Unexplainable issue I am having on console (xbox one)

[Sylviaboy34]

First let me apologize if this type of post isn't appropriate under general discussion -- I'm new to posting on the forums.

My wife and I have been playing ark for a couple years now, and we recently decided we were going to try to play through all the official maps in order. As a bit of background, we rent private servers from Nitrado. Also, we play on two different Xbox Ones but I often am the one who switches between the two Xboxs ( I usually play on the one we have in the bedroom if we play together, and play on the one in the living room when I'm grinding resources and such ). 

Now to the problem at hand. I was hoping to unlock all explorer notes/dossiers as well as we went. Recently, I signed on to play and noticed all of my explorer notes/dossiers were wiped! I went out to "find" a couple of them again and realized something strange. I noticed that when I go to an explorer note/dossier that I previously found, the note will be closed but I can see the floating letters for the note (for example, it will say "dire wolf dossier" or similar when I approach the note instead of having "???"). Also, the note will open and no XP buff will be granted if I walk over the note. Additionally, I noticed that my specimen implant has been reset; we have currently defeated the brood mother and megapithecus on alpha and the dragon on gamma, but my character's implant does not reflect this. In fact, my character's implant does not show any of the bosses being defeated (my wife's shows alpha megapithecus and brood mother, but not the dragon - I don't know why lol). Lastly, the mini-map has been reset. 

I -think- the issue may be because the consoles are not sync-ing my progress when I alternate on the two systems, but it doesn't appear to be happening all the time. I had tried to replicate this ( go back and find a few notes, sign off on the xbox I was using, sign into the other xbox and log in ) but it doesn't reset the progress. 

PS: I realize I could use console commands to unlock all explorer notes or load in the relevant skins, but I wanted to see if anyone has had this issue because at this point, it is a matter of pride that I can't figure out the exact reason why. 

[Pipinghot]

2 hours ago, Sylviaboy34 said:

I -think- the issue may be because the consoles are not sync-ing my progress when I alternate on the two systems, but it doesn't appear to be happening all the time. I had tried to replicate this ( go back and find a few notes, sign off on the xbox I was using, sign into the other xbox and log in ) but it doesn't reset the progress. 

PS: I realize I could use console commands to unlock all explorer notes or load in the relevant skins, but I wanted to see if anyone has had this issue because at this point, it is a matter of pride that I can't figure out the exact reason why. 

This sounds more like a server-side issue, like your character profile file stored on the server has gotten corrupted somehow.

Although, come to think of it, there is one local file that could be having or causing a problem. I'm not sure where ARK gets installed on XBox, but if you navigate to the following directory:

..\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved\LocalProfiles

there is a file:

PlayerLocalData.arkprofile

I'm pretty sure this is the file that gets sync'd with a server whenever you're on it.

 

My suggestion would be to make a backup of this file on both consoles, delete the copy from this directory on both consoles, and then log on using either one them. If the problem is that one of your local copies is corrupted this should fix things, if it doesn't fix things then I'm thinking it means your server copy is corrupted.

[wizard03]

8 hours ago, Sylviaboy34 said:

First let me apologize if this type of post isn't appropriate under general discussion -- I'm new to posting on the forums.

My wife and I have been playing ark for a couple years now, and we recently decided we were going to try to play through all the official maps in order. As a bit of background, we rent private servers from Nitrado. Also, we play on two different Xbox Ones but I often am the one who switches between the two Xboxs ( I usually play on the one we have in the bedroom if we play together, and play on the one in the living room when I'm grinding resources and such ). 

Now to the problem at hand. I was hoping to unlock all explorer notes/dossiers as well as we went. Recently, I signed on to play and noticed all of my explorer notes/dossiers were wiped! I went out to "find" a couple of them again and realized something strange. I noticed that when I go to an explorer note/dossier that I previously found, the note will be closed but I can see the floating letters for the note (for example, it will say "dire wolf dossier" or similar when I approach the note instead of having "???"). Also, the note will open and no XP buff will be granted if I walk over the note. Additionally, I noticed that my specimen implant has been reset; we have currently defeated the brood mother and megapithecus on alpha and the dragon on gamma, but my character's implant does not reflect this. In fact, my character's implant does not show any of the bosses being defeated (my wife's shows alpha megapithecus and brood mother, but not the dragon - I don't know why lol). Lastly, the mini-map has been reset. 

I -think- the issue may be because the consoles are not sync-ing my progress when I alternate on the two systems, but it doesn't appear to be happening all the time. I had tried to replicate this ( go back and find a few notes, sign off on the xbox I was using, sign into the other xbox and log in ) but it doesn't reset the progress. 

PS: I realize I could use console commands to unlock all explorer notes or load in the relevant skins, but I wanted to see if anyone has had this issue because at this point, it is a matter of pride that I can't figure out the exact reason why. 

Nope, its perfectly fine. Whenever there is an issue, its a good idea to start here.

Sadly we only have one xbox here, but I have tried to start new characters, and I ran into this issue as well....New character, new play through, but all the explorer notes was allreay open, and no exp boost.
The problem is the game remembers things on the profile you play on, which is also connected to your online profile. And on the console you play on.

Now as how to fix it, sadly I do not have an answer you are probably interested in. The solution to my end was to delete everything.....Literally everything. I had to delete my map info, ark data, restart from scratch. However this also ment I lost all my dinos and structures. {I didn't know this is what would happen the first time I did it, and as such you can imagine my dismay when I realized what I had truely done.....Worse off, I had tried to do it "just" for the island, I didn't know I had lost all my data for SE, aberration, and the center as well. x.x

But it reset the notes.

Id strongly suggest against it, I mean you are going to go back through everything again? If so, just go for it to replace the implant upgrades and while it may take longer to level up, its not impossible. Ontop of that, if you constantly have a chibi equipped, your going to get those extra 5 levels without even thinking about it.

[Sylviaboy34]

19 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

This sounds more like a server-side issue, like your character profile file stored on the server has gotten corrupted somehow.

Although, come to think of it, there is one local file that could be having or causing a problem. I'm not sure where ARK gets installed on XBox, but if you navigate to the following directory:

..\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved\LocalProfiles

there is a file:

PlayerLocalData.arkprofile

I'm pretty sure this is the file that gets sync'd with a server whenever you're on it.

 

My suggestion would be to make a backup of this file on both consoles, delete the copy from this directory on both consoles, and then log on using either one them. If the problem is that one of your local copies is corrupted this should fix things, if it doesn't fix things then I'm thinking it means your server copy is corrupted.

I'll look into these files in the xbox and see what the worst case scenario is if I were to somehow mess this up (avid believer in Murphy's law). I have external drive(s) as well, so I could always back it up to the external, disconnect it, delete, and copy it over if need be. Simple enough. I didn't really consider it being a server-side issue, but that kind of makes sense to me as well. I may try to reach out to Nitrado and see if they have any record of this happening with other players and if there was a resolution. 

13 hours ago, wizard03 said:

Nope, its perfectly fine. Whenever there is an issue, its a good idea to start here.

Sadly we only have one xbox here, but I have tried to start new characters, and I ran into this issue as well....New character, new play through, but all the explorer notes was allreay open, and no exp boost.
The problem is the game remembers things on the profile you play on, which is also connected to your online profile. And on the console you play on.

Now as how to fix it, sadly I do not have an answer you are probably interested in. The solution to my end was to delete everything.....Literally everything. I had to delete my map info, ark data, restart from scratch. However this also ment I lost all my dinos and structures. {I didn't know this is what would happen the first time I did it, and as such you can imagine my dismay when I realized what I had truely done.....Worse off, I had tried to do it "just" for the island, I didn't know I had lost all my data for SE, aberration, and the center as well. x.x

But it reset the notes.

Id strongly suggest against it, I mean you are going to go back through everything again? If so, just go for it to replace the implant upgrades and while it may take longer to level up, its not impossible. Ontop of that, if you constantly have a chibi equipped, your going to get those extra 5 levels without even thinking about it.

Yeah, I was afraid that if the issue was related to my gamertag progress being tracked that would be the solution. I absolutely won't go through that if that is the case -- I am more than content to just play the game and shrug at the fact that the implant won't keep track of what bosses were killed/upgrade itself and that I'll never "keep" all the explorer notes/dossiers unlocked. 

 

I appreciate both of your answers. I'll try reaching out to Nitrado, looking into the worst-case scenario for if I manage to mess up the PlayerLocalData.arkprofile file, and consider backing that file up, deleting it, and restoring it. Like I said, this is more of a quality-of-life thing for me. I enjoy just playing the game with my wife, but it annoys me that I don't know what the issue is lol. I'll post any results I get. 

[wizard03]

5 hours ago, Sylviaboy34 said:

I appreciate both of your answers. I'll try reaching out to Nitrado, looking into the worst-case scenario for if I manage to mess up the PlayerLocalData.arkprofile file, and consider backing that file up, deleting it, and restoring it. Like I said, this is more of a quality-of-life thing for me. I enjoy just playing the game with my wife, but it annoys me that I don't know what the issue is lol. I'll post any results I get. 

No problem......Welcome to ark, here is a bug