More than half of maps suddenly gone? RMMV

So the title tells the story, pretty much. Going into the specifics, I was working on my project, which has 27 maps. I was editing the 27th (having freshly made 26 and 27 today) while also testing to see if my friend could download a slightly older backup version from OneDrive to test play. The files on my PC that I was editing and the ones that she was downloading are completely separate. Just making that clear. Now, onto where things get dicey.

I thought I closed down RPGMaker MV, though in retrospect it's entirely possible I didn't. Anyways, I clicked the game in my OneDrive (the application that immediately plays the game, NOT the RPGMaker Project file) and messed with it for a moment to make sure it was the right file for her. It was. I closed it down. At this point, there was no RPGMaker open on my computer, neither my game nor the actual design software.

Then about a half hour later, my friend said that she couldn't transition from one map to another. It was entirely possible that I messed up the transition between maps, so I opened up the more up to date project (the one a few versions ahead of the one she was playing) to check, since I hadn't touched that specific transition in the drafts I'd worked on since uploading to OneDrive. And the first thing I see is a grey nothing where the last map I worked on usually is. Which was odd. So I look over at the maps list, and I see that I only have 11 maps. I lost more than half of all that I'd created. I was (and still am) befuddled.

Looking into it, the maps I do have seem to be the latest versions of them, ones that existed alongside the other 16 maps I had, so it it's not like it reverted to a much earlier point in its entirety. On top of that, going into the data folder of the game, the MapInfos still has all the maps listed and all 27 of the maps data seems to be there. But for some reason I simply don't have 16 of the maps visible when editing. Everything else about the game seems to be perfectly fine and working when I playtest it, up to the missing maps. So honestly, I'm just confused and admittedly pissed at the sudden loss of work, and came here hoping for some advice or answers.

Thanks for reading!

What engine version are you using?

Do NOT save your projects to ANY folder that syncs automatically to the cloud. It's quite possible your update and your friend's update have clashed and your files have been overwritten, or that your files hadn't synced when you shut down. If that's what you are doing, create a new project straight away and copy over what you can, before the problem is made worse than it already is. At least you might have something to start rebuilding from.

I made that mistake and when I realized what I was doing, I moved my files over immediately.

The other possibility is that your files are in a Windows folder somewhere (and by that I include My Documents and anything else under the Users path) and that you've had a windows update. That left me with several days of scripting in Ace lost once, so I also never save to anything that Windows might know about, despite the fact that My Documents is supposedly the "correct" place to put files you create.

Like I tried to make clear in my initial post, the project that I have saved on OneDrive is a completely separate copy from the one I am actually working on. I am only using OneDrive for 1. a backup that I replace weekly by copying over all the files from the actual "My Documents" folder, but still keeping the originals in their original place and 2. using it for distribution between friends and a professor. The game that is most up to date and completely in the "My Documents > Games > Project" folder is the one that is almost completely screwed with all the lost progress. The one on OneDrive is actually more intact, now that I've checked. So I've only lost about a quarter of my project. But I'd still really like to recover what is gone.

Also it's worth noting that this happened in literally a 20-30 minute window from me having the fully updated project up on the RPGMaker editor and closing it down, to opening it back up and it being completely different.


I am using 1.6, or so it says when I hit the "About" tab in the editor.

you might want to downgrade. 1.6 is glitchy.

All these recommendations for future proofing are nice, but any possible way of recovering the work I lost? Like I said, the files are all there... they just aren't appearing when I boot everything up.

Well, like Shaz said:
I think that might be your only option *sigh*

Ughhh... I just don't get it. If the files are all there and the callups are all there, then why isn't it working? There needs to be an actual reason. The fact that it is literally there and I just can't do anything with it is idiotic.

the files are all there? I thought you said you could only see 11 of them?

Are the maps all there in the data folder, and you just can't see them in the editor? Or are they missing from the data folder as well?

The callups in the MapInfos file for all 27 maps AND all 27 maps are in the data folder. They're all physically there in the folders. But when I go to the editor, they are just not there on the left. There's only 11 in the editor. That's why I'm so damn confused.

What if you create a new project and just pull your Data folder over - are they all there then?

Oh - but revert to 1.5.1 or 1.5.2 first. 1.6 is known to be glitchy, and I'm sure I've seen someone else say their maps went missing in 1.6.

Huh, so I tried that and it didn't work. But looking closer at the MapInfos file, I noticed some numbers to be odd. For some strange reason, all 16 of the missing maps for some reason have their "parentId" set to variables so high they don't even exist. The 12th map for example was looking for a map with a "parentId" of 56, which doesn't exist. Changing it to zero (since it is one of the primary maps), that map now appears no problem! It seems I'm just going to have to go in and input the right "parentId" for all of the maps that disappeared.

All this said, I still have absolutely no idea how this happened or even could have happened... but I'm happy I figured it out! Thanks for all the help everyone!