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[toddhunter]

This. This. This. This. This.

Almost. You get your save back, but not necessarily all your choices.

I had issues between all episodes, but ep 2-3 was fine.

I settled for close enough.

 

[Milamber]

Played ep 1 & 2 a while ago. Saved the guy but got the girl. WTF!?

Ep 3 seemed to take my saves from 2 but i kinda stopped halfway there.

 

[sixghost]

So do you need to make backups as you go, or do you just wait until it fails and then copy the file over to fix it?

The fix I found involved deleting the prefs.prop file in the SteamApps folder or just moving it somewhere else, rather than copying over the one from My Documents. It sounds like they both work.

 

[SoulClap]

So do you need to make backups as you go, or do you just wait until it fails and then copy the file over to fix it?

Backups won't be necessary. You just need to copy over the file from 'My Documents' before any load.

The fix I found involved deleting the prefs.prop file in the SteamApps folder or just moving it somewhere else, rather than copying over the one from My Documents. It sounds like they both work.

Nice. I gotta try that.

 

[Inanna]

if copying over pref.prop file doesn't work try THIS method, worked perfectly for me!

So I was able to recover my save-files after I had a similar problem like the threadposter. The fix takes about 5 minutes.

What happened: Game crashed while it was starting up and when I restarted the game after the crash the game had no savefiles of my last gamesession. However, the savefiles were still present in users/my documents/telltale/The Walking dead. The game just did not recognise these files.

What to do:

1. Check if your 'lost' saves are still in your savesfolder (users/my documents/telltale/The Walking dead).
2. Take a backup of this folder.
3. Locate the savefile you want to 'unf**k'. Do this by checking the time of creation. The order the names of the savefiles suggest are not always correct. Take care to at least backup this save. Then delete the whole The walking Dead folder. The game will create a new, empty one if you start it.
4. Start the game and play long enough to have at least one savefile created. Playing until you wake up after the car crash should do.
5. Close the game and download SKTimeStamp (http://code.google.com/p/stexbar/downloads/list). Install the program.
6. Now locate your NEW savefile. Again, check the creation time. DO NOT think the higher the number in the name, the newer the file is. Right click it and select properties. Select the tab Timestamps. Now do the same with the old savefile that you wish to reinstate. Now change the three timestamps of your old savefile to the exact same values as your new savefile. Click 'apply'
7. Now name your old savefile exactly as the new one. (i.e. Save_2, if your new savefile was named Save_2). Delete your new savefile and replace it with your old, now named exactly the same, savefile.
8. start the game and get Lee killed.

Edit: It seems the situation is slightly different when this happens across different episodes. Some fine sleuthing from McHitman47 later in this thread delivered the solution:

THE SAVE FILE YOU WANT TO RESURRECT HAS TO BE PUT OVER ANOTHER SAVE FILE FROM ---THE SAME EPISODE---

For ex. you finished the first two episodes, and you finally want to start the third one and you get your saves deleted ?

You do all this holy man told us to do but just don't start from the first episode, start the second one, change the dates and all that good stuff and replace it with your save from the second episode.

Replacing a save from the 1st episode with a save from the 2nd or 3rd freezes the game completely.

 

[Dingotech]

This has been an issue since Episode 2 was released.
They've had 3 more episodes to fix this shit up, it's unacceptable really.

We shouldn't have to delete and copy and stuff around with save files to get this game to work...

 

[Neiteio]

Is the Steam sale daily deal on this right now for all five episodes?

 

[dragonlife]

Is the Steam sale daily deal on this right now for all five episodes?

Yes.

 

[sixghost]

Is the Steam sale daily deal on this right now for all five episodes?

It's the same price on Amazon DD, and you get a $5 credit for Jan 2013. I wonder if the save problem wouldn't exist if you were just playing the game outside of steam.

 

[edotherocket]

I couldn't find a general discussion/non spoiler thread for The Walking Dead so I guess this is as good as any.

I booted up the game to play Episode 5 on the 360 and it loaded to the very start of the game in Episode 1 and autosaved there. Am I completely fucked and have no choice but to start again or is there some sort of work around?

Dammit. I had been bug free up to this point.

 

[archnemesis]

My save games are fine, but I've had a handful of graphical bugs and the last Steam achievement didn't unlock for me last night. Overall it's perfectly playable.

 

[Blablurn]

i couldnt run this game for about a month. i tried a lot but everytime i went back to it my save file was not there (even though it was still int he folder). the game just didnt read it. i was fucking frustrated. then, one day i decided to delete it. and instead of saving it in folder D:, i installed it to C:.

and after 12 hours of play time, i just finished it. no problems, nothing. maybe it was because of the directory? idon't know. but it seems like it.

 

[tci]

Hmm. I was thinking of buying this today. I guess I will have to skip it until this issue have been fixed.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

I've only had the game a few hours and my save is already messed up. I started episode 2 and the recap video is showing different choices than what I made. I'll try the workaround with copying the file over from My Documents.

Edit: Nope, didn't help.

 

[Messofanego]

I haven't had an issue, sorry to see others do.

 

[ArjanN]

I haven't had an issue, sorry to see others do.

Same here, I could see that savegame bug ruining it for you if you do have it.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

I ended up replaying the second half of episode 1, and then followed the instructions here. http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37049

If that post is accurate, in this case I needed to copy the prefs.prof file from the steam folder into my documents, not the other way around. Which way you need to copy the file will depend on the type of problem you're experiencing though.

 

[so1337]

I think I'm just gonna play Episode 4 again since that seems to be the one where the game deleted the progress for some reason.

 

[Haunted]

Aside from a reproducable hard lock, losing your saves in a choice-driven story like TWD is basically the worst thing that could happen.

For all the praise the game gets, this seems to be a real issue that's not fixable for everyone. Add to that the reports from 360 and PS3 saves disappearing/getting corrupted and it's something Telltale should definitely have top men working on.

 

[Cartman86]

God dammit I just started episode 4 on 360 and it loaded into episode 1 and apparently made a save immediately. Way to kill the love I was feeling for this game.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Try several fixes, nothing worked. Fuck you, Telltale.

 

[pestul]

To be clear, having just purchased all 5 eps on Steam and never having played it, should I just start it normal and not worry about the save issue? Is this something for people who already had eps and were playing? This sounds really fucked up.

 

[Haunted]

To be clear, having just purchased all 5 eps on Steam and never having played it, should I just start it normal and not worry about the save issue? Is this something for people who already had eps and were playing? This sounds really fucked up.

Most of the problems seem to have come from updating (and the game overwriting files). So if it's all in one place, it should work just fine.

 

[Kade]

Yeah, the save problems shouldn't be much of a problem anymore since the Season is done and there won't be any major additions.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

To be clear, having just purchased all 5 eps on Steam and never having played it, should I just start it normal and not worry about the save issue? Is this something for people who already had eps and were playing? This sounds really fucked up.

I just bought all 5 episodes in the steam sale yesterday and have already had my save corrupted.

 

[dk_]

Yeah, the save problems shouldn't be much of a problem anymore since the Season is done and there won't be any major additions.

What if season 2 tries to use the savegames of episodes 1?

 

[so1337]

Played Episode 4 again (with the exact same choices) and now it says "Coming Soon" on the start screen for episode 5. This is ridiculous.

 

[Klendathu Club Owner]

So I bought it and everything went fine up to the beginning of Episode 3. The game crashed just before a major reveal and now the savepoint says I'm at the beginning of Episode 2.
What the fuck?!
Is there anyway to fix this?

With all the money Telltale's making with this maybe they could hire some more programmers to make sure their games don't run like ass.

It's a shame that an experience as good as this is diminished by technical stuff.

 

[R1CHO]

I had this problem twice... starting episode 2 and now starting episode 4... wtf telltale, just use the fucking steam cloud thing.

 

[Klendathu Club Owner]

Here might be a solution for the save bugs.

It didn't work for me though. I'd have to replay all of it.... Great.

EDIT: Okay, I started it again. And now I got a different save bug that won't let me start Episode 3. It just says that Episode 3 is "coming soon".
Amazing experience.

 

[AwakenedCloud]

Hey, this is a long shot, but does anyone know where save files are located for the MAC version of the game? I'm away from my Steam PC and all I have access to right now is a MAC and I want to see if my save data from the PC ver is compatible with the MAC one.

 

[Klendathu Club Owner]

Hey, this is a long shot, but does anyone know where save files are located for the MAC version of the game? I'm away from my Steam PC and all I have access to right now is a MAC and I want to see if my save data from the PC ver is compatible with the MAC one.

According to this post the prefs.prop files are stored in:

/Users/YOURNAME/Library/Application Support/Telltale Games/TheWalkingDead/prefs.prop

/Users/YOURNAME/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/the walking dead/TheWalkingDead.app/Contents/Resources/Pack/default/prefs.prop

Keep in mind that according to the linked post everything is saved within the prefs.prop file. You don't seem to need the individual save files.

 

[so1337]

So, is it safe to assume that they're not gonna fix this in the near future?

Replaying the game from the start is not a desirable proposition (I'd have to play Episode 4 a third time) but it sure as hells beats having the game generate random story decisions that I didn't make.

There's no other way of saying it: This fucking sucks. I'm extremly frustrated with Tell Tale's inability to make the game's most compelling feature work. It's shameful.

 

[Klendathu Club Owner]

So, is it safe to assume that they're not gonna fix this in the near future?

Looking at the support section in Telltale's forum I doubt they'll fix it. They don't seem to care since it's not happening for everyone (and because they already got the money). The only help I've seen so far has come from customers.

This is especially lazy considering that the problem doesn't seem that complex: A customer figured out the problem.

It seems that in my computer, game use two "prefs.prop" file. One on "Pack\default" and one in "Documents\Telltale Games\The Walking Dead" next to save games.
We must know that the game don't use save games as a way to find out where we are in game. Saving slots and even stats are in "prefs.prop" not in save-games.
So all of our problems such as not knowing save games and not moving decisions between episodes,etc are problems of "prefs.prop" file, not save games.

The problem of game is that it save and read "prefs.prop" in different locations (In my case two place. And i think it must be same for most of peoples). So when it saves "prefs.prop" to one place and later want to read it from another place it read older one. or even worse, if cant read other one because there isn't one (In some particular situations it will make game to show black screen. Otherwise it will create missing file or try other one.).

Here is what game do:
"Documents\Telltale Games\The Walking Dead"
Update when: Saving game (checkpoints)
Read when: Moving decisions to new episode
In other word: Read and write by in-game code

"Pack\default"
Update when: Opening game menu + Ending an episode + Saving options + Closing game
Read when: by menu, from when you open your game to when want to select your save slot and so on until opening of actual game
In other word: Read and write by game menu
If not available: If file was not already there, then it will use "Documents\Telltale Games\The Walking Dead" one. But when game create it for first time then game will use it as first option. This is why we don't have any problem until end of episode one.

So the problems mostly seem to come from the game not updating both prefs.prop files at the same time (and using two prefs.prop files to begin with). I'm not a programmer, but that shouldn't be that big of a problem...

There's no other way of saying it: This fucking sucks. I'm extremly frustrated with Tell Tale's inability to make the game's most compelling feature work. It's shameful.

Yep, last Telltalte game I've bought if their support won't change.
I read about the bugs before but I didn't think it would be that bad.

 

[Winnie the Pimp]

So, is it safe to assume that they're not gonna fix this in the near future?

Replaying the game from the start is not a desirable proposition (I'd have to play Episode 4 a third time) but it sure as hells beats having the game generate random story decisions that I didn't make.

There's no other way of saying it: This fucking sucks. I'm extremly frustrated with Tell Tale's inability to make the game's most compelling feature work. It's shameful.

yeah apparently they don't believe in patches.

I can't be arsed to deal with this shit either these days, so i guess i will either wait for it to go EVEN cheaper or it's just too bad oh well life goes on and there are plenty other games to play

 

[dark10x]

This situation pisses me off to no end. I'm also stuck at Episode 5 without a save.

I've tried every possible fix with no success. I don't think there is anything I can do at this point. :\

So the problems mostly seem to come from the game not updating both prefs.prop files at the same time (and using two prefs.prop files to begin with). I'm not a programmer, but that shouldn't be that big of a problem...

Yet anything relating to that fix had no impact on my situation. :\

 

[ymmv]

Great. I upgraded to Windows 8 (while retaining all settings and programs) and now I've got the same problem: no game saves found. And here's another stupidity: the game isn't compatible with Windows 8 and a wired Xbox controller. I had to download a DLL-file and place it in the game directory to fix this. See http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32372

Great game, lousy quality assurance.

Looking at the support section in Telltale's forum I doubt they'll fix it. They don't seem to care since it's not happening for everyone (and because they already got the money). The only help I've seen so far has come from customers.

This is especially lazy considering that the problem doesn't seem that complex: A customer figured out the problem.

So the problems mostly seem to come from the game not updating both prefs.prop files at the same time (and using two prefs.prop files to begin with). I'm not a programmer, but that shouldn't be that big of a problem...

Hey, this fixed it. I simply copied to prefs.prop from my save game folder to ..\Steam\steamapps\common\the walking dead\Pack\default\ and whaddayaknow, it starts the game at the correct place!

 

[so1337]

Looking at the support section in Telltale's forum I doubt they'll fix it. They don't seem to care since it's not happening for everyone (and because they already got the money). The only help I've seen so far has come from customers.

It's hard to say. I noticed that there are files labeled as patches in the Steam directory for Episodes 1 through 4, however.

yeah apparently they don't believe in patches.

I can't be arsed to deal with this shit either these days, so i guess i will either wait for it to go EVEN cheaper or it's just too bad oh well life goes on and there are plenty other games to play

The game probably won't cause as many problems if all the episodes are already installed but I know where you're coming from.

This situation pisses me off to no end. I'm also stuck at Episode 5 without a save.

I've tried every possible fix with no success. I don't think there is anything I can do at this point. :\


Yet anything relating to that fix had no impact on my situation. :\

Same here.

 

[dark10x]

if copying over pref.prop file doesn't work try THIS method, worked perfectly for me!

This method gave me some results, but it still didn't work. Everytime I would try it, the game would start with a random scene on screen without any cursor and no characters present. Pressing the stick would result in footsteps but clearly the game was not functioning.

Damn...

 

[Iadien]

I lost my saves as well. Sucks ass! haha

 

[Isaccard]

Saves still broken.

No acknowledgement or fixes form Telltale.

 

[TheFallen]

Try several fixes, nothing worked. Fuck you, Telltale.

In the same boat. It seems the prefs.props file was overwritten and I'm out of luck. I see the original save files, but the workarounds people have shared have yet to work. Oh well.

 

[Denzar]

Bought it yesterday. I better back that save up!

 

[goldsoundz]

My saves were destroyed after I completed episode 3 and was about to start episode 4. As everyone else has already said, Telltale is no help. There are no create-a-save tools out there, or even a website that hosts save files reflecting different choices that have been made. It's a shame that I'll never complete it. Telltale can get fucked.

 

[Inkwell]

This is terrible. I've been lucky enough that I just have to copy over the prefs.prop file every time I exit the game, but now I'm worried that something worse could happen. I'm torn between attempting to finish the game (middle of episode 4), or waiting for a potential patch.

 

[UrbanRats]

Does this problem exist on console too?

 

[so1337]

Does this problem exist on console too?

Jesus, now that you mention it. I would hope not.

 

[hwalker84]

This is terrible. I've been lucky enough that I just have to copy over the prefs.prop file every time I exit the game, but now I'm worried that something worse could happen. I'm torn between attempting to finish the game (middle of episode 4), or waiting for a potential patch.

There won't be a patch. They don't care.

 

[archnemesis]

Does this problem exist on console too?

Yes, it does. I really don't understand why Telltale refuses to address this issue. It's not like people are going to forget about it.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

So I bought this game when it was on sale on Steam without knowing that this is a problem that is apparently never going to be fixed. I feel fucked. My asshole is stretched.

Never again Telltale.