How to fix corrupted save files

In rare cases, your save files might get corrupted because of a bug, or if the game is closed or crashes while saving. We understand that losing a save file is really frustrating, and we are very sorry about that. We are working on improvements to our save system to prevent save files from getting corrupted. In the meantime, if your save file refuses to load, you may attempt to fix it manually by identifying the exact issue among those listed below (back up your save first). Unfortunately, there might be other issues for which we don’t have a manual fix to suggest at this time.

Identifying the Exact Issues

  1. Launch Paralives.

  2. Attempt to load the problematic save file.

  3. When you get stuck in the loading screen, close the game (Alt+F4).

  4. Navigate to this path on your computer and open the Player.log file:
    C:/Users/{userName}/AppData/LocalLow/Paralives/Paralives/

  5. Open the Player.Log file with a text editor and near the end, search for these specific errors that the game wrote in the log when attempting to load the save file:

Issue 1: JSON Parse Error

C:/Users/{userName}/AppData/LocalLow/Paralives/Paralives/MySavedGames.mod/Save File 165.saved/9053703585181629187.household/5954027919333887158.character/5954027919333887158.character.import - JSON parse error: Missing a closing quotation mark in string.

If you find this kind of JSON parse error in Player.log, navigate to the files mentioned by each of these errors and then:

  1. Open these files with your text editor of choice.

  2. Find a website to fix JSON files such as this one or this one.

  3. Paste the content of your file in the box on the left. The “fixed” JSON will be in the box on the right.

  4. Copy the “fixed” JSON and overwrite the content of the corrupted file with it.

  5. Once all broken files are fixed, the save should load correctly after restarting the game.

Issue 2: Meta File Error

Could not read meta file Save File 165.saved.meta at line:

If you find this kind of meta file parse error in Player.log, navigate to the files mentioned by each of these errors and then:

  1. Open these files with your text editor of choice.

  2. The broken file is probably empty (or full of NUL characters).

  3. If it is a .saved.meta file, you will need to fix it manually. Replace its content with these fresh values:
    GUID:4513815259518700000

    Type:301

    CreationTime:0

    LastSaveTime:0

    Playtime:0

  4. For any other type of .meta files (i.e., gamestats.meta), deleting the files will be sufficient to fix the issue.

  5. Once all broken files are fixed, the save should load correctly after restarting the game.

Alex Massé