Some Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players report their save files have been lost

A handful of players have had their files disappear

You might want to be cautious playing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet for the time being. Several players have reported that their Pokemon Scarlet / Violet save files were wiped following the most recent game update, and there isn’t a clear cause just yet.

Over on the game’s subreddit, as reported by Kotaku, players have been discussing the issue. Reports of the issue are popping up in a thread here, starting with “at least 5” and climbing from there.

“Obviously this is a small number of players overall, but people need to be aware there is some level of risk,” wrote the original poster. “I lost a 595 hour save file because of this, and so far nothing can be done to recover my save.”

Right now, the silver lining is that this issue seems to be affecting a relatively small pocket of the overall Scarlet and Violet player base. The bad news is that no overt cause has been figured out by those affected yet.

Some report it happening around some of the postcard and Pokemon Go integration, while another user says it happened “right after” purchasing the DLC. While the Go integration is a recurring theme, the outright cause seems unclear, and may not even involve it, as some have reported the issue without connecting to Go or buying the upcoming DLC. Users are currently investigating what the cause is, and trying to reverse-engineer what happened.

We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment and further information.

Cloud cover

Importantly, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet don’t have cloud backup options through Nintendo Switch Online. There is a separate back-up option, which can be accessed using the button combination X-B-Up. But, as the thread’s original poster states, some users are unable to even access the screen where they could do that.

Couple that with Pokemon Home not being active yet for Scarlet and Violet, and it puts those affected by this particular bug in a bind. Even if it’s only affecting a few people, I can’t imagine how I’d take it if my beautiful Annihilape disappeared into the ether. Hopefully there’s a fix on the way for those affected.