Can I retrieve deleted game saves?

[Mango 233]

Hello everyone, is there any way to retrieve deleted saves?

I have deleted saves twice due to mistakes that I have played for a long time.

 

[Mango 233]

I deleted them in the game menu.

[Vanamonde]

I haven't tried in KSP2 but have you looked in the Windows recycle bin (assuming you're in Windows)? 

[magnemoe]

Perhaps looking at tools to recover deleted files. 
Also why is games stored place like 
C:\Users\(username)\AppData\LocalLow\Intercept Games\Kerbal Space Program 2
Instead of the older standard 
C:\Users\(username)\Documents\My Games\Fallout4
This way backup programs picks it up automatically. \AppData is for temporary data, not stuff you want to keep safe. 

And its no standard.
AppData\Local\Hogwarts Legacy
AppData\LocalLow\Intercept Games\Kerbal Space Program 2
But it looks like locallow is mostly used by games. 
 

[Mango 233]

12 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

I haven't tried in KSP2 but have you looked in the Windows recycle bin (assuming you're in Windows)? 

I checked the Windows recycle bin and there isn't any deleted game saves,And I have checked the files under AppData\LocalLow\Intercept Games\Kerbal Space Program 2, it is empty and there is no save that I am searching for.

It seems like it was deleted directly.

[Casellina X]

20 hours ago, Mango 233 said:

I deleted them in the game menu.

I took a brief look at how the game handles deletion and it's a direct file deletion, so unfortunately it's unrecoverable. There may be an outside chance that your computer has a System Restore point prior to deletion, but my experience with modern versions of Windows is that restore points are few and far between.

[Heretic391]

Had the same issue occur. It seems to permanently delete the files. Might be worth setting up Windows Shadow Copy 

[linuxgurugamer]

That's what backups are for

[magnemoe]

16 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

That's what backups are for

See my post above as why backup programs will need specific setup to save game files as they are stored in an hidden system folder 

[Superfluous J]

6 hours ago, magnemoe said:

See my post above as why backup programs will need specific setup to save game files as they are stored in an hidden system folder 

While true, it doesn't change either fact that you can and should back them up if you care about them.

OP: Take this as a lesson that could have been much harder learned. It's better to lose a save from an Early Access game than your college thesis or the rough draft of your novel.

[Flush Foot]

Just now, Superfluous J said:

OP: Take this as a lesson that could have been much harder learned. It's better to lose a save from an Early Access game than your college thesis or the rough draft of your novel.

For all we know, OP does diligently backup their computer, even specifically backing up KSP 2’s Steam-folder (as was appropriate in KSP 1, I believe), only to be shocked to learn that (as others have pointed out) KSP 2’s saves are in some obscure folder that you need Google to guide you to find.

[Superfluous J]

14 minutes ago, Flush Foot said:

For all we know, OP does diligently backup their computer, even specifically backing up KSP 2’s Steam-folder (as was appropriate in KSP 1, I believe), only to be shocked to learn that (as others have pointed out) KSP 2’s saves are in some obscure folder that you need Google to guide you to find.

We will have to disagree that that is anyone's fault but OP's - assuming that's the case.

Backing up the wrong folder is as bad as not backing up at all.

[Mango 233]

Thanks for everyone's help, I haven't found a way to recover the deleted save. I started playing a new campaign again a few weeks ago , and tried to manually back it up on time.

[Mango 233]

On 4/2/2024 at 8:23 AM, Superfluous J said:

While true, it doesn't change either fact that you can and should back them up if you care about them.

OP: Take this as a lesson that could have been much harder learned. It's better to lose a save from an Early Access game than your college thesis or the rough draft of your novel.

Thanks for your advice and  I have started a new archive and backed it up manually, but I found that restoring the save directly from the backup after deleting the save under  \AppData\LocalLow\Intercept Games\Kerbal Space Program 2\Saves  does not show up in the game. It seems that it still need to modify something to let the game know.

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, Mango 233 said:

Thanks for your advice and  I have started a new archive and backed it up manually, but I found that restoring the save directly from the backup after deleting the save under  \AppData\LocalLow\Intercept Games\Kerbal Space Program 2\Saves  does not show up in the game. It seems that it still need to modify something to let the game know.

I have yet to lose any KSP2 data, so have no experience in it. I'm surprised it doesn't work.

 

[Mango 233]

Do you think there is room for optimization of the game menu? After playing a campaign for a long time, a lot of small saves will be generated. In order to clean up these saves, I need to click repeatedly to delete the saves. There are a lot of repetitive behaviors, but the option to delete the entire campaign is right next to it and with almost the same warnings and icons. Maybe once you were sleepy or looked away, mistakenly thinking that this is the way to delete or just clicked the mouse to the left. As a result, the entire campaign was deleted because of such a mistake, and it cannot be restored.I think it would be better to use a more prominent or different location of the icon, or to change the process of deleting the campaign to get stronger confirmation,after all it may mean a long time of effort.