Nintendo Switch 2 player horrified as data transfer wipes 20 years of Pokémon

Transferring your save data from your old Nintendo Switch to the new, shiny Nintendo Switch 2 is supposed to be a joyful moment, stepping into a new era for the console and a future bright with games.

However, for one player, who was following instructions and shifting over their Pokémon save data, this process became a nightmare.

Over on Reddit, the player explained that while the initial data transfer went seemingly well, it was upon booting up Pokémon Scarlet that they noticed a massive problem.

The transfer had wiped their save, erasing “1000+ hours” of play, and more than “20 years” worth of Pokémon.

When trying to play the game on the new system, instead of loading into their current playthrough, they were presented with the character creation screen.

“THERE WAS NO ERROR IN DATA TRANSFER AT ALL. IT WENT FINE. ALL MY OTHER POKÉMON DATA IS STILL THERE, BUT NOT SCARLET. I had mons from my original GBA up to the current on there. Literally 20 years worth of data,” they wrote in the post.

After going back to their old Switch, they found the data there had been wiped, leaving them without years of progression, hard work, and joy.

The collection spanned all the way back to Pokémon Leaf Green and Pokémon Diamond, with the player slowly building their collection.

Understandably, they wrote that they weren’t sure if they’d ever be able to play again, and we can sympathise.

Other Redditors showed their support, some tried to provide solutions, and others shared similar stories of losing progress when letting friends try their Pokémon games.

The lack of cloud saves for Pokémon games makes this situation even worse, as they’re supposed to help the player, but in this case it seems that there’s no way to recover all that play time.