Are save files from disc to digital not compatible?

Waynej

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I was aware this was an issue some years ago on PS4, but I assumed Sony would have resolved this by now. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

It’s something on Xbox that I take for granted because it just works, so it sticks out like a sore thumb when I encounter this problem on PS5.

For example I rented an Xbox disc copy of The Quarry, I completed the story and there’s still achievements to unlock. That game will inevitably come to Game Pass and I can pick up where I left off on the digital copy and access my save file - thus I can attempt to mop-up the completion. On the few occasions I have tried to play a digital copy on PS5 (and PS4 in the past) where I previously had save files from a disc playthrough, this has never worked for me.

Much like my example above of The Quarry on Xbox, I’d like to do the same with upcoming PS5 games The Last of Us Remake and God of War Ragnarok. So finish the stories with a rental disc copy, and later mop up the trophies when these games come to PS Plus at a later date. But until Sony allows saves to work between disc and digital copies, that can’t happen.

I was hoping there might just be something I am missing, but I presume this is an issue for everyone.

Recent example include Uncharted Collection. I downloaded the digital version but previously made a lot of progress in a disc copy. The digital copy shows no save files. Same for God of War 2018. I also recently tried streaming via. PS Plus Premium the PS3 game Resistance 3, it’s not showing any save files. I even hooked up my old PS3 console to confirm the saves were already in the cloud.

Days Gone is the odd one out however. I played the disc copy and tried to stream this game on PS5, it showed no save files. However when I downloaded the game it surprisingly did actually let me access my save files.

I did ask @AskPS on Twitter a month or so back and they suggested it should be working but didn’t really offer any further insight. I’m thinking perhaps they have it working correctly for the US audience, but not UK.
 
DO you have plus and are there any save files on the system?
 
Yes, I have PS Plus Premium. Saves are on the console and in the cloud, although in the case of Uncharted Collection specifically, I haven’t played that on PS5 so the save for that will be in the cloud.

Just curious to know if others here have experienced the same, or maybe even don’t have this problem at all when switching between a disc or digital copy.

I’d really like to know others experiences with this though.

Edit:

Been a while so just ran another quick test. I uninstalled Days Gone and launched the cloud version, as mentioned this only shows the option to start a New Game, with no pre-existing save file being available.

I closed the cloud stream and re-downloaded the entire game again, launched it and the save file is there and I can continue progress. So bizarre that the cloud stream can’t access the save file.
 
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Could it be that the disc version you're playing is from a different region to the digital version? Which might make the save incompatible?
 
I’ve only ever played UK disc copies and I sub to the UK PS Plus.

I’m keen to hear if yourself or others have noticed this too though, or even if you find that it works as expected, that would be helpful to know.

My gut feeling is that this might be a UK specific issue with the service. I guess it’s not too common for someone to play a disc copy and then later want to continue progress with a digital copy. I’m thinking with the recent launch of PS Plus Extra/Premium we’ll see increasing numbers creep up where people revisit some of their disc games via. digital.
 
I'm 100% digital so can't help you there unfortunately.
 
My experience on PS4 in the U.S. with install from Digital Disc vs. install from the online store was that nothing is shareable between them.
As far as I know, each version of the game has a different ID & will only recognize add-ons & other things that were installed to that ID.

A different ID means it will install in a different folder/directory on the hard drive.
If I recall correctly they actually start with US or UK as the ID.
 
I did get a little further with this last night and there's two issues - one is indeed different game regions.

The second issue is what I would consider to be a third 'secret folder', so we have Console Storage, Online Storage and these are the two options easily visible in console settings. I found a third folder called 'Saved Data in Game Streaming Storage'. This is bizarrely hidden in a card on PS5 (see photo below).

C91BDF98-395A-4579-9AC2-F3C29F4365B0.jpeg


So with Days Gone streaming - I pressed the PS button and hit X on the streaming card for Days Gone, this surprisingly revealed that extra card. Digging further into this is where I found a separate folder for save files - specifically for streaming games - and here you can move saves from online storage to the streaming folder.

This did indeed allow me to then access my save file for Days Gone. I also had an issue where the digital copy of God of War 2018 would not read my disc save file, but experimenting by deleting the game, copying the save to streaming storage, launching the game and confirming the save file did work. I then re-downloded the game (off topic - recently got 500Mb FTTP) and surprisingly the save file worked. That was a bit of a long shot but it payed off.

Oh, and that not all! There's yet another secret menu - I repeated the same steps for a PS3 cloud game and found a specific game streaming folder for PS3 saves to be moved into as well.

That's where I discovered the region discrepancy. I copied my PS3 saves for God of War Ascension and Resistance 3 to the PS3 streaming saves folder, but disappointingly they did not work. On closer inspection of fhe save folder I saw my game saves correctly have 'UK' at the end of their title, but the streaming games appear to have created duplicate save files - these have 'EU' at the end of their titles.

I presume EU and US gamers won't have any such issues given their disc copies will likely match up with the streaming versions they receive, assuming of course they realise they have to move saves into these rather tucked away streaming folders.

I'm not overly optimistic Sony will resolve this for the UK market, they'd either have to host UK versions.of games on their servers for streaming, or see if they can make the UK saves compatible. I doubt either will be addressed tbh. I suppose at the very least I now have a far better understanding of what's going on with my saves on PS5.

I'm not into the console war nonsense but this does really highlight how well Xbox handles all this, to the point where I just took it for granted. You have your saves synced in online storage just like PS5, but whether it be streaming, disc or digital, they all access the saves with no need for split save folders. Regardless of the method in which you launch the game - it just works.
 
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I don't recall PS4 file system being that accessible, so maybe it's gotten more open with PS5.
The ability to move files around like that would be nice, as long you realize where to move them.

Even for the same region, the online store game will have a different ID & directory/folder than the game installed from optical disc.
For instance:

CUSA07408
&
CUSA08704
 
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Only issue I've had was my The Witcher 3 (Disc) save file wouldn't load up on my Witcher 3 : Game of the Year Edition (digital).
Luckily the story had been completed but I hadn't 100% the game.
 
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My game saves for days gone and god of war disc versions work fine with the digital versions as I downloaded both when they were free to ps5 users.
 
I might add that I actually downloaded the ps4 saves from the cloud onto the ps5 and the games had no issue loading them.
 
Could it be that the disc version you're playing is from a different region to the digital version? Which might make the save incompatible?

I had this with Fallout 4

My Disc copy was EU region even though bought in UK, save files didn't work with PS Plus version
 

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