Turning ON Steam Cloud Sync Results in Lost Campaign Progress and Medals in AOE 2 DE AND AOE 2 DE ROR

Age of Empires II: DE II - Report a Bug
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:play_button: GAME INFORMATION

:backhand_index_pointing_down: These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed.

  • **GAME BUILD #: 101.103.16877.0 (#147949) 18848918
  • **GAME PLATFORM: Steam
  • **OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10

:play_button: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

:backhand_index_pointing_down: DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD.

Campaign progress and medals is lost in Age of Empires 2 DE and Return of Rome variant when game files are synced with Steam Cloud.

:play_button: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

:backhand_index_pointing_down: How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST!

  • 100% of the time steps to reproduce are performed. (ALWAYS)

:play_button: REPRODUCTION STEPS

:backhand_index_pointing_down: List CLEAR and DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue ourselves… Be descriptive!

Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. On Steam Client, turn OFF Steam Cloud, see attached picture “Steam Cloud Toggle.png”.
  2. Play and complete scenarios in the campaigns in Age of Empires 2 DE AND Return of Rome. I played Thoros, Tamar, Ismail and Voices of Babylon (RoR).
  3. Turn ON Steam Cloud or wait for an automatic Software Update to turn it ON (it happened to me).
  4. Launch game after update or turning ON Steam Cloud manually and observe that campaign progress is lost. I lost progress for the 3 Mountain Royals campaigns (all scenarios) and 1 Voices of Babylon level which is what I had played.

:play_button: EXPECTED RESULT

:backhand_index_pointing_down: What was SUPPOSED to happen if the bug you encountered were not present?
I would have seen gold medals for all the scenarios I had played.
I know the “Player.nfp” file has something to do with it as I have a back-up with all my progress. When I turn ON Steam Cloud, I lose progress but if I turn OFF Steam Cloud and replace Steam’s “player.nfp” with my backup I get my progress back.

:play_button: IMAGE

:backhand_index_pointing_down: ALWAYS attach a PICTURE (.jpg, .png, .gif) or VIDEO (.mp4, YouTube link) that highlights the problem.

Steam Cloud Toggle
Steam Cloud Toggle925×737 372 KB

Steam Cloud Files
Steam Cloud Files973×371 40.6 KB

:play_button: GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)

:backhand_index_pointing_down: Attach a SAVE GAME (.aoe2spgame) or GAME RECORDING (.aoe2record) of the match where you encountered the issue. Link it below if using an external file service.

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Without diving into why Steam might have overwritten the newer file, try these steps:

1. Back up the cloud copy
(to avoid accidental data loss)

  1. In your browser, go to:
    https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorageapp/?appid=813780
  2. Find Player.nfp in the list and click Download to save a backup.

2. Restore your “good” profile file
Copy your working Player.nfp (with your campaign progress) into both of these locations on your PC:

  • %USERPROFILE%\Games\Age of Empires 2 DE\<YourProfileID>\profile\Player.nfp
  • <SteamInstallDir>\userdata\<YourSteamID>\813780\remote\Player.nfp

The second path is the internal Cloud mirror that Steam syncs with.

3. Force a cloud sync

  1. Make sure Steam Cloud is still enabled.
  2. Launch the game (or restart Steam).
  3. If Steam detects a sync conflict, choose “Keep local file” (or equivalent).
    This will overwrite the cloud copy with your local Player.nfp.

If this doesn’t resolve the issue, you can also delete the outdated remote file via a third party tool, but in most cases, overwriting the internal Cloud mirror directory should do the trick.

1 Like
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Thank you Tinion! this is extremely helpful! I was able to push my “good” file to Steam Cloud. I didn’t know about that duplicate file under the steam installation.

In my opinion, it’s still a bug that game progress is lost when a Steam Sync occurs as described above.