Nintendo Will Let You Recover Cloud Saves Up to 6 Months After Your Online Sub Lapses

Even if your Nintendo Switch Online service lapses, you can still recover cloud saves for a certain amount of time if you resubscribe.

[Segata]

Nintendo is so damn stupid when it comes to communicating with customers. It's been a week since launch and people still have no real idea what NSO offers.

[blawren4]

What exactly are you confused about? It all seemed pretty clear to me.

[Segata]

I'm not confused. I'm saying if Nintendo put this on their faq and told people in that direction it would avoid most of the backlash about Nintendo supposedly deleting your saves right away. FTR I have NSO. Not had any real issues with the service. I have issues with Nintendo being terrible as communicating to people about NSO features when their own FAQ words it differently.

[Gemmol]

Blame the people who wrote negative articles for more hits, i bet they won't retract what they wrote

[Segata]

"Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership,"

This was from Nintendo's own FAQ page. There is no conspiracy. Nintendo is notoriously awful at communicating features to people. They had 18 months to tell us exactly what people are getting and they could not even do that.

[Shiken]

I myself jumped to that conclusion. I stand corrected, and I am glad.

[3-4-5]

Exactly. People made negative articles to get people to their site and some of you actually bought into the fake bs.

That isn't Nintendo's fault.

[blawren4]

NO, they'll claim it was them that caused a change, when there wasn't a change to be made in the first place.

[RizBiz]

It very clearly offers nothing of value. Just the same awful online play we've been using for free for over year, cloud saves that get deleted, 3 worthwhile NES games, no voice chat or party chat, and no matchmaking.

[Gemmol]

awful online play??? if your game lagging get a new internet provider or router, I have no issues here, or send your system in

[Exvalos]

I think the problem is it's so lackluster that your left wondering "Is this it?". Yes my friend what you see is what you get.

[Gemmol]

when i pick up psn all I wanted it for was to play online, nintendo online is doing the same for me, there is no lackluster or whatever, I get no lag on my switch, and I do not chat on my ps4, so I do not see everyone issue, if I can play online with no lag using my phone or house internet, then I am fine

[RizBiz]

Gemmol: I play lag-free on my PC for free. What does any current-gen console offer that justifies the pay wall? The correct answer, in case you're wondering, is nothing. Nothing they offer justifies the price. PS3 did it perfectly: it offered online play for free, and had a separate subscription service if you wanted discounts on the online store and the "free" games each month.

[Neonridr]

wow, so it's exactly the same as Sony. Imagine the outrage when people overreacted at Nintendo who never even gave a time period to begin with. They just assumed that if you let it lapse Nintendo would immediately delete your saves.

[blawren4]

It was never confirmed, and people just ran with it, as usual.

[Mr_Writer85]

Previously, a Nintendo U.K. FAQ mentioned "Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership,"

[Gemmol]

Media knew to write about it, people love to comment on negative Nintendo articles compared to positive articles which get less comments and hits

[Neonridr]

@Mr_Writer85 - very true, but I posted a link from the American support page where it said that cloud saves cannot be guaranteed beyond an indeterminate date. Obviously there was conflicting information, but nowhere did it ever say that your saves would be deleted immediately.

[Gemmol]

Blame the media the negative headlines gave them hits to their website

[2pacalypsenow]

Blame Nintendos own FAQ

"Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership,"

[CarlDechance]

Dude....it is Nintendo's responsibility to provide correct and clear information to news outlets and its customers. In this case, Nintendo simply did not do that.

"Blame the media"

Bullshit. Blame Nintendo.

[2pacalypsenow]

Their own FAQ said that it would remove the saves.

"Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership,"

[Segata]

This is what I was frustrated about yet people downvote facts anyway.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

It was terribly unclear, yes, but not inaccurate.
Beyond 6 months is still within this scope of "outside the duration", just as it is with other services.
Nintendo was just too inept to look at that description and consider that maybe haters would run with the worst assumption, given Nintendo's lack of skill at this whole online thing thus far.

[septemberindecember]

They never said they’d remove the saves. They just said you couldn’t keep them.

[2pacalypsenow]

@wonderfulmonkeyman

"Nintendo was just too inept to look at that description and consider that maybe haters would run with the worst assumption, given Nintendo's lack of skill at this whole online thing thus far."

SO its the "Haters" fault that nintendo doesn't know how to clearly explain things? I guess it's also the "Haters" fault, Nintendo's online is stuck in 2004?

[1-pwnsause-1]

So they fixed it and gave a 6 month buffer time like Sony... good

Well semi fixed it..

[zombiewombie]

It was on the FAQ on their own website. Thats pretty much coming from their mouth.

[Neonridr]

the US site simply said that they could not guarantee it beyond an indeterminate date. It was only the UK site that made it seem like they would delete it. And even then, it never once said that they would delete them period.

[CarlDechance]

Regardless, piss poor public relations on Nintendo's part or that have backtracked heavily on their previous announced policy.

[AizenSosuke]

Nintendo and Sony need to changes to this .__.

[DarkZane]

Sony gives you the ability to do local backup.

[King_Noctis]

...Which has nothing to do with cloud backup.

[blawren4]

As far as I'm concerned, the ONLY time this matters is if your Switch breaks while you are unsubscribed which would be extremely unlikely. Since you cannot access your saves while unsubscribed, is it really any different than what people were thinking would happen in the first place?

I wasn't aware you could trade items in Splatoon 2. I'm sure they are working on how to get cloud backup to work for splatoon 2, but it just was way more complicated then originally planned. People have way too many hours in that game.

[Gemmol]

I agree i have two friends who have over 1000 hours, but the most hours i ever seen registered on someone switch was 2145 hours in NBA 2k18 one of my Asian friends he definitely got his money worth with all those hours

[ZeekQuattro]

This is why you don't jump to conclusions folks. No sooner did the service launch people said your saves were deleted the moment your subcription ends. I get it you don't like paying for online but don't lie in an effort to discredit it.

[Mr_Writer85]

No one lied, did you read the article?

"Previously, a Nintendo U.K. FAQ mentioned "Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership,"

How else are people meant to of interpretated that as?

What's most likely happened is Nintendo have seen the backlash and (rightfully) changed the policy.

Hence why it took a week to" clarify "a very simple thing.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

The same way you'd interpret it had one of the other two phrased it that way; without the assumption that there's no grace period.

Sadly, that's not what happened.

People took the worst possible outcome as the assumed truth, due to lack of perfect statement clarity, and ran with it as far as they could, because negativity breeds more clicks.

[Mr_Writer85]

@wonderful

"The same way you'd interpret it had one of the other two phrased it that way; without the assumption that there's no grace period."

You have literally nothing to back that up.

Look at the shit MS got for their always on policy.

So no, this isn't a "poor Nintendo everyone has an agenda" situation.

They got called out on something and rightly so.

Now their policy is more in line with Sony.

It's a shame neither follow MS, but 6 months is better than nothing.

[ZeekQuattro]

On NOA's site it said you have 180 days to renew or the saves are gone. Doesn't matter what a FAQ in another country says. lol

[Gemmol]

It was the media they did that to get hits and people to go crazy in their comment section since negative binge do news get people to comment more than positive news

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

"FAKE NEWS MEDIA!!!!!" Jesus, man. Calm down. Nintendo communicated poorly and misstated. It's on them. "Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership."

[KwietStorm_BLM]

You keep going to bat like this for them and you'll get injured real soon. Take a break.

[davand114]

The reason this became a problem is gamers and gaming media don't understand the information technology they follow/cover. All Iaas(infrastructure as a service) enterprise services have a data retention policy built in. Amazon AWS (the service Nintendo and Sony use for their cloud save storage) has a 3 to 6 month data retention policy. It's very easy to find this information and is available with a simple Google search.

[JEECE]

This can't be right, because a bunch of n4g comments told me Nintendo would instantly delete my saves the second my subscription lapses. Which of course is a total deal breaker, because I frequently anticipate running into situations where I don't have the 20 dollars to renew my subscription and I have to let it lapse.

That's not even factoring in all the 8 day wilderness excursions I go on where I'll somehow be able to be online to complain about the NES game authentication, but I won't be able to get online to do it.

[Gemmol]

Media is the culprit, they wanted all the hits from spreading false news, they knew it bring all the Sony only and Xbox only fans in the comment section to spew more dislike for Nintendo which bring more hits to their website.......look at comment section for positive Nintendo news vs negative news, you barely see anyone comment in the positive Nintendo news, i doubt this comment section get over 30 comments

[ShadowWolf712]

lmao their own FAQ explicitly stated your cloud saves went bye-bye after your sub was gone.

Either they reversed that policy (which is far more likely given the amount of time passed) or they are very, very, tremendously AWFUL at communication.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Lmao, your saves go bye-bye without a sub on other cloud save services too, if you leave them long enough.
The only difference here is that people assumed there was no grace period.
An assumption which turned out to be false.
And now the hecklers are digging for reasons to hold on to their ire, despite the truth being good news.

As to the second point, i think the Wii U kinda already proved that they're bad at communicating. This is just another layer of frosting on that particular cake.XD

[CarlDechance]

"The only difference here is that people assumed there was no grace period. "

"Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership"

So the public is supposed to gleam from that statement that there is a grace period for retrieving save data? lol.....are you serious?

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

@carldechance
You might be right; perhaps I was giving the potential of the general public's investigative-thought-capabili ty too much credit, given that most of them IMMEDIATELY hopped on the hate-wagon, and assumed the worst with no evidence, outside of poorly-clarified print on a website, let alone any testing or reaching out for clarification on their own.

There's no accounting for investigative sense when it's so much easier to assume the worst, it seems.

[RizBiz]

You are the ultimate Nintendo apologist. You deserve a gold star.

[EddieNX]

That's good. Glad some of theae knee jerk Nintendo haters have been exposed. Every opportunity they get to write a hate article they do so.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Saves should also be allowed on the SD card as well.

[FernDiggidy]

Absolute FACTS

[Moe-Gunz]

All these stupid comments talking about knee jerk reactions and "the negative media" proves gamers are gullible. Their own FAQ stated that it'll disappear after your subscription ran out. You're kidding yourself if you don't think this "clarification" is reactionary. They seen the negativity and made a change or else it wouldn't have taken a week to "clarify".

I appreciate the change though.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Or, the grace period was always there and the assumptions were wrong.
Either way, this is good news, and the hecklers should wise up and disperse, instead of digging for reasons to complain on this issue when it's already resolved and done with.

[Mr_Writer85]

Then why did Nintendo..

A) say there wasn't?

B) took a week to clerify?

No one assumed anything. It was there in black and white. On an OFFICIAL Nintendo FAQ.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

@ writer
"No one assumed anything"

Then why did the naysayers:

A) Say that there was no grace period, despite the wording being ambiguous enough to swing either way.

B) Go on to make articles saying, definitively, that they were erased with no grace period, when the truth was that there WAS one.

They all assumed the worst.
Don't even TRY to pretend no one did that.

[Linktothepast]

There is absolutely zero ambiguity in "Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership".

This is backtracking due to public backlash, plain and simple. But please - continue to fail to push your narrative.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

@link
6 months qualifies as being outside of the subscription, so yes, it WAS ambiguous, and plenty assumed wrong based off that ambiguity.
But please, keep pretending there's no hater narrative in the LITERAL DOZENS of reports that claimed bs without rock-solid proof of anything.

[Linktothepast]

"Cannot be kept outside the duration" /=/ Can be kept up to 6 months outside the duration. Any time outside the duration of the membership is outside the duration of the membership. This is why those two statements are conflicting.

Unfortunately I can't/won't explain this to you any better than that.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

@link
""Cannot be kept outside the duration" /=/ Can be kept up to 6 months outside the duration."
Just because that's how you, and every hate-filled article on this topic, interpreted it that way, does NOT mean that it's the only way it can be interpreted.

Again, saying it can't be kept outside of the subscription isn't inaccurate, they just failed to specify how long outside of it.

Let alone does any of the negativity prove that the grace period wasn't already there while people were jumping the gun due to Nintendo's stupid lack of print clarity.

Until evidence comes forward that proves it was a feature that was added after the fact of complaints, the hecklers have no solid soap box to stand on. [And no, the wait between release and clarification does not stand as solid proof]
And at this point, with the grace period being proven to exist, they should be stepping down and shutting up already, anyways, because the issue isn't an issue anymore.

[Mr_Writer85]

Nice avoiding of my questions.

Point proven.

[FallenAngel1984]

Now they need to allow local backups

[-volt-]

The UI is boring going in 2 years, no Themes, few decent avatars, etc... A stupid phone app to communicate...They expect me to pay? Nope.

[Segata]

The UI is great in its simplicity. I find other consoles a bit bloated and slow. I agree with more themes and avatars. I really want some Xenoblade 2 avatars and maybe one day some Daemon X Machina ones because I need a mecha one. Overall I do not want them to bloat the UI again like how insanely slow and crap Wii U one was.

[Officialxandr]

Like PlayStation. Cool. Sucks that everything else basically sucks. The app sucks. The app should be a supplement to a messaging system in-system and a party chat in-system. The app would be AMAZING if you could use it while you're playing so you don't have to exit the game screen. On top of that, we should be able to party chat whenever and whichever game. Kids need to be primarily protected by their parents/guardian. It sucks that ALL of us are being "punished."

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Agreed, though apparently the app now allows you to chat with strangers instead of just friends, in Nintendo's games like MK8, so that's one improvement to the app that most are overlooking...

[Exvalos]

I mean does it cost Nintendo to keep your info on the cloud? If it does I guess this is fair.

[Mylove1516]

Now only if Nintendo would have made this clear from the start.

[PhoenixUp]

Nintendo should’ve been up front with this in the beginning

[namEuser]

BOOOOM!!! there you go people, see....Nintendo is not that stupid after all. Idiots lol I just ithink its funny how people act when regarding Nintendo...just sayin

[badz149]

forcing you to use a phone to voice chat is still pretty stupid

[Cmoney007]

Nintendo had to change it, and this means that the online service is actually looking better. But the phone app is still stupid.

[blawren4]

I still can't seem to understand why people ever expected the backups to exist while not subbed. You unsub and 3 months later, you break your switch, you sub again to get your save from 3 month ago and keep playing? Or you break your switch at the exact time you are unsubbed? Seems like such a mountain made out of barely a bump in the ground.

What am I missing here?

Your saves reside on your Switch. you upload your saves to the cloud for safe keeping, in case something happens to your Switch or you have a 2nd Switch. you play the game, and when done, the cloud backup is updated to match your local save. you unsub from the online service, you continue playing and saving locally. when you resub, you are going to overwite the cloud backup with your current save. If you break your Switch while unsubbed, that's your problem, but this is also extremely rare and you aren't paying for the insurance. Same happens if you don't pay your insurance on your car and wreck it.

Why do you all care about this at all? I'm begging for some clear understanding of why I should care.

[blawren4]

If you are going to disagree with something, provide some feedback. N4G should require it for disagrees, otherwise they are meaningless.

[blawren4]

Everyone is quoting "Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership," as some kind of evidence. This is a matter of interpretation. if you haven't paid the online subscription, you do not have access to your cloud backup. They shouldn't have had to state otherwise. Seems pretty clear.