[PS] Lost my level 61 Smurfs' Village on my iOS device and the hidden Recovery tool is not working

[jundarer]

Not doing anything, just trembling... ;-)

[Tapasz]

Ok...can you make a backup now? Don't tremble...we will sort it out!

[Caro]

How about closing all apps, doing a reboot, then opening GC, then opening SV and hoping it triggers it to ask to choose which village?

[Tapasz]

As GC acts strange atm it's risky Caro! I prefer Jurandarer makes a backup first if possible.

[Tapasz]

Pearl could finally enter my village after a few days....but she got tuesdays village online. When I checked from my second account immediately after I saw the original one. Will create a post in crashing thread with pics later. First try solving Jurandarers problem. As he/she (?) mentioned a recovery point from 10 days ago it seems there's something strange going on.

[Caro]

Hmmm. I'm flipping between devices right now, resetting my gifting time. Maybe I should stop, and just keep to my main device if GC is acting up. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Tapasz]

It only effects a few...mainly the ones who can't enter villages. You're not at risk in any way, it's your friends who crash at you who will see an old village if they can enter again after a few days ????. And it's not risky for them as well, only strange.

[jundarer]

Just tried the closing/rebooting-thing: no success. Got Gargamel straight away.
Then tried to start i-tunes for a backup on my laptop and got this message: The program can't start because MSVCR80.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem." So I have another problem and will try now to fix this first. Thanks for your help!!

[Tapasz]

Try reinstalling iTunes, make a backup and get back in here ????. And don't want to sound harsh but please follow steps carefully. If I were you I wouldn't have rebooted straight away as I explained above.

[jundarer]

Tapasz, I only saw your comment when I I already had rebooted, sorry. And moreover, I already had rebooted this morning, but without closing all apps...

[Tapasz]

No need to say sorry! I notice forum has a delay anyway.

[Caro]

Good luck Jundarer. I'll stay out of it then.

[jundarer]

I might have to wait for my son to come home. Can't install itunes after de-installing. The website tells me it's already done, but it's not on the computer!? This is getting a major battlefield.

[Tapasz]

Djeez...that's a mess indeed! Does your son have an iPhone?

[Tapasz]

Oh wait..already answered that, sorry!

[jundarer]

Just thinking - I might just have destroyed all data by de-installing itunes... Wasn't that a big mistake? (I'm not that computer savvy)

[Tapasz]

Yes you lost all data but there's nothing you could have done to prevent that as you weren't able to backup anyway. There was something wrong with your iTunes because you miss the .dll file.

[Tapasz]

You have two options here. Either perform a D&R and try to trigger your online GC village. This way you will lose all restore points so if anything goes wrong that's it. Usually this works out fine though. But as your iTunes failed as well the 2 month old backup will not be available.

In your case as you don't have a recent backup and no access to another device I would try the following:
Go offline. Recover the first "good" village, the one from ten days ago. Play around for a while. Now fully exit SV (close in status bar). Reopen again and see if all is ok. (ALL of this OFFLINE). Fully exit SV again. Turn wifi on. Open SV through GC. This should trigger the popup to choose between online village and device village. Preview them both. If the online village is level 61 and ok choose that one.

like I said it's up to you. If you decide on option two the worst thing that can happen is you'll lose 10 days progress.

[jundarer]

Wouldn't I need the itunes data for D&R? I can't find that thread any more, how to do a D&R.
Will try your offline suggestion first.
What would another device help? I might have to find someone.

[Tapasz]

I would use D&R as last resort. The topic is in here, if all fails I'll paste the link for you. A different device would give you the opportunity to sign in on your account and get your current online village on that device. It's another way of backup.

[jundarer]

Oh Tapasz, I think this is hopeless: Offline I got Gargamel right away again...

[Tapasz]

Hmmm..you got gargamel after restoring the supposedly good restore point?

[Tapasz]

You got gargamel when you restored the supposedly good recovery point?

[Tapasz]

Ack! Delay in forum!

[jundarer]

Like before when I was online: I get a list with villages, date by date. I try to preview one (this time I tried the oldest), but got Gargamel again.
Btw., offline I got newer villages in the list, up to today. But online, I only got older ones (at least 10 days old).