Pokemon Scarlet/Violet Players Report Losing Save Data During Switch 2 System Transfer

Following the launch of the Switch 2, Pokemon Scarlet And Violet has been experiencing a bit of a resurgence in popularity, with many praising how much better it looks and runs on the new console.

Unfortunately, not every player is having a good time. In a post on Reddit, one player reported that they had lost their Pokemon Scarlet save file when transferring their data to the Switch 2. This save had over a 1000 hours of gameplay and housed Pokemon collected from over 20 years of playing the games. Responses to the thread include many who reported the same issue, with one response saying they lost save data for every single one of thier games, including Pokemon.

“I just got a switch 2, did the startup and initial data transfer with no issues. My Scarlet save file is gone. It loads straight into the language selection and create a character screens. No data on my OLED. Just all gone. THERE WAS NO ERROR IN DATA TRANSFER AT ALL. IT WENT FINE. ALL MY OTHER POKEMON DATA IS STILL THERE, BUT NOT SCARLET. I had mons from my original GBA up to current on there. Literally 20 years worth of data. There’s nothing I can do. I don’t even know if i wanna play anymore.”

“This same exact thing happened to me when I was transferring from my original Switch to the OLED Tears were shed.”

“The same thing happed to me but literally all my saved data isn’t there anymore like BOTW, TOTK, MK8, Pokémon Sword and Shield, Scarlet and Violet, and so on I literally have to play everything from the start.”

Given that Pokemon games are among the few titles that do not support the cloud save feature, losing save data to a system transfer is particularly devastating as it could be next to impossible to recover the save. Many players in the thread recommended storing important Pokemon in the Pokemon HOME storage app prior to doing any system transfers, which would allow them to preserve their precious collection in the event that something goes wrong.

“I’m afraid of this happening to me so everything I have is going in Home before I do the switch”

“If I get Switch 2 in the future, I will first transfer all my Pokémon to Home before data transferring I can’t imagine how I would if that happened to me.”

“Ngl the fact that you didn’t transfer all of your important Pokémon to Home first is on you we’ve known that this is the only way to preserve your Pokémon for sure in this kind of circumstance or if your old Switch broke, otherwise they’d be gone forever. I’d have done it just to be safe if nothing else since it’s so obvious and easy to transfer them back if something was to go wrong.”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.