Do we have any more information on the dreaded corrupted save data issue?

[juneau]

It seems to affect a rather small part of the player base, but it's still very nerve-wracking to think my 300+ hours of data could just be corrupted and Nintendo will be like "I dunno". I've seen one person say they were able to get a refund on their game for the issue, but that will not make up for the time a lot of us have sunk into the game at this point.

I'm trying to find more info on this for myself of course, but I also want to get a Switch and this game for my mom for Mother's Day, but I know she will pour her heart into it and it would be heartbreaking if her game ends up affected, so I'd really know if there's any way at all to prevent this. There doesn't seem to be any concrete data or official information though, so I know it'll be hard to know for sure. Some people say it happens when you play online, some people have been affected without playing online. Some people say it's using the (-) button in online play or interfering when the game is saving. Someone said it was every time they entered Timmy and Tommy's tent (so pretty early in game). It seems to affect physical copies and downloaded copies of the game alike. There doesn't seem to be any discernible pattern as far as I can tell. I've seen quite a few people say they will refrain from online play because of this to be safe, but we shouldn't have to do that.

For more on-site information, I was looking at this thread earlier where one of our members here encountered the problem themselves.

What happened!?

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

www.belltreeforums.com

Other info I gathered is from sites like Reddit and other forums, so I dunno if I can post them here.

Am I overthinking this, since it affects a small minority of players? I don't want to be fear mongering but I am a bit worried. What are your thoughts on this, and do you have more information to add? Thank you for reading.

 

[FireNinja1]

I don't really know that much about it. I know it was an issue in New Leaf, but it thankfully only affected a small minority of players. If I were you, I would just play the game normally, and don't do anything that could have the immediate consequence of corrupting save data (e.g. shutting down your console while the game is saving)

 

[Altarium]

I'd just advise being a little extra careful when playing online. Try to avoid mass gatherings and mass hosting sessions, and if you do host, make sure everyone leaves through the airport just to be safe.

 

[Dormire]

I'm one of the translators for most of the Japanese-centered tweets and cases. If you want to know more, I would like you to refer here:

https://www.belltreeforums.com/threads/leaving-quietly-can-wipe-your-save-data.513002/#post-8759617

You may skim through pages for the information. If you have any other questions, feel free to DM me!

Also, additionally, English players are reporting more often on Twitter. Same with the JP ones.

 

[Blueskyy]

Now I’m afraid to do online with others. Can’t even stop quarantine in the game now :/

 

[Dormire]

Now I’m afraid to do online with others. Can’t even stop quarantine in the game now :/

Don't be. This is a very rare and peculiar glitch that needs certain conditions to be met but it will happen more often (and most likely) when joining busy, high-traffic islands and that's mostly on turnip runs. As long as you're mindful and careful, this should not happen to you.

 

[Unserioes]

I'd just advise being a little extra careful when playing online. Try to avoid mass gatherings and mass hosting sessions, and if you do host, make sure everyone leaves through the airport just to be safe.

Can that happen to me as a host?
I always tell everyone to leave via airport but really cant control it always. :/
This whole stuff is making me super anxious haha

 

[Mairen]

One thing I wanted to point out is that corrupt data is something that could potentially happen with any video game. So I don't know if we can yet call it a specific animal crossing new horizons glitch. Right now it seems fairly rare, so I wouldn't want everyone going into a panic thinking that their games are going to get deleted whenever they play with other people online. It's possible, but not common. So caution is always a good thing to have, but panic isn't necessary at this time.

 

[Dormire]

Can that happen to me as a host?
I always tell everyone to leave via airport but really cant control it always. :/
This whole stuff is making me super anxious haha

That is something that's yet to be figured out. From most of the information I've gathered, both English and Japanese, the ones affected are guests players. I don't have a spare switch to test out so I can't provide further information. I do know that this can occur in local multiplayer as reported in the blog post here:

https://note.com/atsumorifashion/n/n2885299d977d

It's best to never test or push your luck if your connection is bad or the distance is too far (in regards to local multiplayer).

 

[Unserioes]

That is something that's yet to be figured out. From most of the information I've gathered, both English and Japanese, the ones affected are guests players. I don't have a spare switch to test out so I can't provide further information. I do know that this can occur in local multiplayer as reported in the blog post here:

https://note.com/atsumorifashion/n/n2885299d977d

It's best to never test or push your luck if your connection is bad or the distance is too far (in regards to local multiplayer).

Oof i just did a meteor shower event for like 4 hours and had a lot of people on my island where the connection completly shut down once, hope nothing happened to my save file :/

 

[Altarium]

Can that happen to me as a host?
I always tell everyone to leave via airport but really cant control it always. :/
This whole stuff is making me super anxious haha

As @Dormire said, most affected people are guests, but a way to help them avoid it is to tell them to leave through the airport ^^

 

[Dormire]

Oof i just did a meteor shower event for like 4 hours and had a lot of people on my island where the connection completly shut down once, hope nothing happened to my save file :/

As a host, this will be my only tip I can provide you: limit your guests to 2~3 people at once. From what I've noticed, the more people, the more chances it could get borked. I can't exactly explain it perfectly but it has to do with the internet connection and also, syncing of save files (multiplayer data has to sync to your local save file and any "desyncs" can potentially ruin the save)

I'm no game dev so my explanation is poorly done. Though, I think this provides a better explanation (a theory but yeah):

(I had the SS on Twitter qvq I should link the org. post if I can find it)

I can assure you Nintendo has been notified. Let's just wait patiently for the patch.

 

[Bcat]

I have to admit: since discovering this glitch I’ve been super anxious about it and I’ve been letting this affect me too much. Last night I tried hosting people for Celeste despite my anxiety and the first guest I had quietly left. I thought that they did it on purpose to troll me and it made me angry, but today I realized that the internet connection probably just went out since I had a friend over today and it happened to us twice.

Hosting guests and traveling to other islands is probably my favorite thing to do in this game, even despite how lackluster the online experience can be, and I’ve kind of decided that I’m not going to let fear and paranoia get to me and I’m going to just keep playing like I’d never even heard of this glitch.

 

[Dormire]

I have to admit: since discovering this glitch I’ve been super anxious about it and I’ve been letting this affect me too much. Last night I tried hosting people for Celeste despite my anxiety and the first guest I had quietly left. I thought that they did it on purpose to troll me and it made me angry, but today I realized that the internet connection probably just went out since I had a friend over today and it happened to us twice.

Hosting guests and traveling to other islands is probably my favorite thing to do in this game, even despite how lackluster the online experience can be, and I’ve kind of decided that I’m not going to let fear and paranoia get to me and I’m going to just keep playing like I’d never even heard of this glitch.

Don't be. Sometimes I feel bad because I mean, I can understand, this is a glitch that's hard to pinpoint the true cause so fear and anxiety is natural when this information is out. Though, for me, I can't imagine to the JP people that had to experience the corruption without being notified. A person posted a video about it and was terribly shaken and traumatized.

I've heard that they were able to recover their save by deleting (the game, not the data) and reinstalling it. Though, physical copy holders might be a bit out of luck.

Thankfully, Nintendo DID promise in a direct to offer a save recovery service in case of data loss in exchange for not being able to provide cloud storage. That's why I hope people who're currently experiencing this would reach out to Nintendo Support if reinstalling the game didn't work.

Everyone can still play with others, just be mindful about the limits the internet connection can do and also to leave via DAL while a patch isn't out yet.