Help. My character is gone

[Andreti]

My character has been deleted. Probably due to inactivity, haven't played in almost 4 years. I thought you guys don't do this anymore. I still remember losing a character back during Molten WOW due to inactivity.

Anyway, I still have the encrypted backup file with my account details saved on my PC. How exactly do I use this file to restore my character? I can't figure it out. Or can you manually do it from your side?

[skullatbash]

characters lost during "molten wow" was due to database being hijacked

On what realm were you playing? Premium accounts avoid deletion but in case you were playing on realm that does not exist enymore you may get no support.
Unless you have spent coins there, in that case you can get coins refund.

[Andreti]

The character was on Lordaeron. It still said that I had a character on Lordaeron in the realm change menu, even though it's not there. Created a new one to open a support ticket in game. I don't have a premium account.

Regarding Molten, it got deleted for inactivity. I remember the hijack. I lost my character long before the hijack.

So is there no way to restore the character from my side with that encrypted file? What's the point of that file then?

[skullatbash]

I guess not.
Btw what level was your character?

[Andreti]

Level 80 warlock with 5k GS on Molten.

Around level 20 paladin on Warmane. Had a bad taste in my mouth after having the previous character deleted so I didn't play much. Glad I didn't play much considering it would have gotten deleted anyway.

Before you say start a new character, it was only level 20, I don't see the point. I play on and off. If they are still deleting characters for inactivity with no way to restore them that is not a solution.

I only started playing again 4 years ago because I noticed they had the option to backup your account to your PC with an encrypted file. I tried playing now because I felt like playing an MMO I haven't touched in a while. I assumed it would be easy to restore lost characters due to inactivity with that file.

[Persivaln]

Well, of you DID play much, your character won't be deleted. I dunno what you expect after leaving game for 4 years with low lvl character that takes 1 or 2 evevnings to get to that stage.
Backups are for situation where Warmane will lose data, not for bouncers to pull their crap out of nowhere

[Andreti]

Uhm... no. Level does not matter. Again, I lost a level 80 character with 5k GS for inactivity back when it was called Molten. Again, no, I did not lose it when the hijack happened, I lost it long before that. Why can't you read? Why are you acting so rude? Do you feel personally offended by what I wrote?

[Anyone0]

Inactivity cleanup conditions might have been different back then but I don't remember if level 80 characters were really getting deleted. But now on Warmane the conditions have been the same or very similar last few years. This is the forum thread from last one: http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=430433

Level 1 and above characters that have not been played since January 2020 will have their names removed.

Characters will have the opportunity to choose a new name upon the next login.


Level 1 - 30 characters that have not been played since July 2020 will be removed.

Premium accounts are exempt from removals.
Characters that are guild masters will result in the guild being removed.

If your character was over level 30, it would not be deleted. It would only lose its name in that case.

[Thorbjorn]

You don't play the game like at all (once a year isn't called playing the game). That would imply you don't care about the game at all. After that you're surprised when the character that you didn't play for a year gets deleted after the deletion is ANNOUNCED.
Following that, on Warmane, you make another character that you play for maybe 10 hours. You're then gone for ~ 365 days - more than 8500 hours.
Deletion is announced yet again and it happens yearly YET AGAIN.
Then you come back after another 8500 hours to complain how the character that you invested full 10 hours in gets deleted after an announced cleanup.
You read that there's an extra backup for characters but didn't bother exploring that it's used only if there's some database issues and deletion again. Did I get that right?

Make a new character and spend your 10 hours in the game again. See you in a year.

[angrylol]

Client side backup was created after Molten went belly up, as a response to it. So something doesn't fit.
No one got their Molten chars, every single one was lost, you wont get it back and you wont get 5 insta boosts and stuff, it's over. All you can have is empty account.

After that, there were realm merges. Maybe it got lost there. Check your account history, maybe someone cleaned your account and sold your char.

Why are you even sweating for 5k gs char from 5 years ago, open a general inquiry ticket here, someone who can actually see something might help. Because, how can you have WEBS beckup for a char that was lost before that system even existed?

[Andreti]

You don't play the game like at all (once a year isn't called playing the game). That would imply you don't care about the game at all. After that you're surprised when the character that you didn't play for a year gets deleted after the deletion is ANNOUNCED.
Following that, on Warmane, you make another character that you play for maybe 10 hours. You're then gone for ~ 365 days - more than 8500 hours.
Deletion is announced yet again and it happens yearly YET AGAIN.
Then you come back after another 8500 hours to complain how the character that you invested full 10 hours in gets deleted after an announced cleanup.
You read that there's an extra backup for characters but didn't bother exploring that it's used only if there's some database issues and deletion again. Did I get that right?

Make a new character and spend your 10 hours in the game again. See you in a year.

Yes. Exactly. Do you have a problem with that? Do you think this is normal? Do you think it is normal to delete player progress? I came back to games after much more than 4 years with my progress still there. EVE, Guild Wars 2, Arma 3 Altis Life, Warframe, War Thunder, League of Legends etc. Yes, I know, Arma 3 Altis Life is the only example in that list that uses a 3rd party server to store the data.

I care about the game. That's why I played it. That's why I had a level 80 character with 5k GS back when it was called Molten. I played only to around level 20 because I still had a bad taste in my mouth due to losing the level 80 character (inactivity, lost long before the hijack). I wanted to play it again but not anymore since my progress will get deleted with no way to restore it unless I log in once in a while. And I expected to be able to use the backup file.

No. I won't make a new character, get it over level 30 to have it deleted again when the character deletion policy changes.

Well, I hope there will be another database issue so I will be able to use the backup file. Apparently it does not work otherwise because reasons.

[Andreti]

Client side backup was created after Molten went belly up, as a response to it. So something doesn't fit.
No one got their Molten chars, every single one was lost, you wont get it back and you wont get 5 insta boosts and stuff, it's over. All you can have is empty account.

After that, there were realm merges. Maybe it got lost there. Check your account history, maybe someone cleaned your account and sold your char.

Why are you even sweating for 5k gs char from 5 years ago, open a general inquiry ticket here, someone who can actually see something might help. Because, how can you have WEBS beckup for a char that was lost before that system even existed?

The 5k GS char is long lost, since before the hijack. I know that is impossible to recover at this moment. I was told by the admins that there's nothing they can do to restore it (again, I was told this long before the hijack).

I have the backup file for Warmane but apparently they don't care it exists unless there is another hijack.

[angrylol]

If you have backup file, that means you lost another char after Molten? If that second char is unrecoverable, at least there should be some info of what happened.

Lordaeron(old one) merged with Deathwing and it was renamed Icecrown. I hope you don't expect that char to be on current Lordaeron, because its whole another thing with the same name. Char you had back then on Lordaeron should be on Icrcrown now. I think that's how it worked, or Lordaeron was merged before that, don't remember exactly.