Game Will Not Load

[Eugene Church]

My Islandian Pro Alliance league will not load.

I get these errors on the screen. (see screenshots)

There is no button to "Import OOTP19" on the screen.

Is there any way to fix this?

I back up the database every day.

Your help would be appreciated.

[Eugene Church]

I put in a tech support request... did a search of their database and went to game settings... troubleshooting... followed the instructions in "How to Restore Game"... saved games... auto save... I copied "Auto Save" data files into my league data files, but still got the same error messages.

Looks like I have some corrupt files.

Do you think the fact that I converted OOTP12 to OOTP19 caused this problem?... everything seemed to convert well OOTP12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 to OOTP19.

Hopefully, all I will lose is a half season... I have a backup for the beginning of the new season.

Or perhaps, Tech Support will work their magic and fix my league, so I don't have to replay a half season over.

[Eugene Church]

Is "Auto Save" on a daily basis enough to provide a league backup?

Or do you also have to use the Save or Backup modes, too?

[actionjackson]

Oh man. I know what a labour of love this league is for you, and how beloved it is in the Dynasty Reports section of the forum. Really hoping you can get this resolved with some tech support magic.

There is the "Import OOTP18 Game" feature on the introductory screen. Do you still have a copy of this game in OOTP18, and can you try to re-import it? That way, at least you would have everything you did through OOTP18. You would lose whatever you've done since importing to OOTP19, but better that than losing the entire thing due to corrupt files.

Have you only clicked on the "Continue League" button, or have you tried clicking on the "Load Game" button, and selecting your league that way? I don't imagine this would make much of a difference in the result, but when I get in this kind of jam, I'm willing to try anything (six times if I have to) to get out of it.

Can you try sending the entire league to a .zip file, cut/pasting it onto an external hard drive, deleting the old game on your computer's hard drive, and then extracting the external hard drive version to your saved_games folder? Again, not saying this will work, but desperate times...

I'm not an I told you so type, but for future reference, I suggest sending your .lg file to a .zip file after you're done every RL day, and then cut/pasting it onto an external hard drive (You'll have to have an external hard drive to do this of course). This will preserve every single folder and file in your game, and will allow you to delete the .lg file from your computer's hard drive, and extract the external hard drive version of your .lg file to your saved_games folder. It sounds terribly nerve wracking (and it is...a white knuckle ride), but it has saved me several times when I've done something I want to undo, and so far it's worked every time. Like I said, I hope tech support can weave their magic, and get you back to your game, but this is the backup technique I would strongly recommend to backup any game you want to backup in the future. I hope all of this works out for you, and you can get back to your masterpiece.

[actionjackson]

Deleted due to somehow making duplicate post.

EDIT: The technique mentioned in the final paragraph of my above post takes about a minute or two to do, and has helped me out of quite a few scrapes.

[Lukas Berger]

I sent you a reply to the support ticket, Eugene.

Basically, I think at this point we'll need to see the league files themselves to see if we can do some magic and restore them or not.

Once you get them to us, we'll take a close look and do everything in our power to fix them, you can be sure of that!

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

I sent you a reply to the support ticket, Eugene.

Basically, I think at this point we'll need to see the league files themselves to see if we can do some magic and restore them or not.

Once you get them to us, we'll take a close look and do everything in our power to fix them, you can be sure of that!

Thanks Lukas Berger... much appreciate your offer to help... the OOTPB team is great and always willing to help the community out.

I have a backup that takes me up to the preseason... so, at worst, all I will lose will be a half of the latest season... that's not too bad.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

Oh man. I know what a labour of love this league is for you, and how beloved it is in the Dynasty Reports section of the forum. Really hoping you can get this resolved with some tech support magic.

There is the "Import OOTP18 Game" feature on the introductory screen. Do you still have a copy of this game in OOTP18, and can you try to re-import it? That way, at least you would have everything you did through OOTP18. You would lose whatever you've done since importing to OOTP19, but better that than losing the entire thing due to corrupt files.

Have you only clicked on the "Continue League" button, or have you tried clicking on the "Load Game" button, and selecting your league that way? I don't imagine this would make much of a difference in the result, but when I get in this kind of jam, I'm willing to try anything (six times if I have to) to get out of it.

Can you try sending the entire league to a .zip file, cut/pasting it onto an external hard drive, deleting the old game on your computer's hard drive, and then extracting the external hard drive version to your saved_games folder? Again, not saying this will work, but desperate times...

I'm not an I told you so type, but for future reference, I suggest sending your .lg file to a .zip file after you're done every RL day, and then cut/pasting it onto an external hard drive (You'll have to have an external hard drive to do this of course). This will preserve every single folder and file in your game, and will allow you to delete the .lg file from your computer's hard drive, and extract the external hard drive version of your .lg file to your saved_games folder. It sounds terribly nerve wracking (and it is...a white knuckle ride), but it has saved me several times when I've done something I want to undo, and so far it's worked every time. Like I said, I hope tech support can weave their magic, and get you back to your game, but this is the backup technique I would strongly recommend to backup any game you want to backup in the future. I hope all of this works out for you, and you can get back to your masterpiece.

Yes, I tried all of your suggestions... and got the same error messages.

I still have all of the versions from 12 through 19... so yes, I could just convert OOTP18 to OOTP19 again and only lose half of the latest season.

I also have an external hard drive with OOTP18 on it.

I plan to save each season on the external hard drive as insurance.

You can never back up too much.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me... you are a real good guy, actionjackson.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

I sent you a reply to the support ticket, Eugene.

Basically, I think at this point we'll need to see the league files themselves to see if we can do some magic and restore them or not.

Once you get them to us, we'll take a close look and do everything in our power to fix them, you can be sure of that!

...And here's the separator between OOTP and everybody else. We all have our quibbles about what should or shouldn't be in the game, but I don't think anyone can quibble about whether or not there is great support/communcation from the developers/employees/volunteers/moderators. Keep it up, and once again good luck Eugene.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me... you are a real good guy, actionjackson.

I just try to follow your lead my man. I also do that backup thing when I'm done playing every RL day. It only takes a couple of minutes each day, but man is it worth it.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

...And here's the separator between OOTP and everybody else. We all have our quibbles about what should or shouldn't be in the game, but I don't think anyone can quibble about whether or not there is great support/communcation from the developers/employees/volunteers/moderators. Keep it up, and once again good luck Eugene.

Totally agree with you, Jackson... Markus and all of the OOTP Team are great... even when they don't design the game according to EC's smallest whims and whines.

[NoOne]

are there any intermediaries left from teh last time you stepped through the proccess? start there, see if problem still persists, of course, first. may need a re-do on conversion no matter what in that context.

i know i've seen this error before in previous ootp.. i want to say i just had to copy contents from auto-save to correct it, but i could have restored a backup too, what i know is that i lost ~6months for whatever fix i found.

i'm sure you've tried those things already.

hehe, i stopped making multiple backups a couple years ago -- i'd name them with the last year they contained.. so "mlb.lg" would backup and rename as "mlb-2051.lg" then i'd do a full backup with a new directory and leave the "2051" untouched for a while... every 5-10 years i'd clear out the backups. i didn't make a new one every year, just once in a while. ~3 backups at any 1 time, probably.

lots of effort, but for a once-in-years problem it proves to be worht it... doing it that entire inbetween problems is the tough part, lol.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by NoOne

are there any intermediaries left from teh last time you stepped through the proccess? start there, see if problem still persists, of course, first. may need a re-do on conversion no matter what in that context.

i know i've seen this error before in previous ootp.. i want to say i just had to copy contents from auto-save to correct it, but i could have restored a backup too, what i know is that i lost ~6months for whatever fix i found.

i'm sure you've tried those things already.

hehe, i stopped making multiple backups a couple years ago -- i'd name them with the last year they contained.. so "mlb.lg" would backup and rename as "mlb-2051.lg" then i'd do a full backup with a new directory and leave the "2051" untouched for a while... every 5-10 years i'd clear out the backups. i didn't make a new one every year, just once in a while. ~3 backups at any 1 time, probably.

lots of effort, but for a once-in-years problem it proves to be worht it... doing it that entire inbetween problems is the tough part, lol.

As you probably knows, EC is not very computer literate... all I know is what the OOTP Community has taught me over the years.

I auto save every time I close out the game... I recopied the auto save dat files to the game, but still got the messages.

Luka Berger in OOTP Tech Support is going to look at my game files and see if they can fix it.


Oh, woe is me... now I've got to find zip software and try to zip my game to Luka Berger.

Anyone know of a very, very easy-to-use zip file software for a computer dummy?

Prefer free software, but willing to purchase if it is better.

Any suggestions?

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

As you probably knows, EC is not very computer literate... all I know is what the OOTP Community has taught me over the years.

I auto save every time I close out the game... I recopied the auto save dat files to the game, but still got the messages.

Luka Berger in OOTP Tech Support is going to look at my game files and see if they can fix it.


Oh, woe is me... now I've got to find zip software and try to zip my game to Luka Berger.

Anyone know of a very, very easy-to-use zip file software for a computer dummy?

Prefer free software, but willing to purchase if it is better.

Any suggestions?

You can download a good one here. The right one for your computer is one of the first two links in the top box. If you have a computer with a 32-bit operating system, download the 32-bit one, and vice versa for the 64-bit. If you don't know which of the two systems you have, you can download this handy dandy little program here, and run it to find out. Either the FileHippo link or the CCleaner link will work, and the free version works just fine.

[Eugene Church]

Windows 10 has zip software in the OS.

I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the help, actionjackson.

Very much appreciated.

[Eugene Church]

Can you believe it?
EC did it!
I now have my OOTP19 folder in zip form... over 10 million bytes.
It took over 5 hours.
I think all I have to do now is send the zip folder to Lukas Berger at OOTP Tech Support via email.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

Can you believe it?
EC did it!
I now have my OOTP19 folder in zip form... over 10 million bytes.
It took over 5 hours.
I think all I have to do now is send the zip folder to Lukas Berger at OOTP Tech Support via email.

Oh my gosh... nothing is easy for a computer KLUTZ like me.

I followed the instructions from OOTP Tech Support, but it didn't work... gave me an error message... I'll post it here on the screen to see if there is a solution.... also will contact Lukas Berger at Tech Support.

[Eugene Church]

Is it possible to send a zipped file with 10 millions bytes through regular email?

I could easily do that... just send an email and attach the zip file.

But I doubt email will allow that large of a file.

[Eugene Church]

Here are the instructions from Lukas at Tech Support:

The best way to get the league files to us is via ftp. You can find instructions on doing that here: http://support.ootpdevelopments.com/...p-developments

This is the process to send them to OOTP Tech Support:

How to FTP files to OOTP Developments
Posted by - NA -, Last modified by Gary Breckenridge on 07 October 2015 11:14 PM
For some types of problems, the only way we can help you is to see your league files. OOTP Developments uses FTP to allow customers to send us files. Below are instructions for sending us your league files:
Windows PC:
Unless you have an ftp program, one way to get to the ftp site is as follows: Open up Windows Explorer by right-clicking the start menu and then choose "Open Windows Explorer". Now up at the top in the address bar (it probably will say "Libraries" in there), paste over top whatever is in there with "ftp://ootpsupport.com/incoming/ootp/saved_games/" for OOTP or "ftp://ootpsupport.com/incoming/fhm/saved_games/" for FHM.

After you do this, hit the Enter key and wait a moment and it should load the ftp site in there. Now you can find your league files and copy and paste them into there. Your league files can be found here (in a default install): Documents\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 16\saved_games

In the saved_games folder you'll see folders that end in ".lg". Find the folder that corresponds to the league you need to send us and zip up all of the files in there that end in ".dat" (don't send any other files unless asked to do so). There should be 16 of them. Finally, copy this zip file to the other window with the ftp folder and it should start copying it there. It might take up to a few minutes to copy.

Once you've uploaded your league, let us know what you called it (if you didn't already do this, submit a support ticket).

Note: Windows 10 no longer calls it "Windows Explorer"... it is now called "File Explorer".

[Eugene Church]

Perhaps the reason I got the Error when I tried to send the zip file was because I didn't name it... apparently OOTP Tech Support needs a name for it to go through.

I'm going to try sending it again and see what the error message is.

I will use the ticket number on my tech support request and see if that will solve the error problem.