"Error While Loading Campaign Database"

[impureascetic]

I am trying to open a campaign that's been perfectly functional for a couple years. I started FG today (after an update), and I got this error message.
27671

I have gone into the campaign folder and renamed an old backup (to db.xml) to no avail. I get the same error. When I sent the xml file to one of my players to try to open, he received the same error. Sadness abounds.

What can I do to restore the backup of my campaign? DM me, reply here, anything. I'm pretty upset.

[Zacchaeus]

If you look in your campaign folder you should see a bunch of files db.session.xxxxxxxxx.xml. Those are backups of your campaign saved on each new day you accessed it. The first thing to do is make a copy of the campaign folder and place it someweher safe. Then rename the db.xml file to something like dbold.xml and then find the session file that is the biggest or most recent and rename it to db.xml. Then start your campaign. If that doesn't work go to an earlier one until it does work.

[impureascetic]

Thanks for your reply, Zacchaeus, I followed your steps, precisely, prior to posting on the forum.

Five backups into it, and the error is still appearing. Does anyone know any troubleshooting steps for this error that I haven't yet tried?

My other campaigns are not creating this error.

Is it possible to rollback FG to a version that wasn't creating this error?

[Trenloe]

Open the .xml file in an Internet browser (drag/drop it from file explorer into a browser) - this will probably raise errors as well, but might give you more of an idea of he problem with the XML.

Or, you could ZIP up one of the files and post it here for us to look at.

[impureascetic]

I looked at it in VS Code, and I couldn't find anything that made it particularly unpleasant. Still parsing it as we speak.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17OL4FbuCTd6mr78b2052x78a-M8q21_j

[impureascetic]

My working theory is that the problem came from my continued use of the Advanced Kombat module by Ken M. The XML probably has height/depth positions from the mod that FG doesn't know how to deal with. Just my pet theory right now. I'm parsing the XML line by line to see if anything leaps out.

[Nylanfs]

Could it be the name of the campaign? "1. The Lost Outpost"

[Andraax]

End of the file appears to be trashed.

[Trenloe]

I looked at it in VS Code, and I couldn't find anything that made it particularly unpleasant. Still parsing it as we speak.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17OL4FbuCTd6mr78b2052x78a-M8q21_j
There's a lot of null characters at the end of that file - so it's got corrupted somehow, maybe during saving, or if you're doing any active backups/cloud sync on your FG data. It seems to have got corrupted at 2,048KB in size, which might just be coincidence or may be something related to the issue - 2048 KB is 2MB (2 x 1024 x 1024 bytes), so it just raises a flag as to why the FG database got corrupted at pretty much this size...

I've managed to rescue some data, see the attached:
- Encounters
- Calendar
- PC sheets
- Combat tracker
- Effects
- Story - the first 10 entries and part of entry 11 (area 2B2).

Unfortunately the rest of the data isn't there.

It might be possible to find another backup/session XML file that has more info in it.

[impureascetic]

Hunh. Well, I'll go through some of the other XML files. I got one from very early to work. But they are definitely not all that size. 27674

[impureascetic]

Okay. I found one where the end wasn't borked. Lost a month of game, but that's not terrible, since they haven't leveled or had major shopping experiences since then. Truly bizarre. The file isn't in a Google Drive/Dropbox folder or anything like that. Super weird. Anyway, thanks for helping me out and for, as a by-product, helping me understand the underlying structure of the FG db.xml and related backup files.