Gaming Pokemon Ultra Moon crashed, help with save game needed...

[Quaxo76]

Hello,
My son has been playing Pokemon Ultra Moon on his original 3DS with latest Luma3DS. He has put dozens of hours in that game.
Today he noticed that the game will crash anytime he tries to start a certain mission (the Alyxia mission).
Since he'd had a similar problem with another game recently, that I could fix by reinstalling the game, I assumed that the SD card got partially corrupted, and I thought I'd just reinstall Pokemon to fix it. But I wanted to transfer the savegame, since I don't know if uninstalling and reinstalling will preserve the save game.
I wanted to use Checkpoint, and to test if it works, I made a savegame backup and transferred it to my own modded 3DS, and restored it with checkpoint. But then when I tried to start Pokemon UM on my console, it said that the savegame is corrupted.
What's happening? Is checkpoint not compatible with Pokemon UM? Or are the savegame console-specific, so that my son's savegame can only be imported on his console?

Thanks,
Cristian

 

[Charasime]

The fact that the console crashes in a certain point in UM could already indicate a possible corruption problem , what you did confirm the fact the save file was actually corrupted !

Well checkpoint is actually totally compatible with UM so it's not that ... well since his save got corrupted via backup there's no solution that i know to restore his save so he unfortunately need to restart to a new save but if it DOES actually the same problem when doing the Alyxia mission it could be the seed that is missing ?

 

[Quaxo76]

The fact that the console crashes in a certain point in UM could already indicate a possible corruption problem , what you did confirm the fact the save file was actually corrupted !

Well, I don't know, the game on my son's console doesn't crash as soon as I load the game. It crashes a few minutes later, when he goes to where the new mission would start. If he keeps playing without trying to start the new mission, the console doesn't crash.
On my own console instead, where I imported the savegame, it just says that the savegame is corrupted even before loading.
I also tried doing another backup on my son's console, and restoring that on my console, and I get the same exact behavior. So I assume either something bad happens to my savegame during the backup/transfer/restore process, or there's something different between the consoles. Is there a way to check if maybe the game version is different? I think I installed them both from the same file, but who knows...

Well checkpoint is actually totally compatible with UM so it's not that ... well since his save got corrupted via backup there's no solution that i know to restore his save so he unfortunately need to restart to a new save but if it DOES actually the same problem when doing the Alyxia mission it could be the seed that is missing ?

Oh wow, looks like I have some studying to do... I don't even know what seeds are or how to check for them...

Cristian

 

[zxr750j]

Have you tried PKSM? Maybe you can "rescue" some of the pokemon...

 

[Quaxo76]

Well since its a gamecard version ...

It's not...

 

[Lacius]

It's not...

Does the save file open properly in PKHex?

 

[Quaxo76]

I'm on Linux and had some trouble running PKHex, but I think I managed to install and run it. I'm not sure how to use it, but it can apparently load my savefile. I can see several pokemon in the Box, and the six pokemon in the Party.
Does this mean the savefile itself is fine? If so, then why can't it be loaded when I import it back on my other console?

Cristian

 

[Lacius]

I'm on Linux and had some trouble running PKHex, but I think I managed to install and run it. I'm not sure how to use it, but it can apparently load my savefile. I can see several pokemon in the Box, and the six pokemon in the Party.
Does this mean the savefile itself is fine? If so, then why can't it be loaded when I import it back on my other console?

Cristian

It means the save file is probably fine. Save it in PKHex and try again. I would also recommend JKSM over Checkpoint.

 

[Quaxo76]

OK, so this is getting weird. I decided to make some experiments only using my son's console, to remove one more variable from the "experiment".
So, if I try to restore a save with JKSM, then my son's game says the savegame is corrupt.
If I try to restore a game backed up with Checkpoint, then the game works (until it crashes at that mission).
If I load in PKHex the JKSM save which doesn't work in the game, then JKSM loads it fine. I also tried changing something (checking that the "Legal" green check is there), and saving the modified savegame, and importing it to the console - and it complains that it's corrupt.
If I try loading in PKHex the only savegame that actually works on the console, it gets loaded but I get a red warning sign instead of the green check, with the following errors:

Invalid Move 1: invalid Move.
Invalid: Unable to match an encounter from origin game.
Invalid: Encryption Constant matches PID.
Invalid: Ability does not match ability number.


So... The savegame that can actually be loaded on the console, throws errors in PKHex.
The savegames that look "legit" in PKHex, throw a "savegame corrupt" error on the console.
Should I just give up?

Cristian


EDIT: I just tried to load the "working" savegame in PKHex, exporting it back to the console and restoring it... and it won't start. It seems that just the process of transferring the savefile to the computer, opening it in PKHex, saving, transferring it back to the console, and restoring it... damages it somehow.