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Lost World and Character


EmAyEx

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Lost World and Character

I was getting ready to hop on ark today and I found out that my character was lost and that when I went to find my base show map player location didn’t work when I normally had it on so then I when the the main menu and I found out that all my settings were set to default (This is for a non dedicated server btw). Then when I went to my main base all my dinos and constructions were gone even though in the menu is says I have saved content. Does anyone know how to fix this issue and recover my long hours of progress.

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4 hours ago, EmAyEx said:

Lost World and Character

I was getting ready to hop on ark today and I found out that my character was lost and that when I went to find my base show map player location didn’t work when I normally had it on so then I when the the main menu and I found out that all my settings were set to default (This is for a non dedicated server btw). Then when I went to my main base all my dinos and constructions were gone even though in the menu is says I have saved content. Does anyone know how to fix this issue and recover my long hours of progress.

So, first, one thing I am gunna mention just because I know I've done it myself a few too many times and scared myself when ARK booted in the wrong resolution. If you have recently removed your Saved folder, make sure you put it back in the correct location. Too many times, I have put it in just SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame instead of SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved. Make sure you haven't made the same mistake as I did there, it's an easy one to overlook. :) 

If that's not what happened?

Sounds like some form of data wipe honestly. It will say you have data, since you loaded into that map- not necessarily your previous data though.

I would check your Saved folder. See if any auto backups are there. SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved

Provided you do have a lot of hours, ARK will.. hopefully.. have made at least a few automatic backups, which may help with debugging, and recovery if you have no manual backups. About how many hours do you have? (If you have a LOT of hours and no backups, it probably means there's been a total data wipe. Unfortunately they are unreliable, so it's hard to say for sure if there will even be one, let alone how recent it may be). 

Every map has a separate save folder, called 'RagnarokSavedArksLocal' or 'Aberration_PSavedArksLocal', etc. Some variant of that. Check the folder of whichever one you're playing on. There will be a file called [Mapname].ark in a similar fashion to the save folders themselves. Additionally, you will- Hopefully- find more files like that, but with a string of numbers in the name as well. That's the data and time it was created; and renaming them to just [mapname].ark will make them the save file the game loads. But for now, just check for their presence. It's also worth checking the 'created' date of any files. You could also check the config in the INI files. Have a look, and see what's there. If any of the files have very old creation dates, if what it says in the INI files doesn't match what ARK is displaying, or you do indeed have auto-backups, my guess is ARK is just not reading your save data for some reason. And if that's the case, let me know and we can try and go from there.

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21 hours ago, TheEclipseee said:

So, first, one thing I am gunna mention just because I know I've done it myself a few too many times and scared myself when ARK booted in the wrong resolution. If you have recently removed your Saved folder, make sure you put it back in the correct location. Too many times, I have put it in just SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame instead of SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved. Make sure you haven't made the same mistake as I did there, it's an easy one to overlook. :) 

If that's not what happened?

Sounds like some form of data wipe honestly. It will say you have data, since you loaded into that map- not necessarily your previous data though.

I would check your Saved folder. See if any auto backups are there. SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved

Provided you do have a lot of hours, ARK will.. hopefully.. have made at least a few automatic backups, which may help with debugging, and recovery if you have no manual backups. About how many hours do you have? (If you have a LOT of hours and no backups, it probably means there's been a total data wipe. Unfortunately they are unreliable, so it's hard to say for sure if there will even be one, let alone how recent it may be). 

Every map has a separate save folder, called 'RagnarokSavedArksLocal' or 'Aberration_PSavedArksLocal', etc. Some variant of that. Check the folder of whichever one you're playing on. There will be a file called [Mapname].ark in a similar fashion to the save folders themselves. Additionally, you will- Hopefully- find more files like that, but with a string of numbers in the name as well. That's the data and time it was created; and renaming them to just [mapname].ark will make them the save file the game loads. But for now, just check for their presence. It's also worth checking the 'created' date of any files. You could also check the config in the INI files. Have a look, and see what's there. If any of the files have very old creation dates, if what it says in the INI files doesn't match what ARK is displaying, or you do indeed have auto-backups, my guess is ARK is just not reading your save data for some reason. And if that's the case, let me know and we can try and go from there.

Hey man thanks for all the input much appreciated, I will send you files of photos I have took of what’s in my folder (saved arkslocal) I’m not sure if it’s a problem if it didn’t have the island on the folder name but I’m sure it’s fine because that’s the only server I play on. Also as for the player I’ve looked up videos and tutorials on how to recover it but none of them have seemed to work. So hopefully these images will give you enough information on what problem we are dealing with. Thanks again for the support 

 

 

 

95B214D6-C1E1-4D68-A6A1-01F87CC9CC39.jpeg

7B64131F-5314-45FE-B6BE-41D658E26B8E.jpeg

AF64F783-42F7-4B27-B67F-01EEE66CABCA.jpeg

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53 minutes ago, EmAyEx said:

Hey man thanks for all the input much appreciated, I will send you files of photos I have took of what’s in my folder (saved arkslocal) I’m not sure if it’s a problem if it didn’t have the island on the folder name but I’m sure it’s fine because that’s the only server I play on. Also as for the player I’ve looked up videos and tutorials on how to recover it but none of them have seemed to work. So hopefully these images will give you enough information on what problem we are dealing with. Thanks again for the support 

Hm, so.. that's concerning. Also curious it's already made two backups, but they're only very recent ones. And yep, SavedArksLocal is Island (my bad for not mentioning it specifically, since it's the exception to the naming rule I sent!:,) )

Would you happen to have poked around in there at all, remember if there ever used to be more of those .ark files than there are now? And if not, about how many hours do you have (that being, long enough that at least some should exist?) Because if so, while I've known ARK to wipe current save files, I've never had it delete auto-backups. So maybe it's looking in the wrong location or something. Have you recently moved it to a different drive? Do you have multiple steam libraries? 

The other thing I can think of is that you're just unlucky and there are no backups; and it's wiped your current save. I actually had this happen once before. It was a long time ago (usually, whenever I'm forced to go from a backup myself, it's because I've found myself crashing upon loading, rather than a total data wipe) so my memory may be a little off. But what I believe happened- and this was all speculation after the fact- I think when I was quitting - saving- my computer lost power, shut itself down, or just plain crashed at some point (I run ARK on a laptop, and had shut the screen and was moving the laptop while ARK was quitting). And upon opening my computer up later and booting ARK, I discovered everything in my current save was gone (Again, I think. It was over a year ago, so.) However, I fortunately had both ARK's auto-backups remaining plus a manual one.

Point being- If you've had any form of recent forced shutdown, power cut, or honestly even a disconnected cable to your drive (particularly if it's external) while it's saving, I think that it can corrupt saves, so ARK can't read it and just creates a fresh one. Have you had anything like that happen recently?

And if that's the case.. Unless Steam does something with backups, or maybe you have, idk, an automatic drive backup or something, that you can pull a past version your save from, there's not really anything you can do aside from cheat yourself replacement stuff, or just start fresh.

So let's hope it's the former; ARK is just looking in the wrong location for some reason. As aforementioned; any recent changes to your steam library at all?

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16 minutes ago, TheEclipseee said:

Hm, so.. that's concerning. Also curious it's already made two backups, but they're only very recent ones. And yep, SavedArksLocal is Island (my bad for not mentioning it specifically, since it's the exception to the naming rule I sent!:,) )

Would you happen to have poked around in there at all, remember if there ever used to be more of those .ark files than there are now? And if not, about how many hours do you have (that being, long enough that at least some should exist?) Because if so, while I've known ARK to wipe current save files, I've never had it delete auto-backups. So maybe it's looking in the wrong location or something. Have you recently moved it to a different drive? Do you have multiple steam libraries? 

The other thing I can think of is that you're just unlucky and there are no backups; and it's wiped your current save. I actually had this happen once before. It was a long time ago (usually, whenever I'm forced to go from a backup myself, it's because I've found myself crashing upon loading, rather than a total data wipe) so my memory may be a little off. But what I believe happened- and this was all speculation after the fact- I think when I was quitting - saving- my computer lost power, shut itself down, or just plain crashed at some point (I run ARK on a laptop, and had shut the screen and was moving the laptop while ARK was quitting). And upon opening my computer up later and booting ARK, I discovered everything was gone (Again, I think. It was over a year ago.)

Point being- If you've had any form of recent forced shutdown, power cut, or honestly even a disconnected cable to your drive (particularly if it's external) while it's saving, I think that it can corrupt saves, so ARK can't read it and just creates a fresh one. Have you had anything like that happen recently?

And if that's the case.. Unless Steam does something with backups, or maybe you have, idk, an automatic drive backup or something, that you can pull a past version your save from, there's not really anything you can do aside from cheat yourself replacement stuff, or just start fresh.

So let's hope it's the former; ARK is just looking in the wrong location for some reason. As aforementioned; any recent changes to your steam library at all?

Yes I do have multiple steam libraries this is due to ark being a large file so I downloaded it on to my hard drive whilst my other library is on my ssd. But no other from looking at that folder to see the ark files no I haven’t deleted or changed anything from the photo.

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13 minutes ago, EmAyEx said:

Yes I do have multiple steam libraries this is due to ark being a large file so I downloaded it on to my hard drive whilst my other library is on my ssd. But no other from looking at that folder to see the ark files no I haven’t deleted or changed anything from the photo.

If it's been running fine off your current setup for a long while- with no recent changes at all, to ARK's location, to where your store your Steam libraries- then.. that leaves it being corrupted. I still find the absence of any old auto-backups odd- corruption still feels unlikely- but maybe ARK just really didn't want to make any, with how inconsistent it is.

But it's worth trying every method of file-finding you can, no matter how far a shot they are. First. it's worth checking under the same directory on your other Steam library. Then, in the recycle bin. And then finally, mass searching on both drives, in your Documents, etc, things like 'SavedArksLocal', 'TheIsland', 'Localprofiles', 'PlayerLocalData'- Any similar keywords. And fingers crossed, something comes up.

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9 hours ago, TheEclipseee said:

If it's been running fine off your current setup for a long while- with no recent changes at all, to ARK's location, to where your store your Steam libraries- then.. that leaves it being corrupted. I still find the absence of any old auto-backups odd- corruption still feels unlikely- but maybe ARK just really didn't want to make any, with how inconsistent it is.

But it's worth trying every method of file-finding you can, no matter how far a shot they are. First. it's worth checking under the same directory on your other Steam library. Then, in the recycle bin. And then finally, mass searching on both drives, in your Documents, etc, things like 'SavedArksLocal', 'TheIsland', 'Localprofiles', 'PlayerLocalData'- Any similar keywords. And fingers crossed, something comes up.

Yes I will get started tomorrow as soon as I can. Just wondering what exact keyword would I be using, just wanting to make sure so I don’t look for the wrong file.

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59 minutes ago, EmAyEx said:

Yes I will get started tomorrow as soon as I can. Just wondering what exact keyword would I be using, just wanting to make sure so I don’t look for the wrong file.

Just try all the ones I suggested- since I'm not entirely sure what all the names of the games files have. Island would possibly bring up some unrelevant results, but it's still worth checking. In regards to finding the wrong files- just look specifically for .ark and .arkprofile. Most of the game files themselves are .UASSET, so steer clear of those.

Good luck!! Hope you can find them somewhere.:)

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11 hours ago, TheEclipseee said:

Just try all the ones I suggested- since I'm not entirely sure what all the names of the games files have. Island would possibly bring up some unrelevant results, but it's still worth checking. In regards to finding the wrong files- just look specifically for .ark and .arkprofile. Most of the game files themselves are .UASSET, so steer clear of those.

Good luck!! Hope you can find them somewhere.:)

Hey man just went through all my files and got nothing thanks for all the help though I’m just going to restart a fresh and cheat my way through.

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