This guide exists for references purposes.
Hopefully the issue will be fully resolved at some point after 3.6.1.1
At the moment it is suspected that some part of the game's anti-tampering software, as known as Denuvo, might lead to an corruption of the save games, disallowing players to continue. This guide offers workarounds and hints how to prevent and handle such worst case scenario which is known since release of the game.

Game worked fine before and all of sudden on the next start it says that there is no save available and the game needs to create a new save game.

There is a high chance it happens to people who have had issues with the game before.
Please check also the official announcement in regards of the initial matter.

Regarding an issue preventing the game from saving on initial bootup
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1446780/view/3129439322475920155

I have tested this guide successfully with the game version 13.0.0.1 including the Sunbreak expansion. The details you can find here are all checked and still up to date. Only the file sizes of the save games changed significantly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aloyaP1d-w
With version 10.0.2.0 there seems to be an exploit prevention added to the save games. I recommend highly following the guidelines to make proper backups as it has become harder to restore save games due to the new safe guard.

To make it easier for you, I have added a "cheat sheet" you can find linked further below.

Also, this forums thread provides a good demonstration with frequently asked questions being answered and several common misunderstandings cleared up.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/1446780/discussions/1/3467235293751732753/?ctp=2#c3719441265848503087

Do nothing which could trigger a Steam Cloud synchronisation. If this is too late for you, keep reading as there are other options you can find below. You also should attempt this method regardless, as only a manual check of your Steam Cloud files version can bring certainty.

from your remote storage aka Steam Cloud which you can find here: https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorageapp/?appid=1446780

The files you want are

win64_save/data00-1.bin
win64_save/data001Slot.bin
win64_save/data002Slot.bin
win64_save/data003Slot.bin

When downloaded they keep the folder structure as part of their file name. Like

win64_save_data001Slot.bin

which you need to rename to data001Slot.bin and so on.

From now on we will refer to that save game you downloaded as "Default Remote Backup".



You cannot tell by the sizes of your default remote backup whether the files are corrupted or not. Whether you create a new save game or use your old one with all the progress - by size they look the same. You can only hope that it has not synchronised with your local files which are having an issue right now.

An indicator can be the time & date of the last modification.
data00-1.bin and data00*Slot.bin (at least one of them) must have an identical timestamp. If that is not the case, the probability that data00-1.bin got corrupted is 100%. In that case please continue with the next section Restoration without data00-1.bin after you have secured a copy of your save game.

let us still make a backup of them. Copy and backup the folder ..\Steam\userdata\yourID\1446780\
My Steam folder is located on a special SSD dedicated to games only. If you kept the default settings during installation of Steam, you might find yours at your OS storage drive within

C:\Program Files (x86)\

It would be something like this

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\yourID\1446780\

Make sure to look for your actual ID and not the template "yourID" in this example.

From now on we will refer that save game you backed up locally as "Local Backup".

Should the restoration succeed, you can delete the "Local Backup" you just made afterwards. It is having the corrupted save game, after all This is only to ensure you can retrace your step later on, and eventually bring things back to how they were before attempting the restoration method.

======================================================

If you are here because of this common issue with TU2 PC/Steam Ver. 12.0.0.0



Please do as instructed in this guide first
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2917483950
Check afterwards if your issue is resolved or still persists. You may then continue.

With version 15.0.0.0 this specific issue is supposed to be patched



From the official patch notes:
https://www.monsterhunter.com/rise-sunbreak/update/en-uk/ver15_00_00.html

======================================================

within the ..\Steam\userdata\yourID\1446780\remote\win64_save folder. We want to force the game's save game memory now to be blank, so it will not corrupt the save game again when we work on the workaround.

with a new character, new Palico and a new Palamute.
You need only to design and name your character the way you want - for the Palico and Palamute default setups and any names will suffice, as they will be replaced by your downloaded Default Remote Backup.

Run that new save game you just made until the point after you have talked with Fugen (you can skip the cutscenes before that). Then save & quit the game.

Not sure how to run the game as administrator? Check this guide out
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2831410978
with the data00-1.bin.

Override the new save game files in the ..\Steam\userdata\yourID\1446780\remote\win64_save folder with your Default Remote Backup.

and select the save game slot you made before.

It might look like as if nothing has changed on first glance.

Then restart the game with your now recovered save game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J92IWL_KhOc

This method needs you to use a version of the game which is older than version 10.0.2.0
If you were unable to rescue the data00-1.bin (e.g. you accidently triggered the Steam Cloud synchronisation and the data00-1.bin has already been synched with the defective local file), then you still have good chances with the data00*Slot.bin files. In that case do as stated above with the emphasis on you designing and naming your character properly, as the previous customisation is to be considered lost in this case.

This course of action can naturally also be used if you suspect that data00-1.bin is corrupted.

At the part where you override the new save game (step no. 6) you only override the data00*Slot.bin files, while ignoring the original (defective) data00-1.bin.

Even when what you did before did not work - give this approach, a restoration without data00-1.bin a proper go.

Unfortunately there is absolutely no way to tell without trial and error whether it is your data00-1.bin file or the data00*Slot.bin files which are at fault, causing you your loss of progress.

In case of a restoration without data00-1.bin you will not only lose on your previous setup character customisation, but also your Hunter's Notes Album images.

======================================================

A cheat sheet which can be of help for you to go through the whole process can be found here
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2913554967
You still need to do as instructed below, in regards of downloading the old version of the game

======================================================


No extra account needed.
Just allow your Steam account to be linked with SteamDB[steamdb.info] ( https://steamdb.info ) for this process. That way you do not need to enter your credentials separately and your account stays safe. You can also unlink afterwards.



The link is needed to allow yourself downloading the so called "depot" files - archived Steam files on the Steam servers. You logging in is equal to you telling Steam you own the game so you are allowed to download those files. Consider it a legal confirmation of ownership of your license.

You either put this line of code in your Steam's client's browser's address bar, or in your standard browser's address bar and it will redirect you correctly to the special Steam Console tab.


Enter this command into the console
That will download version 3.9.1.0 which will be stored separately from your actual game.



Important Notes
The download will not be shown in the download bar. Once finished there will be a console message. The download cannot be paused by normal means, but it will continue when you lose your internet connection. However, it will be aborted if you close your Steam client. You would have to restart the download from the beginning in such case.



The command means loosely translated "download files from game 1446780 (Monster Hunter Rise) from files storage 1446781 in the version saved as 1383225463968030212.





First, move your Monster Hunter Rise entire game folder's content.



Cut the content and place it somewhere safe as you want to get it back later.

Then you copy the downloaded old version files of the game to the now empty folder.

Turn off the auto-update for the game for this restoration process.





Last but not least, for this method you better delete your local save game folder.

Now you can start the old version of the game normally via Steam.

Create with the old version of the game one or more new characters with your desired characters' customisations and characters' names. Save and quit normally.

Now, delete the whole content of your Monster Hunter Rise game folder and move back your backed up up to date version of the game.

Now you can override any new character's progress file with your backup you made before and you are done. As before, at first it looks like nothing changed, but once you loaded the characters the progress from your backup file will be reapplied.

Since in most cases the access to your save game is prevented due to a faulty data00-1.bin file, there is a chance that your data00*Slot.bin files were not affected to begin with. So you can try and use them with this guide in case you are not using the Steam Cloud features.

Just recover your data00*Slot.bin files without the data00-1.bin file as mentioned above as Local Backup in step 3, and use them instead of a Default Remote Backup in step 6 when you override the newly made save game.

You would have to make your character customisation from scratch and lose your Hunter's Note Album images, but you could still recover your progress this way.

If you are using Windows restore points for your game's save games folder's storage drive, you can also attempt a restoration to a previous version of your local files.

Details on how to use that Microsoft Windows function you can find here:

Recover lost or deleted files
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/recover-lost-or-deleted-files-7bf065bf-f1ea-0a78-c1cf-7dcf51cc8bfc

your freshly made save game is now overridden with your default remote backup. Considering this workaround is reliable and successfully tested with positive feedback from a significant high number of players throughout the forums, you might be out of luck if it did not anything for you. There is no guarantee that your default remote backup has not been corrupted yet, and there is no other way I know of to check that matter.

You may also check the additional information for alternative approaches with the recovery.

You can be certain: this guide has been thoroughly tested, not just by myself but by many.

As simple as it sounds, you could make a backup of your local save game after each session. Make sure to keep at least the backups from your previous two sessions, so you would not run into surprises when it turned out that your last save corrupted your save game overall.



Set up a (free) cloud service app to synchronise your save game folder, with version changes to be saved enabled. With new services allowing you to save multiple versions of the same file, you would be able to rollback a certain degree. That would be a significant difference in comparison to the default remote backup storage aka Steam Cloud for Monster Hunter Rise.

App Recommendation: MHR Save Manager by keegars

Originally posted by keegars:

A program to back up your saves periodically (every 15 minutes), and to keep up to 100 back ups, whilst auto detecting save data folder and launch MH Rise.

Available via Nexus mods:
https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterrise/mods/994

Works only with versions older than version 10.0.2.0
You can use the method mentioned above to create new save games with an older version.

As you can see from the two ingame screenshots above, I copied my save game over from the first slot to the third. You can do that too, to have an extra backup slot and peace of mind that this guide works for you. All you need to do is to create a new character in a different slot, and then override that slot's save game file with a renamed copy of your main slot's save game.

In my case it was like this

• Slot 1: data001Slot.bin
  
• New character on Slot 3: data003Slot.bin
  
• do not touch data00-1.bin for this
  
• Made a copy of data001Slot.bin then renamed it into data003Slot.bin
  
• Override data003Slot.bin with the renamed copy of Slot 1
  
• Start the game with Slot 3 and save and exit the game
  
• Restart the game and enjoy your Slot 3 with copied progress from Slot 1

As mentioned before in "Restoration without data00-1.bin", the only thing which cannot be copied over are the images from the ingame Hunter's Notes Album.

So far it is unclear what actually causes the issue to begin with, due lack of detailed feedback and reports. There is, however, a very high chance that people who had issues before with creating a save game to start the game to begin with are most likely to be affected by the issue.

In addition to possible official statements and fixes it is recommended to go through the same recommended steps as before, such as ~

• load the game from a fast storage
  
• whitelist the game and Steam with your security apps
  
• run the game and Steam as administrator
  
• check for third party apps or the in-built Windows Security Suit for settings which might interfere with savings and have them turned off during your game sessions, without taking risks
  
• if you are unsure about Windows security, try a different internet security app; a trial version will suffice for having a good testing time and to check if certain issues persist
  
• always exit the game properly, as in most cases the save game corrupts during crashes or other sudden app closures
  
• take into consideration of following the prevention steps

I hope you will never need this.

Until then ~

Currently the Save Game structure is known as this

Contains information about your characters' customisations
Currently in all known cases this is the file which suffers the corruption which leads to people being unable to load their save games
*Architecture of this file seems to have changed with version 10.0.2.0 which seems to effectively prevent a related save game exploit; but it makes also the file necessary for the restoration process

Each respectively contains information about the characters' progress saved by save game slot

The SS files are presumably the ScreenShot files which are saved as part of the game's save files
There seems to be a hard separation, based on the hard coded structure of the save games, between them and what you can find in

..\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\MonsterHunterRise\ScreenShots
(path might differ depending on your Steam Library Settings)



Nonetheless, despite the screenshot files seem irrelevant there has been at least one report where corrupted screenshots files were identified as the issue causing the entire save game to become unusable. In that certain case the deletion of the screenshot files sufficed to fix the issue for the affected player.

There are hints that what we get to see and use as save game files for local and remote storage are actually mirror files, with the actual corruption happening to some unknown packages

With these additional information it is possible to make additional approaches within the recovery steps, should the recommended steps not take the desired effect. As in loading the progress with a new customisation file, or making use of a different slot than the original one used.

These information must only be used within the mentioned actions of this guide to prevent and recover save game losses. For any further usages please refer to Capcom.
Sorry for my bad English, as it is not my native language.

2.057 KB
2.314 KB
3.853 KB
6.675 KB

Those are the size changes of the progression file since the release of Monster Hunter Rise for PC on Steam. On the one hand we have as a matter of course an increase due to additional content over time. On the other hand the DRM has been enhanced strongly. That is also reflected in the extra step in the save game recovery after the release of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.

With Title Update 2, more specifically, PC/Steam version 12.0.0.0 the DRM measures got enhanced once more, which lead to a significant number of cases in which players had an issue accessing their save game, if they did not restart their PC after the update. At the time I am writing this, it is unclear if the developers are going to address the issue or even recognise it as an issue to begin with. Therefore I recommend highly, to treat any future updates of the game with care and add the extra steps of verifying game files and restarting your PC, like you would when new graphics cards software updates have been applied.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2846925471
With the release of Monster Hunter Rise for Xbox and PlayStation, on 20th January 2023, it looked like the that the known TU2 issue is appearing on the new platforms as well.

However, unlike with the PC/Steam version, the issue has been addressed quickly on PlayStation and is officially considered fully resolved.





This specific issue has been patched on PC/Steam with version 15.0.0.0.