Confirmed CK III - Ironman Game Progress Not Saving

[Cakes1517]

Short summary of your issue Ironman Game Progress Not Saving

Game Version 1.0.2

What OS are you playing on?
Windows

What platform are you using?
Windows Store

Do you have mods enabled? No

Have you tried verifying your game files (Steam only)?
(DID NOT ANSWER QUESTION)

How much "pain" is this causing you?
9

Please explain the issue you experienced in the most condensed way possible
At a certain point, I saved and quit to desktop (A). I resumed playing some time later, and when I had finished, did the same (B). When returning once more, I found that all the progress since (A) had not been saved. I then proceeded to play again, and saved and quit to the main menu (C), but found that all the progress in that time had also been lost, and was reverted back to (A).

Please explain how to reproduce the issue
Unknown

Is there anything else you think could help us identify/replicate the issue?
My auto save option is a grey shield with a question mark with the 1066 start date (my game hasn't even reached 1066 yet).

 

[kythlyn]

How can I enable local save?

There's no in-game way to change a Cloud save to a Local save at this time. Follow the instructions here for the workaround.
Otherwise, disabled Cloud saving when you start a new game.

 

[fxfighter]

The copy last save workaround works for me, the save I posted in this other thread is on the exact day the saves stopped work as I was able to step 1 day at a time until it no longer saved so many there's something in this save that can help out the devs:

I can't post a link to the forum thread properly as it's complaining about it looking like spam, probably cause I made an account just recently? Anyway here's the forum post previously mentioned:
forum/threads/ck-iii-game-not-saving.1420316/post-26884925

 

[Constantin]

Hi, first thing paradox team you did a graet game and big thx for this! currently i also have the issue with the ironman mode not saving the gameprogress. i lost already 40+ years of ingame gameplay and thats terrible cause i progressed alot in that time. pls try to fix this issue asap, cant wait to play it, but without saving its giving me a mental break right now.

 

[PSK76]

Same here. Game lost 100 years or so. Pretty frustrating to say the least. Will probably not play again.

 

[soulblur]

Frustratingly, this has also happened to me. Except then I started a new ironman before coming across this thread. So now several hours of last night's game have been wiped. Playing on gamepass.

 

[flextales]

Also on gamepass, also lost about 3 hours worth of gametime on a save i'd been playing for about 15 hours on... worst of all it was the first time I was actually doing good (total newbie to grand strat).

 

[Omnishambles]

I just had the same thing happen on steam, knocked out my internet without noticing so the game didn't save. Would be nice if it warned you instead of saying that it's saving and exiting anyway.

Thankfully kythlyn's workaround got it back

 

[Yodhe23]

Same problem here on Win10 on Gamepass, lost many hours of play. Any news on a fix as I am not prepared to start again.

 

[SharksAttack]

Same happened to me. Lost several hours. Gamepass.

 

[ouat]

Hello,

Same for me in ironman

It might just be coincidence but since I formed Britannia my game won t save anymore and roll me back before it was formed

 

[Javi_78]

Another one here, so so sad and dissapointed, i was so invested in the save

lost almost 50 years of progress, on Gamepass

Details
playing Ireland, just continuing the tutorial,, i played for 3 or 4 days (200 years in), saving on exit and reloading the next day with no problem. (i started ironman, didnt touch any cloud options, just everything by default)
But last night my game crashed to desktop (during an achievement notification) and when i reloaded the save was 50 years and two rulers back...so sad , dissapointed it was impossible to keep playing, and of course after exiting, it saved completely destroying any chance of recover my progress.

It seems the yearly autosave was not working at all during that 6 hours session,

 

[kythlyn]

Man, that's a bummer. The thing about this bug is you keep seeing "autosave" pop up but it's only writing to last_save, not the actual auto_save slots, because of Ironman. And the pop up gives you this false sense of security.

 

[flextales]

ended up starting a new game, non-iron-man, autosave/cloudsave working just fine. Go back to iron-man save no dice. Very freaking weird.

 

[MeatCastle]

I am having this same issue as well - lost a full long playthrough and it really hurt my will to keep at it until I know it's fixed. Any news?

 

[skadefryd]

Same issue. Used the "disable cloud and copy last_save.ck3 to save game directory" workaround and played for a few hours, only to discover that the version of the file in the save game directory did not update at all (and did not realize this until after I had started a different game). Several hours of progress lost, alas. It seems I will have to diligently remember to manually copy last_save.ck3 to the save game directory every time I want to play that game. Alas.

 

[kythlyn]

Same issue. Used the "disable cloud and copy last_save.ck3 to save game directory" workaround and played for a few hours, only to discover that the version of the file in the save game directory did not update at all (and did not realize this until after I had started a different game). Several hours of progress lost, alas. It seems I will have to diligently remember to manually copy last_save.ck3 to the save game directory every time I want to play that game. Alas.

I'm researching a way to convert a broken Cloud save into a workable Ironman save that is local and will overwrite itself appropriately with functioning Achievements. It involves console commands and save file editing with Notepad++. I'll let you guys know when/if I come to understand the process, but I already have proof that it's possible. Hopefully a patch will make this all unnecessary though.

 

[Novare_Res]

Same issue here but with a cloud save but in steam version 1.03.

 

[PSK76]

Just so I have everything clear.

I have had this problem. I played my game until about year 1130 or something. I exited the game and everything seemed well. Then I started the game again the next day and found it had reverted to 1030 something. I then exited the game again and the last_save.ck3 was updated to todays date so everytime I resumed the game the date was still 1030.

Is there anyway for me to continue my game in 1130 or is that save game lost forever? No cloud-drive somewhere where I can find the savegame file?

 

[kythlyn]

Just so I have everything clear.

I have had this problem. I played my game until about year 1130 or something. I exited the game and everything seemed well. Then I started the game again the next day and found it had reverted to 1030 something. I then exited the game again and the last_save.ck3 was updated to todays date so everytime I resumed the game the date was still 1030.

Is there anyway for me to continue my game in 1130 or is that save game lost forever? No cloud-drive somewhere where I can find the savegame file?

Unfortunately, no. If the last_save.ck3 got overwritten by an autosave after you loaded the rolled back file, there's no way to recover that lost file.

 

[Mymous]

More detailed information based on Davidinho's and Morton04's research:

If you have a Cloud save file that is constantly rolling back, here are some steps you can follow for a temporary workaround that changes the file to Local save:

1. Locate last_save.ck3 in C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings III
2. Copy last_save.ck3 into a backup folder somewhere, such as on your desktop.
3. Copy last_save.ck3 from your backup folder into C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings III\save games
4. Play using Load and choose last_save (Do not use Resume)
5. Exit the game, and repeat steps 1 through 3.
6. Back to step 4 when you're ready to play again.

Additional Information:

• If you want, you can rename last_save.ck3 to Something_More_Appropriate.ck3, but if you do, you'll have to rename the new last_save.ck3 every time you exit.
• Keep in mind that if you forget to follow the steps above and resume, you will roll back again, and an autosave will overwrite your progress. If this happens, use the backup created in step 2 so recover your file, though you will still lose your most recent progress.

A couple of notes for the devs: (cc: jakeowaty)

• My autosave files (autosave.ck3, autosave_1.ck3, autosave_2.ck3 and autosave_exit.ck3) have not updated since I played the tutorial on 9/1. I am assuming Ironman mode disables these, so this may be working as intended.
• The new game I started with Ironman on and Cloud saving off is correctly updating its save file on exit.
• My original game I started with Ironman and Cloud saving on will not update its save file under any circumstance. This includes both the original file (still Cloud enabled) AND the new file created from last_save.ck3 (which is no longer a Cloud file). Neither file creates autosaves.
• Unfortunately, this workaround does give players a means of circumventing the rules of Ironman, since players can create and rename as many copies of last_save.ck3 as they want, and Ironman will remain enabled.

Thank you so much, I almost just lost so much progress. You're awesome!