Save data for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Gone
I ran into an issue when I didn't have an internet connection and wanted to show a friend FF7 Remake on my steam deck. The purple bar above appeared, and I hit ignore to start the game. Then once I hit "play game", the Heroic interface turned yellow. I don't remember what it said but there were three options and I tried clicking the one one the left (I think it was something about the cache) and the one on the right (I think it said ignore?). The game launched and then a new white window popped up telling me that Proton or wine or something couldn't be found but they found a different version of it and was that okay to use. Frustrated, I chose yes and then the game finally launched but then all the save files were gone. Am I screwed? Where'd they go and how do I fix this?
23 Replies
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
is there a folder in your Games directory with
prefixes? I imagine the old prefix is still there to find the saveslike-goldOP•5mo ago
Yes. Something else I should add is that after seeing my saves were gone, I tried many things to fix it before coming here including:
1. enabling/disabling cloud data
2. going into the settings and pointing the proton directory to a different pfx or prefix folder
3. hitting the sync button in these same settings after finding new directories (old directories?)
4. uninstalling/reinstalling Heroic
5. installing new versions of proton and wine via Wine Manager on the sidebar
Still no saves found. Could I have potentially overwritten my save data in doing these things?
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
I'm not sure, I don't really use cloud saves in general
have you checked if there are save files in any of the prefixes in the location mentioned here? https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII_Remake_Intergrade#Save_game_data_location
if the prefix was not deleted it might still be there somewhere
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Would appear so.
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Is it better to load this game with wine or Proton or it doesn't matter?
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
hmmm those files are from today, they don't look old
I don't know about that particular game, but wine-ge is not updated anymore so the recommendation is proton-ge + UMU (enabled in settings > advanced > experimental features)
the thing is, once you have the game working with one you shouldn't change to the other cause that can break your prefix
what I think happened is:
- you had the game running with either wine or proton
- something crashed and corrupted it
- the popup told you it couldn't find that wine/proton and game you a suggestion to use a new one
- that new one may have been different, maybe breaking your prefix
I'm just guessing though, cause it's not clear from your message what was the configuration before
the last idea I have is to run a file search in the whole drive and see if there are more files with that same name, maybe an old prefix is still there "somewhere"
if the file explorer can't find an older save file and it's not stored in the cloud I guess it's lost
like-goldOP•5mo ago
What do I do once I find it?
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
if you find them, you probably want to replace those 2 save files that are from today with the older ones you found
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Big brain time. I'll let you know how it goes!
Thanks!
Still can't find the files.
You mentioned that it's possible that it may be pointing to a different prefix folder. In this process I found like 5 or 6 prefix folders in different directories. I'd like to try changing that. Can you walk me through that process?
Meaning, how do I get it to point to a different prefix folder? I'm going to try them all to see which one is the right one
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
there are only two places it could be:
1: you used wine-ge and so its in the drive_c folder of the main prefix for the game
2: you used proton and so it will be in the <main prefix folder>/pfx/drive_c
the rest of the path will look like a windows location
given by the link arieljuod posted
this is the difference ariel was trying to underline
the default location that heroic places prefix folders are in ~/Games/Prefixes and then from there it will be labeled with the game's name
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Okay. Appreciate your response. I am curious about some things.
1. How do you change which launcher is used?
2. Does heroic know which directory to go to based on the launcher?
3. Is it possible to change this directory manually?
4. If I did that and used the wrong launcher for the wrong directory, could that have deleted my saves?
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
what do you mean by launcher?
the prefix directory structure is dictated by which wine runner you use
wine and wine-ge and similar will just use <PredfixDir>/drive_c and proton based runners will use <PrefixDir>/pfx/drive_c
the only thing you can configure on heroic's side is where the PrefixDir is
mixing wine and proton will not destroy your saves.. the only thing that will is deleting the prefix folder
BUT what can happen is: if you played a bunch in wine-ge for example, then switched to proton-ge, the game would no longer see your saves since for proton, the diretory structure for the c drive is in a different place
similarly if you did it in reverse (proton then to wine)
the saves are stll there so long as you didnt delete the prefix directory
or otherwise stomp them by using any of the cloud save options
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Okay. You are giving me hope!
I may have switched from wine to Proton (which is what I'm calling "launchers", probably incorrectly) at some point. If I find the right combo of Proton vs. Wine and the right directory... I may get my saves back...
Never once did I delete anything
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
so if you ran the game with wine and proton, then your prefix will have a drive_c and a pfx/drive_c in there
your saves will be in one of those
like-goldOP•5mo ago
I will report back!
Man. I feel like every time I try to launch this game, it creates a new prefix directory, making this process pretty maddening. I still have had no luck.
To be clear, do I go into the game settings and under "Wine" choose the folder that I think the game should point to or is that done elsewhere?
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
what makes you think that?
if the prefix is there it wont create a new one
what no dont change where the game points to leave it at defaults
what are you trying to do exactly?
like-goldOP•5mo ago
My saves are gone when I load the game. Instead of "continue" it's grayed out like it's my first time playing. I'm trying to get my saves back.
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
right.. but like why are you changing prefix directories
you shouldnt do that
like i said your saves will be in one of two places within the game's prefix folder: drive_c or pfx/drive_c
you can manually copy those files from your steam deck and put them on your PCs to find the right ones
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Hmm. Okay. I will try that. Thank you so much. I'm sorry I'm screwing this up more and really appreciate your help.
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
np!
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Out of curiosity, when first installing Heroic, does it use Wine or Proton by default?
rare-sapphire•5mo ago
if nothing is found it will install the latest wine, if something is already in the system (like... from steam or lutris) it will propably use one of those
in the next version, if nothing is found it will install the latest proton
like-goldOP•5mo ago
Gotcha
So I have tried every save file I have with the PC version and it is not loading. I officially quit. I'm just going to install on steam and start over. It sucks but I'm done troubleshooting. Thank yo so much for your hard work and hope you both have a happy holiday