# What happened!?



## Psicat (May 3, 2020)

Try to load up my game today and I get this message.


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## Jam86 (May 3, 2020)

oh no :0
have you been visiting islands and using the minus button to leave? 
i heard that could corrupt the save


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## Raz (May 3, 2020)

Oh my... This is terrifying :/

Did something unusual happen during your last session?


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## Clock (May 3, 2020)

Unfortunately your save is corrupted, I'm not an expert, but there may be a solution to fix it, not sure if this is true. Sorry to hear that!


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## ForgottenT (May 3, 2020)

Yikes that's awful :/
What did you do last? Did you close the game mid autosave?


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## Krissi2197 (May 3, 2020)

I don't think there's a solution to this without resetting... I'm so sorry.

Do you remember doing anything weird before turning your game off? Did it turn off in the middle of an autosave? Did you try to leave with the "-" button or did someone else try to leave with the "-" button while visiting an island?


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## Psicat (May 3, 2020)

I visited my nephews island this weekend that's it. Yesterday it was running a little slow.  Saving and quitting took a while last night, but I did wait for it to finish like always before I turned it off.


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## Krissi2197 (May 3, 2020)

Psicat said:


> I visited my nephews island this weekend that's it. Yesterday it was running a little slow.  Saving and quitting took a while last night, but I did wait for it to finish like always before I turned it off.


What do you mean running a little slow? Just the saving/quitting part?

I notice when I'm not connected to the internet, launching the game/quitting the game takes a LOT longer. Were you connected to the internet at the time it was saving slowly?

	Post automatically merged: May 3, 2020

OH, before I forget, make sure to check for corrupted data!









						Nintendo Support
					






					www.nintendo.com.au
				




Hopefully something is found with this tool and can be salvaged ;;


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## Dormire (May 3, 2020)

Psicat said:


> I visited my nephews island this weekend that's it. Yesterday it was running a little slow.  Saving and quitting took a while last night, but I did wait for it to finish like always before I turned it off.


I've warned people on Twitter about it. You might be one of ENG players who have this issue (that has proof of).


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1251948018976215040
I suggest you follow Krissi's advice and contact Nintendo Support about it. They did promise to offer a save restoration in exchange for not supporting cloud saves. Please, try it.


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## Altarium (May 3, 2020)

Dormire said:


> I've warned people on Twitter about it. You might be one of ENG players who have this issue (that has proof of).
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1251948018976215040
> I suggest you follow Krissi's advice and contact Nintendo Support about it. They did promise to offer a save restoration in exchange for not supporting cloud saves. Please, try it.


Oh my god... this is much worse than any of the villager glitches, hopefully this can be fixed soon, this is absolutely gamebreaking and NEEDS to be addressed and fixed.

Sorry it happened to you, OP 

Please everyone, be careful when trading and if you're hosting I'd make leaving through the airport mandatory if they want to come (hard to control but it's worth a shot, it's to everyone's benefit)


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## Miyukki (May 3, 2020)

If you own two Switches you can try transferring your data to the other console! 
I don't think there's any other way to recover corrupted data ;;


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## Krissi2197 (May 3, 2020)

Miyukki said:


> If you own two Switches you can try transferring your data to the other console!
> I don't think there's any other way to recover corrupted data ;;


Unfortunately this won't work because you can't transfer ACNH data to another switch normally. I doubt it'd allow you to transfer corrupted data.


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## Dormire (May 3, 2020)

Altarium said:


> Oh my god... this is much worse than any of the villager glitches, hopefully this can be fixed soon
> 
> Sorry it happened to you, OP
> 
> Please everyone, be careful when trading and if you're hosting I'd make leaving through the airport mandatory if they want to come (hard to control but it's worth a shot, it's to everyone's benefit)


Yeah. I've only gone to press "-" if I'm the only one in the island but I make sure I go through DAL if I'm with more people other than myself.

The JP AC fanbase is already in high tension when the first wave of save data corruption happened. Most cases that were reported had to do with multiple people in a host's island (i.e someone with bad connection throwing everyone out). It's unfortunate but I hope Nintendo did consider.

Found the original TBT thread regarding this issue: https://www.belltreeforums.com/threads/leaving-quietly-can-wipe-your-save-data.513002/#post-8759783


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## Psicat (May 3, 2020)

Krissi2197 said:


> What do you mean running a little slow? Just the saving/quitting part?
> 
> I notice when I'm not connected to the internet, launching the game/quitting the game takes a LOT longer. Were you connected to the internet at the time it was saving slowly?



Not quite sure. I always have my wifi active at home, but last night loading took longer than usual, and saving took a lot longer as well.



Dormire said:


> I've warned people on Twitter about it. You might be one of ENG players who have this issue (that has proof of).



I believe my nephew has his game and system set to Spanish while mine is in English and he booted me out of the game after we where done, but other than that no problems arose.


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## Khaelis (May 3, 2020)

Dormire said:


> Yeah. I've only gone to press "-" if I'm the only one in the island but I make sure I go through DAL if I'm with more people other than myself.
> 
> The JP AC fanbase is already in high tension when the first wave of save data corruption happened. Most cases that were reported had to do with multiple people in a host's island (i.e someone with bad connection throwing everyone out). It's unfortunate but I hope Nintendo did consider.
> 
> Found the original TBT thread regarding this issue: https://www.belltreeforums.com/threads/leaving-quietly-can-wipe-your-save-data.513002/#post-8759783



Honestly, this is why I don't really want to do online with anyone. My internet is very... unstable at times.


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## Fridaynightcatlady (May 3, 2020)

I’m sorry this happened to you. It’s unreal we don’t have cloud saves.


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## Raz (May 3, 2020)

Once more, a company tries to stop hacking/exploits/piracy with a measure that not only proves it's not capable of doing it's intended work, it also proves to be harmful to those who are playing legit/with an original copy of the game.

It's been happening for quite a while and the truth is, none of these companies care about it. For them it's acceptable if a small part of their userbase experience these problems if they think their measures are needed and good enough.

PC gamers may know the struggle caused by the Denuvo DRM system. It does more harm than good, doesn't stop piracy and just makes people who legitimately bough the game feel miserable.


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## Mairen (May 3, 2020)

Ugh, the most horrible thing to see for any animal crossing fan. I am truly sorry that this happened to you. I've experienced that slow saving occurrence myself, and I wasn't even playing online with anyone. It was a few nights ago when I was finishing playing for the day and after quitting, I almost thought it got stuck on the saving screen to be honest. I think it was "saving" for several minutes before it finally finished.


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## Khaelis (May 3, 2020)

Mairen said:


> Ugh, the most horrible thing to see for any animal crossing fan. I am truly sorry that this happened to you. I've experienced that slow saving occurrence myself, and I wasn't even playing online with anyone. It was a few nights ago when I was finishing playing for the day and after quitting, I almost thought it got stuck on the saving screen to be honest. I think it was "saving" for several minutes before it finally finished.



Had something similar happen while going for a DIY recipe. Was host, myself and one other user. Other user left with the minus button and me and the host got stuck on the saving screen for about a minute and a half. Worst part was, the villager stopped crafting and I missed out on the DIY. We both got off free there, but what if? Me and the host were pretty upset.


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## Meowria (May 3, 2020)

That's actually very scary. I'm just starting to now start with online stuff. It's making me very hesitant to allow people onto my island now in case my save gets messed up. Hopefully everyone goes directly through DODO airlines to leave and not use "-"  button.

Also. I hope things like this wake Nintendo up and realize that they way they set this up does not work. Hopefully they can fix all of this, and prevent it from happening in the future.


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## Dormire (May 3, 2020)

Psicat said:


> Not quite sure. I always have my wifi active at home, but last night loading took longer than usual, and saving took a lot longer as well.
> 
> 
> 
> I believe my nephew has his game and system set to Spanish while mine is in English and he booted me out of the game after we where done, but other than that no problems arose.


 Yes. While there was no problem, the game received half-corrupted, half-OK of your save file. While you managed to stay in the game, rebooting it failed it to load. I believe the data done in multiplayer is downloaded rather than being stored in RAM. If one internet hiccup happens, there's a chance it could corrupt while saving midway. Well, that's my theory anyways. Also, this game is reliant on auto-saving. Auto-saving is very notorious with damaging save files (i.e *Fire Emblem Three Houses' issue with the autosave feature*)

This was bound to happen.



Khaelis said:


> Honestly, this is why I don't really want to do online with anyone. My internet is very... unstable at times.



Agreed but, it's no fun if you can't be with other players. I think so ayways.


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## ViolinShapedObject (May 3, 2020)

Supposedly, if you have a digital copy of the game (but I'm not sure if it was saved on the SD card or to the console's internal memory), if you delete the software – not the save – and redownload it, this could restore the data. I'll see if I can find some accounts of this, but YMMV unfortunately. Hope you are able to restore your save!


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## Raz (May 3, 2020)

Mairen said:


> Ugh, the most horrible thing to see for any animal crossing fan. I am truly sorry that this happened to you. I've experienced that slow saving occurrence myself, and I wasn't even playing online with anyone. It was a few nights ago when I was finishing playing for the day and after quitting, I almost thought it got stuck on the saving screen to be honest. I think it was "saving" for several minutes before it finally finished.


I was stuck on a black screen when I was landing on someone's island the other day. After the game showed the aerial view, with the airplane arriving, it cut to the transition screen/loading screen, but instead of showing the little airplane in the corner of the screen (like it always does when it's loading), the screen was just black. It was stuck for like 5 minutes, and I decided to take a gamble and close the game. Fortunately, nothing bad happened, but in that moment, I feared that I would lose my save.


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## Mairen (May 3, 2020)

Meowria said:


> That's actually very scary. I'm just starting to now start with online stuff. It's making me very hesitant to allow people onto my island now in case my save gets messed up. Hopefully everyone goes directly through DODO airlines to leave and not use "-"  button.
> 
> Also. I hope things like this wake Nintendo up and realize that they way they set this up does not work. Hopefully they can fix all of this, and prevent it from happening in the future.



Unless they start receiving a huge backlash from fans regarding this, I sadly don't think they are going to change the way they handle saves. Hopefully corrupt data is only a few rare occurrences among us, but even so, it makes me terribly sad even to see this happening to others.


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## Fridaynightcatlady (May 3, 2020)

Op, if you restart, let us know if you need any help restsrting your island (materials, crafting, etc)


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## Raz (May 3, 2020)

Dormire said:


> Yes. While there was no problem, the game received half-corrupted, half-OK of your save file. While you managed to stay in the game, rebooting it failed it to load. I believe the data done in multiplayer is downloaded rather than being stored in RAM. If one internet hiccup happens, there's a chance it could corrupt while saving midway. Well, that's my theory anyways. Also, this game is reliant on auto-saving. Auto-saving is very notorious with damaging save files (i.e *Fire Emblem Three Houses' issue with the autosave feature*)
> 
> This was bound to happen.
> 
> ...


This is why online games with auto-save should run ONLY on servers and not rely on P2P connections. If one or more players have a connection problem, nothing is lost, because they would have their save file intact on their system, the server would have a copy of that save file and a backup of that file in case something happens. 

But Nintendo is still in the Stone age when it comes to online gaming, and this is the sad truth. And it begs the question of why do we have to pay for that online service, since they aren't offering an online service at all.

	Post automatically merged: May 3, 2020



Mairen said:


> Unless they start receiving a huge backlash from fans regarding this, I sadly don't think they are going to change the way they handle saves. Hopefully corrupt data is only a few rare occurrences among us, but even so, it makes me terribly sad even to see this happening to others.


Knowing how Nintendo has been dealing with issues like this, it's pretty hard to believe they will retract their decision and change their stance on this.


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## Dormire (May 3, 2020)

Raz said:


> This is why online games with auto-save should run ONLY on servers and not rely on P2P connections. If one or more players have a connection problem, nothing is lost, because they would have their save file intact on their system, the server would have a copy of that save file and a backup of that file in case something happens.
> 
> But Nintendo is still in the Stone age when it comes to online gaming, and this is the sad truth. And it begs the question of why do we have to pay for that online service, since they aren't offering an online service at all.


Agreed. Nintendo needs some better advisers regarding online multiplayer. The games they make are always a treat but when multiplayer comes to play they could barely manage at all. In fact, New Leaf had better control with this. It's mind-boggling.

I feel bad for OP but we should use this chance to rally with the JP community with this, the larger the voices, the easier it is to convince them. I might report this to Nintendo Support if OP allows it. I've been gathering data on Twitter regarding these cases and so far the trigger seems to be islands hosting a lot of people (same with JP cases). I can't exactly come up a solid theory other than the one I presented but I feel it's odd that data corruption tends to be more severe in high-traffic islands. I have yet to ask if OP was the only one in their cousin's island. I'm now curious.

Also, someone did contact Nintendo Support a month ago but they're so clueless about what's going on.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1251069181136523264
Translation
I summarized a few points but this is how the reply generally went when the user inquired (starting from top to bottom):


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## SarahSays (May 3, 2020)

OP please let me know if you need any help getting back on your feet. I would be happy to donate. Sending you lots of patience and good vibes. Could be a good opportunity to fix any regrets from your first go-around!


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## Underneath The Stars (May 3, 2020)

omg what is happening this is sooo awful.... i'm so sorry this had to happen!


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## Megina (May 3, 2020)

If you end up having to restart, I'd be happy to bring over some extra Hybrid Flowers and some Bells for you.
I could also scramble together some extra DIY Recipes.


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## Dormire (May 3, 2020)

I also have a TON of fossils and DIY so, feel free to hit me up as well if you need any help. I think you might need to test the waters with Nintendo trying to save your file though! We'd like to know if they were serious about the "save data recovery" offer they presented in the direct. If they can't, tell us!


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## Psicat (May 3, 2020)

Thanks for the offer of help.  I'll probably take the rest of the day to try and contact Nintendo  support on the off chance something can be done and probably get over the loss.  I'll probably start a new island tomorrow.


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## DaviddivaD (May 3, 2020)

EVERY game on the Switch should support cloud save backups. This is ridiculous.


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## Hikari (May 3, 2020)

Psicat said:


> Thanks for the offer of help.  I'll probably take the rest of the day to try and contact Nintendo  support on the off chance something can be done and probably get over the loss.  I'll probably start a new island tomorrow.



if you need help getting your previous villagers, feel free to ask me! I have most of the amiibo cards in my collection, so I can get most of them for you via the amiibo method


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## Orieii (May 3, 2020)

Dormire said:


> I've warned people on Twitter about it. You might be one of ENG players who have this issue (that has proof of).
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1251948018976215040
> I suggest you follow Krissi's advice and contact Nintendo Support about it. They did promise to offer a save restoration in exchange for not supporting cloud saves. Please, try it.


Wow, I didn't know this  Thank you so much for sharing this info! 

So sorry that this happened to you Psicat  Hopefully something can be salvaged!


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## Khaelis (May 3, 2020)

DaviddivaD said:


> EVERY game on the Switch should support cloud save backups. This is ridiculous.



As much as I am happy to support Nintendo... having to pay for a feature that's hardly being utilized is a massive slap in the face, even for me.

I can understand SOME games not support it, like Splatoon 2 since it has competitive ranked aspects... but Animal Crossing? Come on.


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## SCORPA15 (May 3, 2020)

OP I have quite a few diy recipes that I can give to you when you restart your new island.


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## Dormire (May 3, 2020)

Orieii said:


> Wow, I didn't know this  Thank you so much for sharing this info!
> 
> So sorry that this happened to you Psicat ☹❤ Hopefully something can be salvaged!


No problem! I'm glad I could help.

I've been an avid gatherer of information in hopes to protect my trading partners and I when exchanging villagers but truly, it's better to share this information to everyone since it does benefit the whole fanbase. I've been translating important notes and PSAs from both ENG and JP community. I hope this avoids any turnip runs (or any multi-session trading) from being ruined any further. I tend to withdraw if the host tends to accept more than 3 guests. If it goes more than that I get extremely worried for my save file (since Nintendo didn't even address this situation at all!) it's risky to do online multiplayer in high-traffic islands (or just not leaving via DAL in general.)


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## Raz (May 3, 2020)

Dormire said:


> No problem! I'm glad I could help.
> 
> I've been an avid gatherer of information in hopes to protect my trading partners and I when exchanging villagers but truly, it's better to share this information to everyone since it does benefit the whole fanbase. I've been translating important notes and PSAs from both ENG and JP community. I hope this avoids any turnip runs (or any multi-session trading) from being ruined any further. I tend to withdraw if the host tends to accept more than 3 guests. If it goes more than that I get extremely worried for my save file (since Nintendo didn't even address this situation at all!) it's risky to do online multiplayer in high-traffic islands (or just not leaving via DAL in general.)


I'll be honest, I will refrain from both visiting and opening my island for visitors from now on. I already have a decent amount of bells and I don't need to get a few more millions of bells through the online stalk market. If I need money, I can simply make low investments offline and take losses if needed. 

It sucks because I love the idea of helping other people, normally visiting/hosting and giving them gifts. But I will play safe and I'll use the friends list to send people gifts by mail. 

I was planning on opening my island and offering tours (even dressed as a guide haha) just like I did yesterday with @SirBadger, but I can't risk my save file and others' doing that. 

It hurts people who wants to catalog items and host for DIYs, but it is what it is. Nintendo has put us in a situation where I honestly don't feel comfortable using one of the game's main features. I play AC to unwind and relax, real life already makes my anxiety levels bad enough. I don't want to associate AC with that kind of feeling and I'm willing to take the steps necessary to avoid that happening.


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## Lady Timpani (May 3, 2020)

Oof yeah this is kind of putting me off playing online with others. :/ It’s especially frustrating after paying for it.

@Psicat idk what you’ve done since this post but I saw a post on reddit a couple days ago where a user’s girlfriend called him in a panic because she’d gotten this same screen. She actually wound up totally closing out of the game via the home menu, and when she reopened it, her town was on the loading screen again. The user speculated that maybe you should try that instead of going through with the rebuild process immediately, as it apparently autosaves when you start the character customization? Which means you’ll never get your original island back. It’s very anecdotal but worth a shot, I think.

I’m sorry about what happened.


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## Fluuffy (May 3, 2020)

This is freaking me out. I had several island visits yesterday that ended with my internet connection being cut. There was even 2 where my screen was stuck at the other persons island while they that it saved on their end. My heart’s just pounding so hard right now. I’m so scared and I’m really sorry to see this happen to you OP. Thank you for also notifying us of your situation. We really need to get the word out for this. The more people know the more people angry at nintendo.


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## morthael (May 3, 2020)

this absolutely blows op, i’m sorry 
before you restart your island, you might have a chance to recover your save data! here’s a screenshot i took that someone suggested ended up working for them with their corrupt save.


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## Blue Triangles (May 3, 2020)

Wow, Nintendo are doing their very best to encourage online social distancing.


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## Psicat (May 4, 2020)

Lady Timpani said:


> Oof yeah this is kind of putting me off playing online with others. :/ It’s especially frustrating after paying for it.
> 
> @Psicat idk what you’ve done since this post but I saw a post on reddit a couple days ago where a user’s girlfriend called him in a panic because she’d gotten this same screen. She actually wound up totally closing out of the game via the home menu, and when she reopened it, her town was on the loading screen again. The user speculated that maybe you should try that instead of going through with the rebuild process immediately, as it apparently autosaves when you start the character customization? Which means you’ll never get your original island back. It’s very anecdotal but worth a shot, I think.
> 
> I’m sorry about what happened.


OK now I wish I'd seen this message earlier, but of course I come back online an hour after I transfer my files to a different SD card and finally wipe my save data.  I'm going to crawl into bed and try forget about today now.  I'll reset my town tomorrow.

	Post automatically merged: May 4, 2020



Hikari said:


> if you need help getting your previous villagers, feel free to ask me! I have most of the amiibo cards in my collection, so I can get most of them for you via the amiibo method


Thanks.  I have a few amiibo of my favorites at least.  I will miss Ankha, but maybe  I'll try to take the opportunity and reset until I start with Dom or Reneigh since I never did run into any of the new villagers on Nook islands last time


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## Blueskyy (May 6, 2020)

I’m so sorry this happened wow. I guess now I will be socially distancing for a while on AC too :/


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## xara (May 7, 2020)

omg. i’m literally so sorry wth


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