MS, please do something to back up gamesaves.

[ISAAC1982]

This is an issue that has been the bane of my WP7 gaming since I first got my phone. Within several weeks of my getting the phone the screen began playing up. By this stage I had already bought several games, perhaps about 10+ so I was quite reluctant to do a factory reset but in the end decided I had to and had to live with restarting the games again. The issue seemed temporarily fixed but within a few months was just as bad. By this stage I had about 30-35 games so I decided to wait until the NoDo update came out as I knew it done a backup of the phone to the PC with Zune. I thought then I could send my phone off to be fixed so if they replaced the phone or done another reset I could restore all of my data. It was only after the update came out that I realised that the backup only works on the exact same phone, i.e. cannot even be the same Manufacturer or model as it works through the device I.D.

This is really frustrating as I now have 59 Xbox live games (ridiculous I know) many of which I am only part way though. So what can I do as I have heard nothing of a feature that would backup game-saves in the Mango update. I have contacted MS support and they have not been very helpful, they just forward me to posts discussing the Mango update or the current backup process.

The biggest problem here is this issue doesn't just affect those who's phones need to be replaced or repaired but also anyone that will be upgrading to a new phone later in the year so it really effects anyone who has a WP7.

Edit: I know this is a moan but I just wanted to see how many people agree with me.

[jedijaxpavan]

I'm sorry about your dilemma. I understand what you are saying and totally agree with you. I got my WP7 the week it released in the US. Most games I've bought wouldn't be a real problem starting over from scratch but others would piss me off.
Once I get done and 200GS a game I delete it anyway.
It would be nice if you could transfer all games, apps, settings to your PC then transfer everything to your new phone. Currently I have a Samsung Focus and if I wanted to upgrade and get an HTC phone, like you said, I guess I would have to redownload everything and restart all my games. That sucks.
Now you got me on a rant.:'(

[Minty]

Yeah it's annoying. But first on list of updates for Mango needs to be the ability to turn off the back button when in a game.

[Pootcrum]

Originally Posted by Minty

Yeah it's annoying. But first on list of updates for Mango needs to be the ability to turn off the back button when in a game.

....and search. It's right where my thumb naturally sits.

On topic though, what WP7 needs then is a license transfer system just like the box, enabling you to transfer games and saves from one phone to another.

[ISAAC1982]

Originally Posted by Pootcrum

....and search. It's right where my thumb naturally sits.

On topic though, what WP7 needs then is a license transfer system just like the box, enabling you to transfer games and saves from one phone to another.

That's exactly what they need. I know after the E3 announcement they are implementing cloud based backup of game saves for the Xbox (See here). Would be good if they done the same for WP7.

[ISAAC1982]

Yet another shocking flaw found in the Zune software. I recently gave up in awaiting a full backup feature as it has not been implemented into the Mango update and sent my phone off for a long awaited repair (problem with the screen) and hoped the automatic Zune upgrade backup would work. As expected they flashed the ROM and I got it back at it's earliest firmware version. I initially trying restoring to my pre Nodo backup from around June time which although not ideal would contain quite a lot of games and data (about 7gb worth). This did not work and assumed that may be because the it was the same version. I then tried restoring to one of the manual backups I had done and none of them worked either.

So after some extensive research of about 4-5 hours it seems several other WP7 users of various handsets have suffered the same problem with not one solution. None the less I thought I would give it a go. I updated the phone's firmware and created backup's, and then backed up them too as the previous is wiped when a new one is done. I then tried all of these backup's when my phone had the most current firmware installed. Both the new backups worked but none of my old ones worked. It would seem that flashing of your phone by the manufacturer makes backup done previously useless. Although it was known that these backups don't work on a new handset/replacement handset it was also stated on some of the forums I found that factory resets prevents the backups from working.

So to conclude do not expect these Zune backups to be of any use.

But by far the worse thing about this all is that all sixty something of my gamesaves are gone. Agghhhh!!!!!

[sleepydumbdude]

That is freaking lame. I wish zune had a back up system like Blackberry where you could choose which databases you wanted to back up and reload on different devices. Its really crappy how MS has been into software for so long but the way zune and the phones work together is pretty crappy. I can just imagine now not wanting to get a new wp7 because I did not wanting to lose game saves. Too many of the wp7 achievement require a lot of time consuming grinding for me to lose progress on.

[ISAAC1982]

Originally Posted by sleepydumbdude

That is freaking lame. I wish zune had a back up system like Blackberry where you could choose which databases you wanted to back up and reload on different devices. Its really crappy how MS has been into software for so long but the way zune and the phones work together is pretty crappy. I can just imagine now not wanting to get a new wp7 because I did not wanting to lose game saves. Too many of the wp7 achievement require a lot of time consuming grinding for me to lose progress on.

Your not wrong there. I've got about 64-65 WP7 games, 10 of which are complete so I've got 55 to start from scratch.

Here is a list of my games that I have put a sh*t load of time into and now very unlikely to get the full 200 because it will take way too long to get back to the same point.

Assassins Creed - Few levels from end
Brain Challenge - Game shows me having all but 2 achievements but glitched so no biggy.
de Blob Revolution - Very near completing
Flight Control
Game Chest: Logic Games - only required a few more levels to get last 2 achievements
Game Chest: Solitaire - only required a few more levels to get last 2 achievements
Plants vs Zombies
Puzzle Quest 2
Revolution - Only required that last glitched achievement
and I am sure I won't bother with quite a few others.

[Akuza]

I can't see why it couldn't be done to be honest..

Or even backing up the saves to your xbox?

After all they want to bring the xbox/kinect and WP7 together don't they imagine if you could send your saved game to your xbox in an email or something

[DarkGeneral88]

I know this is old post but found this while searching for an official way to backup game saves in the mean time you can use one of these.

http://www.wpxbox.com/how-to-restore...hone-homebrew/

I've personally used wp7 Update Cab Sender, which was a god send as I stupidly deleted lazyworms youtube app because they stopped development and figured I don't view much embedded videos when I found out it's safer to leave it on I couldn't get it back as it's taken off the marketplace thankfully I had a backup so I reverted to that loss some progress on games but got my app back.

[Denial048]

whilst I don't have as many games to lose, and only have free games, I still fully support this idea :thumbsup:

[ISAAC1982]

I really hope that WP8 has some sort of proper backup feature. It caused so much frustration for me on my first WP7 handset it really does put me off upgrading to WP8. If anyone hears anything about it I would really appreciate if you could post the info here.

Thanks.

[Yannie Boy]

What would be the most efficient and Microsoft centric way would be to back up saves to our built in SkyDrive like how Steam does

[IEvil IMonkey]

Would be great if this gets sorted for the new ZUNE/WP8 combo

[LastNV]

I agree, another area where WP (and Zune) is severely lagging behind.

[IEvil IMonkey]

I've started a new thread detailing this just incase people miss my post on the end of this thread

Looks like we can now save games but via a 3rd party prog.... guess its a start

http://www.wpcentral.com/how-back-an...ows-phone-data

[TheBohawk]

Would have been a fantastic idea since I've had to do 2 factory resets in a week. Losing progress on longer games like contract killer is rough.

[StarsRPD]

Nice program but does it work from wp7 to wp8? we should have a cloud save option, common MS!

I'm starting my 110+ games from scratch since I have a new WP8. Only the ones I'm really far into I will go back to my LG.