Has anyone else lost an Elite Dangerous account?

[masCh]

Hi guys. I used to play from 2015, and participated in the Distant Worlds 2 (Horizons), Guardian decoding et cetera. I stopped playing when I sold my Oculus Rift CV1 and switched to the Pimax which I never got to work, till yesterday.

But upon logging in, I realised that I am logging in to a new character creator. Seems that all my progress (including all the named earth-like and water worlds) are gone. I have never deleted my account, I have just stopped logging in. I am concerned that switching from uninstalling the Oculus launcher to the Steam launcher I might have overwritten my account or something. Quite frustrating because I don't think I could do it all over again, spent a good many years to get rank and money for the ships.

I have already written to Frontier - they replied that I must have deleted my account around 2015-2020. I find it weird because I don't remember doing so and I don't have any email records of myself ever requesting for such a thing. Frontier says they don't have any backups of my game account.

My question is: am I the only one who this has happened to? What luck.

Thanks for reading.

 

[gooddoc]

So you can log in via the launcher, but it doesn't launch your old cmdr?......maybe you reset that cmdr for a fresh start

Added: Also try looking into your journal log files, in your savedgames/Frontier/Elite Dangerous folder, for when you played before. That may tell you if you did something in-game.
But also you can load up EDSM & import those journals logs (should they exist) into the program to see where you've been.

 

[masCh]

So you can log in via the launcher, but it doesn't launch your old cmdr?......maybe you reset that cmdr for a fresh start

Added: Also try looking into your journal log files, in your savedgames/Frontier/Elite Dangerous folder, for when you played before. That may tell you if you did something in-game.
But also you can load up EDSM & import those journals logs (should they exist) into the program to see where you've been.

Yeah, I did not reset the CMDR. I mean, I had no reason to. Now it launches me into character creation mode and I get a new CMDR.
I still don't know how to reset the new CMDR, so I couldn't have reset the previous one.

I got an email 2 months ago from EDSM saying my EDSM account has been deleted due to inactivity. But that's OK that's EDSM not E: D.
Also, I have a new laptop now which means my old savedgames aren't here. But those are just journal files but not the CMDR account itself.

Ah well, I thought someone else have experienced this while switching from Oculus launcher to Steam. Maybe it was just me. But this is really weird.

 

[Factabulous]

You should be able to choose the same CMDR name when you start the new CMDR- they are tied to your account - and start again. Old finds should still be tied to that name so at least you'd have some continuity.

 

[Jukelo]

Contact support, I'm sure they can at least tell you what happened.

 

[gooddoc]

If you can find your old journal files from your old computer (if you've still got it) then go back to EDSM & create your account from there.

I'm on my 3rd laptop now since starting ED. Iv always made sure that my old Journal files folder was copied to an external hard drive, as backup....so I always have my journals from the start.
Only problem I have is my very old netlog files won't load into EDSM, 'cos they're 2.1 version, so my EDSM logs only start from April 2015.

Doesn't help you, I know, but if you get hold of your old journal logs & send them to Support, maybe they could tell you what went wrong.

 

[Crank Larson]

I have already written to Frontier - they replied that I must have deleted my account around 2015-2020.

That's as much as they could tell you? That in a five year period you must have deleted your account? Sounds like my interactions with support...

At the very least they should be able to determine at what date something happened... I can't think of anything that can be done here if FD support aren't helpful.

 

[Eraden]

Something here just does not add up. My account had been inactive for nearly 2 years before I decided to start playing again. Everything was there that was there before (including my crappy old Anaconda). I don't think Frontier deletes inactive accounts. I am thinking that somehow you had managed to delete your character or possibly....your account might have been hacked? Either way, without Frontier having any backups of your account, it does not look good for recovery of what was. I think the best that you might be able to hope for, assuming you can provide them with logs of your former account, is that Frontier would be willing to start you out with a chunk of money equivalent to what you might have lost. One thing I would suggest is that whatever happens, if you decide to continue playing, you might want to change your password for your account. If you are playing through Steam, check your Steam account as well and make sure that there are no suspicious indicators such as changes to your account details.

 

[Drelthar]

Check down the back of the sofa.

 

[Jack Schitt]

I still can't figure out what's happened here. ED does have odd installation-related quirks, to do with the way different versions store their local files in different paths, but more often than not this works in the players' favour. It's what allows Epic accounts to share configurations with non-Epic accounts but still retain separation of CMDR journal data, or permits users of the legacy launcher with multiple accounts to make copies of the .exe and create a virtual installation for each account.

But AFAIK the really important stuff like progression, ships, location etc. is all server-side. If OP is logging into the launcher with the same credentials -- especially the email address -- then I can't understand why the game isn't putting the CMDR at the last known location. To the best of my knowledge FD do not delete accounts, even those that have been inactive for some time.

My gut feeling is that the current installation may be "seeing" some confusing legacy files from the old installation and "telling" the server that this is a brand new account. I've no idea why this would be the case -- it would be incredibly risky to allow locally changeable data to override the saved status on the server -- but it makes no sense otherwise.

OP, can you clarify a couple of points?

• It appears that you uninstalled a version of ED that was purchased in the Oculus store, and installed a version that came from Steam. Is this the case?
  
  
• Are you definitely logging into the launcher with the exact same credentials (Frontier account) that you used for the earlier installation?
  
  
• When the game "launches into character creation mode", is it first asking for a CMDR name or is the old name pre-populated anywhere?

It may not be possible to unpick what's happened here but we need to make sure we're all starting with the same info.

 

[13A]

You should be able to choose the same CMDR name when you start the new CMDR- they are tied to your account - and start again. Old finds should still be tied to that name so at least you'd have some continuity.

I'm not sure about that. I reset one of my alt accounts from time to time, and when I tried to re-use a name it wasn't available

 

[Decksmeck]

They did create that new player experience recently. How far into the new player creation have you gone? Have you created a new commander name yet or recreated your old name?

What is it asking you to do? I was curious if whether the saved data is fine but the new player experience asks you to do something.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Just to make sure : does the Game request you to create a truly new CMDR (Name, desired Starting Location etc.).... or does the Game merely present you the Holo-Me character creator and suggests you choose/create a Holo-Me?

I haven't heard of "accidental Cleared Save" after Players returning after a long break.

 

[Jack Schitt]

I'm not sure about that. I reset one of my alt accounts from time to time, and when I tried to re-use a name it wasn't available

Back in the very early days of the game I asked Support whether I could swap a Kickstarter reserved name between two registered accounts. I was advised that this wasn't possible from FD's side, but that I could Clear Save on one account and choose a different name, which would "free up" the in-use name (even a reserved name) and allow me to use it on the second account. As far as I recall I didn't actually try this because I adopted a different naming strategy for my accounts, but it's definitely what I was advised. I still have the PMs/emails somewhere.

As I understand things now this is no longer the case, and any name (reserved or otherwise) once used by an account remains locked and unavailable to any account except the original in perpetuity. So if you Clear Save and choose a different name, another account cannot use the old name. Only the original account can re-use it. I can't recall exactly when this change was made (or even whether Support's original advice to me was correct) but I assumed at the time that it was done to prevent a player trashing another player's reputation by using one of their old names. There's also the possibility it would cause problems with the way First Discoveries are stored.

I do remember questioning whether this might result in "name blocking" where an alt account is used to systematically register dozens of CMDR names that a player doesn't want to personally use but would like to prevent other players from using. It was never made clear whether this was the case or if I had my wires crossed.

So if you tried to re-use a name that had been used with the same alt account, that may be a bug. But if you tried to re-use a name that you'd freed up from a different account, that's probably working as intended.

 

[13A]

So if you tried to re-use a name that had been used with the same alt account, that may be a bug. But if you tried to re-use a name that you'd freed up from a different account, that's probably working as intended.

Interesting

I'll try again next time I restart.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

I am concerned that switching from uninstalling the Oculus launcher to the Steam launcher I might have overwritten my account or something.

And how exactly was that change executed? Did you request Steam key from FDev? Did you have to log in to your frontier account? Is steam using the same e-mail account as the old one? When did that happen, yesterday?

I would make sure if the Frontier account you used is indeed the old one and you didn't create a new one by accident.

Otherwise it's pretty weird, I am on almost continuous hiatus since 2017 and nothing bad has happened to my account so far. And I would be furious if I lost the rank grind for Cutter and Vette, to the point of demanding refund from FDev if that were the case.

Hope you find a way to restore your save.

 

[CMDR VAMPIRE]

OH yeah , Ive lost a account or two .... but for different reasons ..... lol

 

[Y2K]

Nothing really is saved at your end. Logs maybe but they make no difference. If your logging into a fresh account using your original login details you must have reset your CMDR at some stage, it doesnt just happen. Did you change platforms between the rift or pimax, ie oculus, steam or Fdev launcher.