should "something" happen to your data that would have forced you to start over. You may lose a couple hours or even days if you fail to religiously update your manually backed saves, but you can be sure that you'll never to have to deal with the loss of beginning from square one.

If there's any questions you may have, errors to be corrected, or unclear wording that have escaped my diligent proofreading, please let me know in the comments.

[NardnotNerd]

yeah it happen on me yesterday

[Swarmfly]

Happened to you too just now, huh?

[NardnotNerd]

this EA app is Sucks

[weeman3825]

I have been diligent about save files since we have had them, always keeping two slots and saving over the oldest one each time, then keeping a backup somewhere since that has been an option, great advice, has saved my butt from more than one corruption. Better to lose a few hours than a whole character/world whatever the case is, everything.

[DARUL]

Great, I lost my save from Hot Pursuit Remastered and Most wanted 2012. I didn't care because I was planning to do it again, but this will be helpful.

[Mikado the Glaceon]

I never had this problem before, but I am now aware of this possibility.

[BerzerkWrath]

I always zip the game data folder for games that i have many playhours or i finished so if i ever want to come back.
But yes, i already lost 2 drives (1 HD and 1 Kingston SSD) in my gaming pcs and all data. Do backups!

[Swarmfly]

The EA Play App's inherent jankiness is likely a chief cause for spontaneous loss of game data.

[Arthur]

Is there any hint at what triggers the saves getting corrupt? 150 hours clocked in here and never had a problem, I just always make sure to quit the game properly instead of using ALT+F4.

[rally]

so wait is it the ea app which has issues or the game, as in if this happens does i lose all my progress in nfs unbound or nfs unbound and heat?