I may have found a solution to corrupt save data...

[jPottie]

Hey there, first here is a detailed overview of what occured with my town and the process I tried that so far has saved it from data corruption. Skip down for a quick summary of the process.

So I've had my copy of ACNL since 2013. I've restarted many times, and in all this time I've never received the notorious "Save data is corrupted and will be deleted" message, until tonight.

My current town I've only had since September 5th of this year. It doesn't sound like much but I love it and it is my favorite town so far, and I've already accomplished a lot (nearly complete encyclopedias, lots of island medals, a few badges, etc.). I don't TT, I don't hack, and I always save and wait until it's done to close.

So tonight when I logged in after the bug off I was shocked to see the data is corrupt message. It had the choice "yes" to delete or "no", so I selected no and tried to log in again. Same message. So I repeated this process a few times - all still getting the data is corrupt message.

Then, I decided that instead of logging in, I'd make a new save file (my mayor was the only character). It let me create a character, and I placed a house down, and saved with it. Afterwards, I tried logging in with the new character, and it let me. So I saved and quit, and tried my mayor. I could log in!

So I tested this a few times: I logged out of my mayor, and logged back in - success. I then logged into my mayor and closed without saving (as a test and to get the Resetti PWP, I figured why not), and then I deleted my newly created character as well and tried logging into the mayor again. I got the did not save message and Resetti, but I was able to log in. So I tried it again, saved and quit, and logged back in again - it worked.

So in summary... if you get the data is corrupt message, try creating a new character to see if this fixes the situation. This has all happened within the last hour so I have no clue if it will corrupt again or not... but as of right now my town is safe.

I have no clue why this happened (do any of you?) and I hope it won't happen again (does anyone have any preventive measures?), but this trick has worked as of right now. Anyone else have any ideas on this/care to comment?

Quick steps for fixing corrupt data based on what I did:
1) After trying to load town and given the data is corrupt message, you're brought to the loading screen again with "Data is corrupt, delete data now? Yes or no"
2) Select no and you should be brought back to the title/loading screen again
3)Instead of loading your main character, select "new save file" and begin the process of making a new character for your town (this of course requires you to have at least one free spot for a character to move in; 3 or less playable characters)
4) Go through the process, place a house, and save your data on your new Character, and save & quit
5)Try loading the new character to see if it works, and then try loading your mayor file to see if it works
6) If your Mayor is then able to log in, your data should be saved, and you should be free to delete the spare character!

I hope this process works, it worked for me and I have no further information on whether this was a special/isolated case or if this is a genuine workaround - if others end up getting this message and try this, please share your results here!

 

[Miii]

Oh wow this is really good to know. I've never gotten a corrupt save file and I have 4 characters. Let's hope it doesn't happen to me xD

 

[pika62221]

Huh, sounds promising, but to start a new data file, don't you need that text box to open to be able to choose it, same one that has the "continue" option?

 

[Awesomeness1230]

AHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSS FINALLY A SOLOUTION TO TOWN CORRUPTION YESSSS!

 

[Elin1O]

Oh wow, nice! And great explanation too, good job!

 

[Bowie]

This could actually be really important information, if it works for other people. I've seen a lot of people post here about how upset they are that they've lost their towns and stuff. This should be pinned.

 

[LinkToTheWorld]

That's an incredibly helpful post
From what I've seen sometimes that option to create a new save doesn't always come up, but for those that do have that option this will be a lifesaver. Nice one

 

[namiieco]

bump up ~

- - - Post Merge - - -

if anyoen has a spare town that they dont use of dont care for the town could anyone try this?

 

[visibleghost]

bump up ~

- - - Post Merge - - -

if anyoen has a spare town that they dont use of dont care for the town could anyone try this?

how would they make their town corrupt jusr like that tho lol

 

[Charcolor]

how would they make their town corrupt jusr like that tho lol

i think turning off the game while saving might corrupt the game but i don't know if it's safe for the device itself.

anyway this is very helpful to know! thanks for posting!!!

 

[namiieco]

i think turning off the game while saving might corrupt the game but i don't know if it's safe for the device itself.

anyway this is very helpful to know! thanks for posting!!!

im pretty sure it is safe

 

[Altarium]

This post needs to be bumped to death, this is incredibly helpful

 

[jPottie]

Huh, sounds promising, but to start a new data file, don't you need that text box to open to be able to choose it, same one that has the "continue" option?

Well in my case, when I logged onto the game and selected continue and chose my mayors file, Isabelle popped up with her speech, but as it was loading it then gave the corrupt message and all I could press was a. Then it brought me back to the opening screen with the message "data is corrupted and will be deleted: yes or no", so I chose no. And after choosing no, I could select from the options to continue again or not. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to create a new file as that was still an option.

Also as an update: it's the next day and everything is working fine so far, as if it never happened. Here's hoping it never does again!

 

[pika62221]

Well in my case, when I logged onto the game and selected continue and chose my mayors file, Isabelle popped up with her speech, but as it was loading it then gave the corrupt message and all I could press was a. Then it brought me back to the opening screen with the message "data is corrupted and will be deleted: yes or no", so I chose no. And after choosing no, I could select from the options to continue again or not. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to create a new file as that was still an option.

Also as an update: it's the next day and everything is working fine so far, as if it never happened. Here's hoping it never does again!

Wait, you got the message AFTER you saw Isabelle??? I've seen videos people have uploaded, and the red bar popped up on the start saying it was corrupted, and gave the yes/no answer (person was desperate for help, but all the comments were basically saying they were screwed). In the video Isabelle never appeared. Someone who's gone through corruption needs to confirm that the text box does appear, because if it doesn't you won't get the option to select a new file.

 

[jPottie]

Wait, you got the message AFTER you saw Isabelle??? I've seen videos people have uploaded, and the red bar popped up on the start saying it was corrupted, and gave the yes/no answer (person was desperate for help, but all the comments were basically saying they were screwed). In the video Isabelle never appeared. Someone who's gone through corruption needs to confirm that the text box does appear, because if it doesn't you won't get the option to select a new file.

Yes in my case I could log in, Isabelle appeared with her speech, but instead of loading the town the data message popped up and brought me back to try main screen and gave me the yes no option. After choosing no I could attempt to log in to my mayor again (repeating the same process) or create a new file/move in/update data etc.

 

[Corrie]

I hope I never get a corrupted game message but this is GREAT news in case that day comes! Thank you SO much!! Bless you!!

 

[Ethanlucky16]

(I know this is an old conversation but) My sisters copy of acnl corrupted in December we did everything we could but we had to delete it.. 2 months later corrupted again! And then we deleted. When she decided to play again she proceeded with her file Isabelle starts talking it starts loading the after 2 seconds it says "Unable to load game data
Your game will exit now." She pressed A it brings her to the title screen she pressed A and it says "The save data is corrupted!
Delete corrupted data now?" She presses No. We rebooted the console and selected "New save file" and after we could save we proceeded to do so it said "Saving complete see you soon!" But then we log back in (with both files) Isabelle once again starts talking and once again it says "Unable to read game data
Your game will exit now." Ok so this time we are fed up and we say yes to deleting the save data and it hasn't corrupted since... (This is a physical copy)