ASA Survivor Lost on Non-Dedicated Server (PS5)

[vChief]

Me and my friends have this non-dedicated server on ASA that I host that we used to play everyday with no issues for 2-3 weeks when the game first came out, then took around a one month break from the game only to come back to the screen prompting one of my friends to "Create A New Survivor." We tried loading his survivor from the load option but there was nothing, we tried restarting consoles, closing app and waiting multiple hours but still the same screen prompting him to create a new survivor. Is this a local file issue due to the fact it's a non-dedicated server I host or? Is this related to the character transer glitch going around in offical servers? If it is my friend doesn't even know how to transfer a character nor has he ever attemped to transfer a character.

*We've been using mods the entire time with little to no issues gameplay wise and they are all up to date every time we've got on the world

*We've played official/public servers maybe three or four times collectively and none of us have attempted to transfer a character