Episode 5 destroyed my save file

Syed117

This is extremely disappointing. I hadn't run into any issues and thought they would have figured this stuff out by now.

Downloaded episode 5 through Steam. Started it up and in the "previously on" section I immediately realized that my choices didn't come through.

Checked my stats in the other chapters and my choices are still there. Tried to rewind back to the final segment of episode 4 and start from there, but going into that has incorrect choices as well.

This is ridiculous. After putting so many hours into the game, I have no working save file?

It's really hard to feel anything but disgust for a company that has been having these issues since episode 1 and still hasn't fixed them.

Dildor

Unfortunately I have experienced the exact same problem. Thus, I spent all last night playing all the way through episode 4, only to have it not even matter now! Something is seriously, seriously wrong with the way the game reads save files. None of my backups work, and I've now spent hours and hours trying to figure this out. The save files are acting all wonky, switching episodes and thinking that that last 3 episodes are "coming soon". The last thing I did was delete all the save files manually in game, and then put my backup copy of save files in the TellTalegames folder.


Anyways...... Nothing is showing up now, so I'm going to have to start over, completely.

http://imgur.com/DDZX9 Look how many hours I put into this and have literally nothing of it.

arkada

I just sigh when I read this... I had exactly this problem for episode 2, 3 and 4... every time the same problem... either it not downloading and having to hack together json web service requests or waiting for some helpful forum member to talk me through the backup process... you'd think they would have figured it out by now.... I haven't even downloaded episode 5 yet... but I will definitely be doing a full backup of my saves before I do. I'm sure you'll find me back on this forum in no time.

- note to self - next time just buy entire season at once ... no more episodic content for me telltale!

Panzer89

Looks like we're all in the same boat here. I JUST put the finishing touches on my perfect run last night too. The good news is that I found a save game from earlier that seems to be okay and have preserved all my choices. Says I agreed with Larry in episode one, but I still have the whole crew for episode five.

Fingers crossed.

MattP

Please check to see if you have more than 1 prefs.prop file on your computer. Your prefs file lives with your save games in the Documents\Telltale Games\The Walking Dead folder. If you search your computer and find a prefs.prop file eslewhere, such as a Gamedata folder or in your install directory (on Steam, this is in steamapps\common), then please remove that prefs file as it's most likely interfering with your saves.

Schnarf

Here is exactly what happened to me when I loaded up Episode 5 this morning. The game launched in a small window, which I fixed in the options once it loaded. Then when I tried to play episode 5 it told me that I had no save. When I go to the save file folder, I have over 100 saves, clearly for each of the 4 episodes. My prefs.prop file was overwritten this morning, and is now 3k in size (assume it should be much larger). When I launch the game, it detects none of my save games and none of the fixes I have seen do anything to correct this. PLEASE tell me there is some solution beyond replaying the entire game. There has to be, given that I have all of my .save files....

craigbeavers24

.

MattP

That's the only folder where your saves should be. Even if a Gamedata folder is created instead of a Walking Dead folder (which can happen in rare occurences with custom installs and by manually deleting files), it will still be created within the Telltale Games folder. Please do a search on your computer for prefs.prop and see where your saves and prefs file is now located.

Dildor

Mac/Steam user here.
Okay... this works. I'm pretty sure, because it looks like my saves are back and it bumped me up to episode 5 without me having to arrow over to it; something that didn't happen before.

Finder sucks for me sometimes, so I couldn't find the file to delete at first.
Go to the your steam folder, then SteamApps>common>the walking dead.
Now right click on the icon and click show package contents. Click on contents>resources>Pack>default. The evil prefs.prop folder should be in there towards the bottom.

I think this works, but haven't played my save yet to check but it appears to be working.
Thanks Matt and also DarkSoroush I think, for the post in the other thread.

Schnarf

Everything on my machine is saving to exactly where it should be. I have tried tricking the game into using my old save files, but it refuses to accept them. This is really bumming me out. If my only solution is to replay the whole game, then I may never seen how it ends. MattP, is there really nothing that can be done by using my .save files? My last theory was to use the last .save for each episode (as the time stamps and file size give me that info) and rebuild my .prop file episode by episode, but that does not seem possible.

MattP

Your prefs and saves are linked to each other. If you've manually edited or moved them, then they may no longer be properly linked to your saves. If this is the case, then there's no way to link them again.

Please also keep in mind that in some cases when a second prefs file is created in another directory (such as your Steam directory), the game may be writing to this prefs file. If removing this file doesn't resolve your problem, then moving it into your save directory (overwriting the existing file) might. This is risky though, so you may want to backup each file somewhere else to test this first.

Schnarf

I didn't manually edit my prefs.prop file, or save files, aside from using copies to try and trick the game. When I started my game up this morning, it rewrote my prefs.prop file. As mentioned above. The game started in a small window (wrong resolution), fixed that as soon as I got to the main menu, then when I clicked play it asked me if I wanted the hints or no hints, which is where I believe it rewrote my .prop file. I had no back up of that file, as I had not had any issues up until today.

DjNDB

Schnarf wrote: »

I didn't manually edit my prefs.prop file, or save files, aside from using copies to try and trick the game. When I started my game up this morning, it rewrote my prefs.prop file.

What system are you playing on, Mac or PC?

MattP

If you've searched your computer and only have the 1 prefs file, and this has been overwritten, then there's no way to recover your saves, unless you have the option to revert to an older version of that file (right click the file and see if this option exists).

el badman

Schnarf wrote: »

I didn't manually edit my prefs.prop file, or save files, aside from using copies to try and trick the game. When I started my game up this morning, it rewrote my prefs.prop file. As mentioned above. The game started in a small window (wrong resolution), fixed that as soon as I got to the main menu, then when I clicked play it asked me if I wanted the hints or no hints, which is where I believe it rewrote my .prop file. I had no back up of that file, as I had not had any issues up until today.

This is exactly what happened to me too. I hadn't actually played Ep 4 yet, as I recently switched to Windows 8 and was fighting to even launch the game (tried all the compatibility mumbo jumbo, and it eventually worked by removing my gamepad...), and when it finally launched, it was not full screen, all my settings were reset to the default ones, and all my saves were gone. I checked the saves folder and they're all there, but the prefs.prop file was only 3k and was not present in the main game directory.
I love the game so far but I certainly don't feel like replaying it all over again and try to duplicate all the choices I've made...
Help!!

MattP

When you switch to a different OS in compatiblity mode, your save directory can change from Documents\... to My Documents\... or vice versa. If your prefs file was overwritten with a blank one, you can try reverting back to a previous version of the file (right click the file to do this). We are aware that some users are experiencing issues with Windows 8. Though we don't currently support this Operating System, we are looking into this issue for future releases.

Klopek

This must be common knowledge by now but it is indeed the 360 game pad in combination with Windows 8 which causes the issue. The game will fail to launch until you remove the pad, where you will then discover that your settings and save games are broken.

Thankfully I didn't upgrade to Windows 8 (opting instead for a clean install) so I had a full backup which allowed me to retrieve the old save files. I've not experienced any problems running The Walking Dead on Windows 8 with the 360 pad disconnected.

AngryCustomer

Schnarf wrote: »

Here is exactly what happened to me when I loaded up Episode 5 this morning. The game launched in a small window, which I fixed in the options once it loaded. Then when I tried to play episode 5 it told me that I had no save. When I go to the save file folder, I have over 100 saves, clearly for each of the 4 episodes. My prefs.prop file was overwritten this morning, and is now 3k in size (assume it should be much larger). When I launch the game, it detects none of my save games and none of the fixes I have seen do anything to correct this. PLEASE tell me there is some solution beyond replaying the entire game. There has to be, given that I have all of my .save files....

^^^^ This is EXACTLY my issue. No amount of moving my pref.prop file around will work, however... ?

P.S.- I haven't changed OSs while playing this game. Still using good* old Windows 7.

MikeWiz

First time coming across this issue. Went to begin ep. 5. The game tried to launch but failed or something. Tried it a second time. Rebooted my PC, was able to launch, without any saves. Tons of save files in my directory, but from reading several threads...my prefs.prop must be corrupt. I didn't see a prefs.prop any where else.

Trying to figure out a way to restore my save or a least trick it so I can keep my choices.

This is a huge bummer.

monofox

Same problem here - EP5 Crashed and on restart no save games (!) - system recovery diden't work (WIN7) - and I have tons of savegames, but like you my prefs.prop file is corrupt (apparantly..) :-( How to fix this ?

reboog711

I had two prefs.prop files. No idea how; but it seriously screwed w/ my saved games.

I changed the name of the one in my steam folder "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\the walking dead\Pack\default" and everything went back to normal.

I had three different saved games. The "abnormal" activity was that after finishing Episode 5 on the third game; it only showed I had completed episode 3. For the first two--which were left complete at episode four--when I tried to play it would start me at the end scene where Lee was helping Clem escape.

In my experience Telltale games always get more buggy as the series progresses.

Sekuiya

So, let's get this straight. I've been waiting for this season to end for so long, and now it finally did. And I was loving it, believe me!

I buy the game, play trough 4 episodes, no problems there, play a little of the 5th, and then I have to go. When I come back to the game, the window had been resized, my graphics options were no longer the ones I had previously chosen and when I hit play I was greeted with "new game" menu, per say. That moment, I worse than if a zombie had assaulted me.

It seems my prof.pref got modified the moment I opened the game that way.
I didn't do any backups. Got tons of save files.

Is there really no way to scavenge those files? Some kind of tool to recreate the correct "prefs.prop"? Come on, there's gotta to be something! So many different save files can't be relying on just one single file... can it?

EDIT2: MikeWiz solution, the poster below, is much better than mine. I noticed that it seems by decisions weren't carried over afterall, at least some of them.

EDIT (with fix): Okay, I'm gonna be honest, I'm not really sure what I did. I was trying different fixes and somehow it ended up working. Be sure to try what reboog711, the poster above me, did first, since it's a much easier option. If that doesn't work, well, here goes nothing.
You probably don't need to do all these steps, but I did them and somehow it worked.
1º Open game. Try to match the Settings with what you had before. Close game.
2º Make a back-up of your current saves.
3º Start a new game on the 5th episode with random choices.
4º Play a little bit for it to save. I played until I got past the elevator.
5º Close the game and go to your save folder.
6º Sort the files in "The Walking Dead" folder by "Date Modified".
7º Copy the name of the most recent save, erase that save and change the name of your actual latest save. (Example: New game create "save_16.save", actual latest save is "save_59.save", delete "save_16.save", rename "save_59.save" to "save_16.save").
8º Start game, make sure that when you hit "Play", something related to "Episode 5" is there.
9º Close game.
(I'm not really sure this is what I did. I think it was, though.)
10º Erase all your saves and copy back the back-up you made at the beginning of this.
11º Enter game, hit "Play". That reference to that "Episode 5" should still be there. Hit it.
12º Go to "Episode 5" and hit "Play".
13º The message saying that it will generate random content will appear. Don't worry, it's a false alarm. Just continue.
14º You should be right where you left, in your actual game.

Things I noticed with this "fix" though.
- That "random content" message will always appear if you close and start the game.
- You can use the "Rewind" feature, you just have to get into the game first, past the random generated content message, hit "Pause", hit "Main Menu". After that, when you go to "Play", everything should be like it should.

Hope this helps everyone that is had the same problems has me.
It's not ideal, but at least I'm able to continue playing my save without having to do it all over again.

MikeWiz

Baby steps! After dealing with all sorts of possible fixes online, I was able to resolve my issue.

Again, I had all the *.save files, but my prefs.prop file was corrupt.

I primarily followed Seizemore's solution.

I didn't bother with the timestamp and it still worked.

1. Back up entire "The Walking Dead" folder to another location.
2. Delete the original "The Walking Dead" folder.
3. Start a brand new game. Wait for the game to save. I usually play the first scene. For the 1st episode, I exited after the car crash.
4. Exit the entire game.
5. Rename your most recent *.save file. Something like *.bak.
6. Look for the second to last save of your 1st episode from your backup directory. It might be save 11 or 13. I don't think it matters if it's the last, but I always chose the second to last, just to play the last scene or 2.
7. Copy that save over to the new game directory.
8. Rename that copied save to the one you just recently renamed.
9. Start the game and play the episode. You should be close to the end of episode 1. Just play it out.
10. After credits roll, continue on to Chapter 2. Play that episode until it saves. Again, I usually play the first scene.
11. Go back to step 4 and repeat.

You'll keep doing this until the end of episode 4.

It was a waste of a Saturday. Hopefully, this saves you some time. Let me know if you have a question. I hope this is simple enough to follow.

You can't jump from starting a new game to episode 5. You'll lose many choices you've made in between the episodes.

Good luck!

el badman

MikeWiz wrote: »

Baby steps! After dealing with all sorts of possible fixes online, I was able to resolve my issue.

Again, I had all the *.save files, but my prefs.prop file was corrupt.

I primarily followed Seizemore's solution.

I didn't bother with the timestamp and it still worked.

1. Back up entire "The Walking Dead" folder to another location.
2. Delete the original "The Walking Dead" folder.
3. Start a brand new game. Wait for the game to save. I usually play the first scene. For the 1st episode, I exited after the car crash.
4. Exit the entire game.
5. Rename your most recent *.save file. Something like *.bak.
6. Look for the second to last save of your 1st episode from your backup directory. It might be save 11 or 13. I don't think it matters if it's the last, but I always chose the second to last, just to play the last scene or 2.
7. Copy that save over to the new game directory.
8. Rename that copied save to the one you just recently renamed.
9. Start the game and play the episode. You should be close to the end of episode 1. Just play it out.
10. After credits roll, continue on to Chapter 2. Play that episode until it saves. Again, I usually play the first scene.
11. Go back to step 4 and repeat.

You'll keep doing this until the end of episode 4.

It was a waste of a Saturday. Hopefully, this saves you some time. Let me know if you have a question. I hope this is simple enough to follow.

You can't jump from starting a new game to episode 5. You'll lose many choices you've made in between the episodes.

Good luck!

I tried this method but still no dice for me, it won't load whatever save file I have renamed, it just loads the brand new one that was just generated...I guess back to square one then.

AngryCustomer

el badman wrote: »

I tried this method but still no dice for me, it won't load whatever save file I have renamed, it just loads the brand new one that was just generated...I guess back to square one then.

Did you delete the new one?

el badman

AngryCustomer wrote: »

Did you delete the new one?

I renamed it, as mentioned in this suggestion, and I also renamed my second-to-last save from episode 1 to replace the newly created one, but it still gets me to the save right after the car crash, not to the very end of the episode.

rlorenzo

Dildor wrote: »

Mac/Steam user here.
Okay... this works. I'm pretty sure, because it looks like my saves are back and it bumped me up to episode 5 without me having to arrow over to it; something that didn't happen before.

Finder sucks for me sometimes, so I couldn't find the file to delete at first.
Go to the your steam folder, then SteamApps>common>the walking dead.
Now right click on the icon and click show package contents. Click on contents>resources>Pack>default. The evil prefs.prop folder should be in there towards the bottom.

I think this works, but haven't played my save yet to check but it appears to be working.
Thanks Matt and also DarkSoroush I think, for the post in the other thread.

I am on a Mac and am also having a problem with my saved game. I don't have a "contents>resources>Pack>default" directory in my Steam app folder. Now when I try a Finder search for "prefs.prop" it is completely useless. It cannot even find the "prefs.prop" file in the "Library/Application Support" directory.

I also tried starting a new same, getting to the autosave point and then renaming my latest save with the new autosave. It still says Episode 1. BTW, my prefs.prop file still has a last modified date of the last time I played TWD, so I don't think it was overwritten.

MikeWiz

el badman wrote: »

I tried this method but still no dice for me, it won't load whatever save file I have renamed, it just loads the brand new one that was just generated...I guess back to square one then.

Check the pack\default directory and make sure to remove any prefs.prop file from there, as well. Sometimes it will use that one instead of the one in the "The Walking Dead" directory.

rawshack

this is bull i did what mattp said and it totally rewinded me even further back into the episode. You guys should make a patch to help us fix this problem its been couple days since episode 5 released and i still havent play it! this is terrible support for a game this short. i shouldn't have to do a bunch of fixes just to play the last episode.

Counter-Terrorist

MikeWiz wrote: »

First time coming across this issue. Went to begin ep. 5. The game tried to launch but failed or something. Tried it a second time. Rebooted my PC, was able to launch, without any saves. Tons of save files in my directory, but from reading several threads...my prefs.prop must be corrupt. I didn't see a prefs.prop any where else.

Trying to figure out a way to restore my save or a least trick it so I can keep my choices.

This is a huge bummer.

This is exactly what happened to me. I only had 1 pref.prop file, and it was newly created in the mydoc folder.

I tried the method where you play the last episode (4 for me) briefly, quit after an autosave, rename your latest save to the same, replace, and finish out the episode. The choices you make in that episode seem to be the same, according to the stats screen at the end of that episode.

However, during the recap of the next episode (5 for me) the random choices it originally generates still seem to show up in the recap of episode 5 (Doug instead of Carly being saved, for example).

My question for you people who got it working with this fix is: Do your choices in the recap at the beginning of each episode match up with the originals as well, or the generated? And if it shows the generated choices, does the game then use all your originals once the episode itself starts?

I ask because as much as I want to believe this is a fix and play this, I have no clue how far I'll be in the episode until I come to a decision that can tell me definitively whether my choices have carried over or not, and in such a story-driven game where a heavy emphasis is on the choices you make on the spot, this would kill it.