Talk:Tips and Tricks/@comment-222.153.223.90-20120719195144/@comment-4102115-20120720065935

Hi, that really sux. Sorry, but none of us fans here are qualified to answer that question - you'd need to contact the developers on their support page.

I can tell you my experience - but any action you take is your own responsibility.

Last year the same kind of thing happened to me. Played for about 5 months Feb-Jul 2011, spent real money buying piastres, played way too much! Then one day my game disappeared (and back then the developers never responded to any support request whatsoever, so I was on my own), so I tried re-installing the app from Market figuring it will reinstall the program and it will see my current game-data. Like any other program would. But no. Doing a new install does a complete install, including creating (writing over) the game data. I was so #!#@ off that I gave up playing it and disappeared from the wikia too. Then 5 months later (December 2011) I was bored and cleaning out emails and came upon an old wikia email. Clicked on it to see what was happening in the world of Paradise, and read about the Halloween and Thanksgiving mini-games. I thought that sounded interesting, so I started playing again. And still am!

Over on the FAQ and Versions pages are recomendations and guides to backing up your game, (due to the inherrant instability of the game). Obviously, backing up before a crash (or before losing it or having it stolen or dropping the phone in a puddle or bath or dunny). The key word is before.

However: Several notes to bear in mind:
 * 1) My crash happened July 2011. The new-game installer could be "smarter" now and read the existing game data, but I do not think so.
 * 2) Don't give up on the current install just yet. This year I have had several crashes (Force Closes, the game locks-up, etc) and the game seems to disappear. I have figured this is usually due to a SD card issue.
 * 3) * Sometimes simply rebooting the phone fixed the issue (give it 2 minutes after the phone is back at the Home Screen for Android to find all the apps on the SD card and load them into its menu);
 * 4) * Sometimes I need to shut it down, take out the battery and SD card, wipe them, put them back in firmly, jiggle them, switch the phone back on (and wait 2 minutes after the home screen loads).
 * 5) * With this last Build 90 update, my phone would not install it, kept giving an error. So I went to Manage Applications and moved my game from the SD card to the phone, then went back to Play and updated it fine. But if you can't see the app in the Manage Applications this won't help.
 * 6) If after trying the above 3 steps you still can't see the game, don't reinstall a new copy over the top yet (because I'm pretty sure it will overwrite your game data).
 * 7) * As noted, the developers have started providing support, including for game crashes, so if you contact them with your Island Name (they might ask for personal verification details) and the problem, they might have a fix for you. When you connect to your friends islands, you upload a copy of your game data to Game Insight, so they might get you to reinstall and then give you a code to reload your game, including Awards, upgrades, etc. But someone else who did this has reported his island is a little messed up, such as the "Limited Offers" started over from TV Tower for him. Still, it's better than no saved-progress.
 * 8) * If your phone is lost, broken, gone or you factory-reset it, then your saved-data is obviously gone, and it's too late to back it up now! But in your case you still have your phone, and (as of the time you wrote your post), you had not over-ridden your game data. My understanding is that the "game disappears" is a simple symptom of the Android OS not being able to find the game for some reason (corrupted Meta-Inf, Manifest or something? Such as doing a partial-but-failed upgrade?) So my understanding is that the game and data is all still there on your SD (or phone), and so I do not see any reason why technically you couldn't:
 * 9) *# Use a backup program like Titanium Backup to still backup the game data even though the Operating System can't see the game program.
 * 10) *# Re-Install a fresh copy of the game from Play, with a new empty Island.
 * 11) *# Restore your game data from Titanium Backup.
 * 12) *#* I just visualise that technically. I have no experience with Titanium Backup. Perhaps someone more knowledgable on Android Backup software could provide more specific detail on this theory?

Cheers, DMR.