A Pokemon player who wanted to transfer their data from their Switch to their new Switch 2 has lost “literally 20 years worth of data” as their Pokemon Scarlet save file “is gone.” It’s all of our worst nightmares.

In a now-deleted Reddit post shared by IGN, the player writes: “I just got a Switch 2, did the startup and initial data transfer with no issues. My Scarlet save file is gone. It loads straight into the language selection and create a character screens. No data on my OLED. Just all gone.”

It’s unclear what’s caused this issue. “There was no error in transfer data at all,” the redditor writes, but in all caps. “It went fine. All my other Pokemon data is still there, but not Scarlet. I had mons from my original GBA up to current on there. Literally 20 years worth of data. There’s nothing I can do. I don’t even know if I wanna play anymore.”

Some commenters reply that they’ve had similar issues in the past. “This same exact thing happened to me when I was transferring from my original Switch to the OLED. Tears were shed.”

“Same thing happened to me but with Violet,” says another, while one adds: “Same thing happened to me but I lost all non save cloud data.”

If you want to learn how to transfer Switch data to the Switch 2 to mitigate the chance of any errors, we’ve got you covered. And although the worst has happened to some people, don’t panic. Some of our own writers have done transfers with no issue, but this incident just proves it’s a good idea to back up your ‘mons on Pokemon Home before attempting anything like this.

In the meantime, check out our ranking of the best Pokemon game. Just make sure you store all your critters safely.