Elyca 🍊 Play

PSA: Corrupted Save Data & ACNH

500+ hours. 2 islands gone. No explanation.

The first time it happened, my husband and I tried literally everything. We called Nintendo three times. Reset the Nintendo Switch and initialized it. We even bought a digital copy in the hopes that there was just something wrong with the game card. After days of turmoil, and coming to terms that I lost 320+ hours of my life, I decided to start over and begin anew.

Maybe it’s because I time travel, I thought. Maybe I didn’t close out the game completely before I turned the day over.

I restarted. Built up a town I felt proud of, time traveling one day at a time until I reached the real date. This game has been my solace during this quarantine, pouring all of my heart into a franchise I cherish.

And then, lo and behold, it did happen. It happened AGAIN. I opened the game, just as normal. I didn’t time travel or anything, and I received that ridiculous error message that gives you no choice but to start over. I’ve seen some say this error screen isn’t real, so I’ve attached proof. Yes, it is indeed, real.

I do not hack or mod. Save for time traveling, (which plenty of other people do) I play completely vanilla. Nobody has any answers and I’m not the only person this happened to. I’m writing this to spread the message that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is broken, and I refuse to play a broken game until they either fix it or add cloud saving, which should have been included from the beginning. I would hate to see this happen to even more people. I want people to understand that every time you open this game you have a chance of losing your entire island, neighbors, designs, and so much more.

Sure, some people can say I’m being dramatic. It’s just a video game. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees this game as an escape. Going to other people’s islands has done wonders for my loneliness, and building Lilac Bay up from the ground up has given me a reason to look forward.

Thanks for reading this.

Not sure if you’ve tried this but some people have said this works. It works for some, and not others. I heard it happens mostly when you get a villagers in boxes from a friend, whether you cheat it in or not. I haven’t had to do this, so I can’t say if it truly does or not work.

I’m sorry this happened TWO times to you. If it happened to me and I couldn’t get it back, I would probably quit for a while and go back to New Leaf for a bit. I hope if you’re playing again and rebuilding it never happens again. If you need any help starting again, definitely join some FB groups! The major one I’m apart of is called Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Everyone is extremely nice and willing to always help!

Good luck honey! Wish you the absolute best !