darkSpyro

My save became corrupted 5 days ago, and I really miss playing!

I contacted Activision, but have not yet received any help.

In my case, the game appears to load, but, online or off, as soon as it tries to save, it crashes.
I know others have complained of the same problem and many others have had their game reset.

I would love to hear from people who have been through this and are now playing again, more-or-less picking up where they left off.

How long did it take?
Did you seek support through their Facebook site? Here? Elsewhere?
Was there particular information that was helpful for Activision to get you up and running again?

My issue was escalated over a week ago and I'm still waiting on a response. I called Activision directly an spoke to someone in real time.

I went through this a couple of hours after I updated. I think the corrupted save occurred case of visiting friends islands, after visiting a few friends I would get kicked backed to my island, or the game would crash.

I called activision for help, but they weren't able to really help me. Luckily I do play on several devices, one of the devices (iPhone) had a uncorrupted local save. I used that device (iPhone) and saved the game to the clouds. That overwrote the corrupted game, and I was able to play again. I did lose a couple days of progress, but at least I didn't have to start at zero. Alternatively, if you backup your device on a computer, you may have a copy of your uncorrupted game there.

My advice would be to take pictures of your game, skylanders, gems, wishing stones, kudos, companions, storage and islands to document the progress you made. Then contact activision and let them know what happened -- they maybe able to help you with finding an uncorrupted save or at least some compensation (gems? maybe) to speed up your game.

This is what I was told by activision --
If the issue does happen again, we will definitely be able to help out. There are a couple steps that we would want you to contact us in order to take, but we would need the email that the Activate email is a associated with, a general outline of your progress before the issue, and if possible some screen shots of your purchase history of all the gems you have bought, and a general number of how much you have spent on those as well.

I had logged onto Activision's forums and reported the problem on October 4th. After going back and forth for a few days, someone there said they "escalated" it, whatever that means. This was on Octber 10th. Today, I logged onto the game and there was a save choice from Activision. It seems to have fixed my problem! So, thanks Activision, and thanks to all my in game friends who didn't drop me. I'm back in the gifting business, baby! Good luck getting your game back. I lost mine for almost three weeks.

Yes, my game was reset I was devastated, reported it here and on facebook, I thought it was all gone forever then about 6 days later I tried again and had a save option come up and I was able to get my game back with only a day or 2 progress missing, it was like a miracle.

Thank you all for the responses.

Pico - Good luck, I hope you are back to playing soon!

Snowknife - I am happy to hear you had a workable backup. I only play on the one device, so, unfortunately, have no other saves. I did just take screen shots of everything. Good advice.

Bjornolf and SkylanderBunny - Fantastic news! I knew from other posts that you were both having problems, so I am very happy to hear you are both up and playing again. Gives me hope for my island too.

Strange that you had to login to the game to find the save option instead of them contacting you to let you know. Good to know though.

I have not recovered. Activision contacts me every 24-48 hours and dangles hope but its been a week now and the hope seems to be fading. The Dark Swap Force I had on preorder just showed up but my enthusiasm is quickly fading. I haven't even opened yet because I honestly enjoyed Lost Islands more than the Wii versions of the game. Its not cool to be reset to zero...

Quote: mcquist5

I have not recovered. Activision contacts me every 24-48 hours and dangles hope but its been a week now and the hope seems to be fading. The Dark Swap Force I had on preorder just showed up but my enthusiasm is quickly fading. I haven't even opened yet because I honestly enjoyed Lost Islands more than the Wii versions of the game. Its not cool to be reset to zero...

Sorry to hear you are still stuck too. It should be encouraging that Activision is still contacting you though. I got the initial "What level were you at and how much real world money did you spend?" response after the first 24 hours or so, but nothing since.

I know exactly what you mean about Lost Islands being more fun than other versions of the game. I too have purchased figures because I wanted them on my Island - being able to play with them on the XBox games was secondary.

Hi Arkham,

I just visited your kingdom, level 38. All seems well. Hope this bodes well for you!

I have to say I'm bummed that the majority of threads lately have been about crashed games, bugs, etc. I sincerely hope that Activision gets everyone back on track and fixes the underlying issues quickly.

Quote: midas73

I have to say I'm bummed that the majority of threads lately have been about crashed games, bugs, etc. I sincerely hope that Activision gets everyone back on track and fixes the underlying issues quickly.

I think the time frame for 'quickly' passed a while ago. At this point I think the best we can hope for is 'reasonably soon' or maybe 'in the not-so-distant future'.

I'll take "quickly, starting right now".

Nice to hear people can still visit me!

I am still hopeful that I'll be able to play again. "quickly, starting right now" would make me very happy, but I'll take "in the not-so-distant future" too.

Quote: bjornolf

I had logged onto Activision's forums and reported the problem on October 4th. After going back and forth for a few days, someone there said they "escalated" it, whatever that means. This was on Octber 10th. Today, I logged onto the game and there was a save choice from Activision. It seems to have fixed my problem! So, thanks Activision, and thanks to all my in game friends who didn't drop me. I'm back in the gifting business, baby! Good luck getting your game back. I lost mine for almost three weeks.

I'm glad you're back, I read about your problem days ago and I still keep on my list.

My island still crashes every time it tries to save, but previously it also crashed when trying to view my list of friends.

I just tried it today, and I can now see my list of friends and open and send gifts. Not that opening does me any good at the moment, since the increase isn't saved, but I am hoping that the sending is working correctly.

Can any of my friends confirm getting a gift today?

If so, I'll make sure to keep sending.

Yes, I got your gift today, and it was in my color too!!

Are you hard closing the app? A lot of the crashing problems resolve when you do a hard close.

If the game opens for you, stop trying to save to the cloud and STOP VISITING.

If its not obvious by now visiting is causing big problems. 3 kudos is not worth the risk of corrupt game that people are taking on by visiting.

Quote: arkhamhorrorfan

My island still crashes every time it tries to save, but previously it also crashed when trying to view my list of friends.

I just tried it today, and I can now see my list of friends and open and send gifts. Not that opening does me any good at the moment, since the increase isn't saved, but I am hoping that the sending is working correctly.

Can any of my friends confirm getting a gift today?

If so, I'll make sure to keep sending.

I got your gift today too.

I do also believe that my problems were caused by visiting.

About 2 weeks ago, I bought Batterson, then, as soon as I tried to visit my first friend, it crashed. And then the game would not start. Simply crashed on start-up. Killing the process made no difference. But, after a number of hours, it did start properly and seemed just fine.

Took a few days off from visiting, but then, foolishly, tried again. It was actually quite successful - very few returns to my island with errors, and no crashes. But then, after visiting for about 1/2 an hour, it crashed (on my island) when I clicked on the friends list, and has been crashing every since.

I tried a simple close and re-open.
I tried killing the process then re-opening.
I tried killing the process, doing a hard re-boot of the iPad, then re-opening.
I tried killing the process, deleting the app, doing a hard re-boot of the iPad, reinstalling the app, then reconnecting to my activate account.

All have been the same. Island looks great, then crashes when it tries to save.

Hi,

I have a similar problem. Since I updated to 1.7, I am unable to launch the game.

I tried the same methods than arkhamhorrorfan and the only "good results" I had is a game launched but at the early begining, with the tutorial. When I connect to activate, It is said that a problem has occured when loading my islands and has been transmitted to Activision.

Can anyone who accepted me as a friend can visit my island ?

If is very frustating to be unable to play, and it should be VERY frustating if I loose one year of hard work.

Quote: arkhamhorrorfan

My island still crashes every time it tries to save, but previously it also crashed when trying to view my list of friends.

I just tried it today, and I can now see my list of friends and open and send gifts. Not that opening does me any good at the moment, since the increase isn't saved, but I am hoping that the sending is working correctly.

Can any of my friends confirm getting a gift today?

If so, I'll make sure to keep sending.

arkham, I have received gifts from you 2 times this week (2 consecutive days). I have been reading in the forum about your problem, when I saw your gifts, I thought your game had been fixed.

Thanks for your gifts, I send you every day, I hope at least, that you receive that.

My problem has now been escalated with Activision, so I'm hoping that means I'll be playing again soon.

I'll keep gifting in the meantime.

Don't hold your breath. I've been escalated for two weeks

Quote: mcquist5

I have not recovered. Activision contacts me every 24-48 hours and dangles hope but its been a week now and the hope seems to be fading. The Dark Swap Force I had on preorder just showed up but my enthusiasm is quickly fading. I haven't even opened yet because I honestly enjoyed Lost Islands more than the Wii versions of the game. Its not cool to be reset to zero...

I just came here to read after you - I saw in the game that you're on level 1. I'm sorry to hear what happened

Have a activate?

Quote: Pico

Don't hold your breath. I've been escalated for two weeks

Pico, I thought they were going to get you set up with gems to rebuild? Have they not given up on your file yet (or is it just silent)?

They are attempting to restore. They recommended I start pulling together information in the event I have to start over. I'm giving them until Wednesday and then I am going to start pushing the point to give me gems so I can play again.

Pico, metazine, and mcquist5, I hope you get playing again soon!

I keep telling myself it's just a game, but I miss it.

When they escalated me, the person I was talking with said something like "this is a very common problem". That gave me hope that the developers had figured out how to fix it and it would be quick, but maybe it simply means there are a lot of others ahead of me in line waiting to get fixed first. Time will tell.

Quote: Pico

They are attempting to restore. They recommended I start pulling together information in the event I have to start over. I'm giving them until Wednesday and then I am going to start pushing the point to give me gems so I can play again.

Again, is it really too much to ask that the developer keep a backup of the cloud saves it has forced all players to use prior to each major update? I thought one of the benefits of having a local device save AND a cloud save was that there'd be less chance of losing everything. And yet the app's recent shortcomings have seen a large number players' games flushed down the toilet.

I really cannot believe how unstable this game as become.

If it were not for the fact I play on 2 devices (which acts as a third save point: 2 devices plus cloud), I would definately be in the ranks of the corrupted. On many occasions my local has corrupted and my cloud was a level zero game. I had to go to my other device and force a save to the cloud in order to be able to be able to recover the first device.

In fact this happened just this morning. I did a save from my ipad to the cloud so I could reload to my iphone before I left for work. But then when I open the game on my phone, it is a level 1 game and asking for my birthday. I had to go back to the ipad and repeat the whole sequence in order to fix.

The corrupted cloud saves are so common that every time I switch devices I have to check. It happens at least every other day. And frankly, sometimes it takes several rounds to get a good save to the cloud. I am starting to suspect that manual save does not work. I have even tried forcing a save via a single wish stone and that does not work. I am not sure how to force a save to the cloud anymore - not anyway that works 100%.

If you don't have two devices, you really are blissfully unaware how common corrupt icloud saves are.

I only have one device and have yet to have an issue. I do find that it resets every once in a while, but I go through the steps of starting a new game, then go to Activate and re-login and it's fine. I'm not sure if it's still doing local saves, although it sure is taking a lot of space on my phone (512 M compared to the size of the game listed in the app store.

But you are seeing problems: the resets. You are just lucky to only have a problem with your local save while your cloud save is fine. It simply takes a reset and a cloud problem at the same time and you are wiped out.

Since you are seeing resets and you have no idea if your cloud save is or is not corrupt, you really should be just as concerned as the rest of us.

I think I just got bad news. I was asked to provide screen shots of all my in game purchases. I'm guessing I will be told my game can't be saved very shortly.

I was at level 38 and they told me they found a level 22 save that they might be able to recover. They are also willing to throw in some gems. One of the many frustrating parts about this is the 3-5 days in between each communication. It doesn't seem like this process needs to drag on for 4 weeks.

Dang. I don't think I keep the e-mail receipts when I make in-app purchases. I hope you did...

Pico - Are you talking about purchases that you paid real money for? If that's the case, can you login to ITunes to get a proof of purchase?

Quote: mcquist5

I was at level 38 and they told me they found a level 22 save that they might be able to recover. They are also willing to throw in some gems. One of the many frustrating parts about this is the 3-5 days in between each communication. It doesn't seem like this process needs to drag on for 4 weeks.

I wonder if the gems are to replace the lost 16 levels of progress, or to make up for the four weeks of lost progress while you twiddled your thumbs. Here's a question for those of you with corrupt saves. Would you recommend this app to your friends?

I think I would still recommend the game but I would urge them not to spend any money on it. I got really wrapped up in it and spent money on several characters, then again, those were all for my kids, right?! I also dropped a few bucks on gems. Had my game not crashed, I was satisfied with my spending as it was very little when you consider I had 8 months of enjoyment out of it. Having it all wiped out and spending the last 4 weeks with spotty communication has sucked all the joy from it. I have already bought Swap Force for my kids and I want them to have fun with it but I am certain that fun will be limited to far less new characters than they had with Giants. Its very frustrating waiting around for days, then getting a email which dangles some hope and has a question it. I will answer the question within 12 hours and then I am stuck waiting again for days.

The only time I have any communication with Activision is when I phone. I was told on Friday that the problem was being escalated and I would receive an e-mail within 24 hours letting me know the status. It's now Tuesday, and I have not received an e-mail yet.

Would I recommend the game? I certain have in the past, but no, I wouldn't now. Too many people are experiencing problems. Skylanders disappearing that have to be re-acquired, missing companions, and corrupted games are all serious issues that need to be addressed before I'll recommend again. Things like discrepancies between Activate Friends and In Game Friends or frequent returns to your island during visiting with a polite error message are annoying, but not fatal.

At level 38 and they have found a level 22 save that they *might* be able to recover?! That's a lot of progress. You mention gems being offered. But what about items that are no longer available? What about Alter Egos and Character Specific Houses that you had? Even if they give you a bucket of gems, the items need to be available before you can rebuild.

My level 22 was found (keep in mind, I was at 38 before the crash). When I first opened it, I only had 22 skylanders but the devs must have opened up a bunch of them because they were listed as "claim" which was an unexpected bonus. After all of that, the only ones I was missing were the Alter Egos, Mini's, Polar Whirlwind, Royal Pop Fizz, and the new ones from Swap Force which is better thank expected. I was also given a ton of gems for my headache, allowing me to rebuild. Unfortunately, many items are currently unavaialbe (e.g., Skylander Houses) but when they come back, I will be able to get them. Now its the long process of rebuilding. At level 22, I only have 3 islands and I do not even have enough gold (unless I can bring myself to convert gems to gold) to buy another island. Bummer! But at least I am back!

Glad to hear you're back, mcquist5 - and that you're sounding positive about it!

The rebuilding doesn't sound too bad, but no longer having any of the Alter Egos or the houses would take away a lot of the fun for me. Having the gems is only useful if the items are also available to buy. Hopefully, if enough people are in this same situation, they will have a big special weekend with everything available.

Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years in the next 75 days; I gotta imagine there will be a sale or two.

Quote: mcquist5

My level 22 was found (keep in mind, I was at 38 before the crash). When I first opened it, I only had 22 skylanders but the devs must have opened up a bunch of them because they were listed as "claim" which was an unexpected bonus. After all of that, the only ones I was missing were the Alter Egos, Mini's, Polar Whirlwind, Royal Pop Fizz, and the new ones from Swap Force which is better thank expected. I was also given a ton of gems for my headache, allowing me to rebuild. Unfortunately, many items are currently unavaialbe (e.g., Skylander Houses) but when they come back, I will be able to get them. Now its the long process of rebuilding. At level 22, I only have 3 islands and I do not even have enough gold (unless I can bring myself to convert gems to gold) to buy another island. Bummer! But at least I am back!

Not that anyone would normally be deranged enough to want to, but I suppose if speed is important to you, you could spend some of those gems to buy gold. You'd probably be the first to ever do it.

Woz - if you thought buying gold was delusional, you are will probably flip when you here what else I did. I had 5 wishstones which did not net me Skeletal Cynder so I had two options: buy her for 1500 or take a gamble at 10 gems per wish. I took the gamble and dropped 1600 gems in the wishing well!! No one in their right mind would ever do that but o seem to be a little flush in gems.

Quote: mcquist5

Woz - if you thought buying gold was delusional, you are will probably flip when you here what else I did. I had 5 wishstones which did not net me Skeletal Cynder so I had two options: buy her for 1500 or take a gamble at 10 gems per wish. I took the gamble and dropped 1600 gems in the wishing well!! No one in their right mind would ever do that but o seem to be a little flush in gems.

50 per cent off all sidekicks isn't a bad place to start...

Quote: mcquist5

Woz - if you thought buying gold was delusional, you are will probably flip when you here what else I did. I had 5 wishstones which did not net me Skeletal Cynder so I had two options: buy her for 1500 or take a gamble at 10 gems per wish. I took the gamble and dropped 1600 gems in the wishing well!! No one in their right mind would ever do that but o seem to be a little flush in gems.

Wow!! Glad to hear you got her, but yes, 1600 gems in the wishing well does indeed sound a little crazy. Nice to hear you're having fun with the game again.

Never said they got her.

Quote: bjornolf

Never said they got her.

Ooh. Good point. Mcquist5 - please tell me that you did get her!

I'm reading all this and it's scary. How do you do a local save??

After 1600 gems in the wishing well, I did in deed get her.