Cloud support ending for older games

[jrsquonk]

Just got this e-mail from Rovio this morning:

“Hello!

You are receiving this email because this address is connected to a Rovio Account, which was used to save game progress in some older Rovio games, including Angry Birds Classic, Angry Birds Go!, Angry Birds Star Wars, and Angry Birds Epic. Rovio Account has been out of use for some time, and it will be closing soon. This means that it will no longer be possible to retrieve save data from the cloud after Rovio Account is taken offline on 18.3.22, 15:00.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this, and we are working to bring an updated cloud saving option to our newer games very soon. Stay tuned!”

Does anybody have any idea how we can stop this.  Are there any alternatives?

jrsquonk

 

 

Topic

[JV]

Will those games be playable on the devices they are on?

[HallieGinSB]

I’m editing my original post, as I did not read the original post carefully. I have not received the e-mail about the Rovio account ending. However, I have been seeing a message about games no longer being supported when I open Angry Birds Classic and Angry Birds Space. The same message is showing up when opening Angry Birds Friends – a game I do not play – and there is a separate Forum topic about that.

Additional comments: I do have a Rovio account, but did not receive the e-mail. However, a google search shows that many others are receiving the same e-mail. I checked on the Rovio account login page and there is nothing about it there. I decided to try logging in, but I had to reset my password as I had forgotten what it was. I did get in OK  after a password reset but did not receive any further info about the end date. After I changed my password, I could not get in to AB Classic at all. I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling AB Classic (which I can do on my Android device even though the game is no longer available in Play Store). Once I did that, after opening the game again, I logged into my Rovio account with the new password and restored my score history. What this tells me is that once Rovio shuts down the account website, the game likely will not start online because it will no longer be able to log in. Just a guess, but comments I’ve seen elsewhere seem to be suggesting this, too – with the possible workaround of playing offline. Sounds like the best we can do is be sure your current scores are saved on all devices where the game is installed. This would apply to all games for which progress is saved to your Rovio account.

[HallieGinSB]

@sweetp Heads up on something that likely will impact everyone with a Rovio account (used to save score progress on older games) who plays AB Classic on the Daily Challenge. I suggest those players be sure their devices have their current scores before March 18. It’s not clear what will happen when Rovio accounts are closed, but best guess is the game will have to be played offline.

[Brian N]

Was as recently as today (2/4/22 able to log in to my Rovio acc to restore progress on SWII on my android devices. As long as the progress remains displayed when I load up the game will it still be there when Rovio finally pull the cloud from under our feet? Any thoughts @hallieginsb?

[Brian N]

Also @jrsquonk there was a suggestion from @grammyk that the more people who petition Rovio the more likely something can be done. She come from a computer programming background so knows a lot more than me. Feel free to get involved in this discussion @grammyk.

[HallieGinSB]

@briann Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing. I honestly don’t know what will happen when the plug is finally pulled on Rovio Account, so for that reason I’ve kept AB Classic and SWII installed on both my android tablet and android phone. I don’t play either games regularly on my phone – I just use my phone to see first if the game opens OK before playing on my tablet.

I will say that I also was backing up Seasons on Facebook. About a three weeks ago the game stopped connecting to Facebook – nothing I did worked to log back into Facebook from the game, and at some point after too many attempts the game sort of “reset” so that all of the levels from the beginning up to South HamAmerica were locked. I found I could unlock those levels with coins and my old scores were still there. So now I can still play as normal, but my scores are not backed up anywhere.  I’m guessing it may be a similar situation with Rovio Account – so I would just suggest not logging out of Rovio Account from within the game until/unless something forces you too.

[Brian N]

Hi @hallieginsb thanks for responding. Seem to remember you popping into the BP a while back. Hope you are well.

I guess unless you have particular IT skills we’re at the mercy of Rovio and what happens happens. As for Seasons I’ve had a love hate relationship with Facebook for years-losing progress regaining progress but unless you know how to back things up on pc there’s no other way of ensuring you keep your progress when getting a new device.

Anyhoo thanks for your advice and will stay logged into Rovio as long as possible.

[jrsquonk]

I have still been able to log into Rovio.  It gives me my user ID and all that when I log in, so it is still working.    The impression I get from Rovio is that they are working on a new cloud system, but the new one will not include the older games.  Maybe starting up the new system will be the event that pulls the plug on the older games.

[Brian N]

I think you may be right. It’ll be like the dread everyone went through when Y2K happened.Remember we all crossed our fingers and clenched our buttocks hoping to avoid a tech Armageddon only to find nothing happened! Here’s hoping for the same result when Rovio do pull the plug. Trouble is Y2K was a fixed point in time unless we work for Rovio we won’t know when it’s happened until after the event. It is what it is!

[grammyK]

Hi all.

Here is exactly what will happen when they really pull the plug on the old Rovio account cloud system.

I noticed how so many people just walked away when they received the “finished” message in the game. When I got it, being extremely angry, I decided to test things. To my surprise I was still able to log in and restore my progress so I sent my first support request to Rovio asking for my data.

Next step was testing in airplane mode. My ABO is not empty when logged out or in airplane mode but only a couple of episodes are just started. I know many people used the Rovio account right away and lose everything. So the game still works fine but one would need to do it all again.

So: (yelling just to make sure everyone sees this sentence :-) WHEN THEY REALLY PULL THE PLUG THE PROGRESS WILL BE GONE!!

Any backups people are making are just backing up empty data files.

I am beyond angry that a company would offer to keep our data safe then take it away. Things like this happen when a company goes broke but shouldn’t happen otherwise. So at least every couple of days I put in another support ticket asking for a way to “transfer my data back to my device”. The quote is likely the best wording to use. If we could generate a storm of requests maybe they would. There must be lots of other people still playing on old devices. It’s not like it’s affordable for everyone to run and buy new tablets and phones every year. I know there was a huge crowd here of hard core fans like myself. I was fairly shy in the old days and didn’t connect much but I hope you all can spread the word.

I will write another post in a new topic describing this issue as best I’ve figured out for all the rest of our precious old games.

[grammyK]

P.S. If we manage to get our data back mighty league and other tournament stuff of course won’t work but what’s really important to a lot of us are the levels.

Mighty League uses a Facebook login. Rovio will be able to pull the use of the Facebook save functionality as well. More on this issue later in my other post.

[jrsquonk]

Thanks for all the good info @grammyk!  Just one more question.  Where is the best place to open a support ticket?

 

 

[grammyK]

@jrsquonk. They hide it well, I’ll find it again and post a link.

[HallieGinSB]

@briann @grammyk @sweetp

Hi. Looks like the plug really has finally been pulled on the old Rovio account. When I tried today to open ABO on my android tablet, it crashed without opening. I switched to airplane mode and it opened just fine and my progress was still there.

As a test, I also tried opening the app on my android phone. Also crashed without opening there. Switched to airplane mode and it opened just fine and my progress was there. As a further test, while in airplane mode on my phone I logged out of the old Rovio account and then closed the app. Spoiler alert: DO NOT DO THIS! When I turned airplane mode off and then opened the app again, it opened find but all of my progress was lost. Not a big deal to me as I didn’t play the game on my phone. But now the only place I can play it is on my android tablet in airplane mode.

Just to repeat for emphasis, if you were saving your ABO progress to the old Rovio account, the app may no longer open except in airplane mode, and, NEVER log out!

 

[jrsquonk]

ABO opened just fine on my phone.  And it was online.  All my progress was there.  Not sure what’s going on here.

[grammyK]

@briann @sweetp @hallieginsb @jrsquonk

Thanks for thinking up another test – especially using airplane mode. On my iPad it also crashed when opened while online. I exited app, reopened, got the message about progress, pressed X, app works, progress all there.

This is good news for me as my grandson won’t be connected to the net. This device is to be a dedicated Angry Birds machine for him.

@jrsquonk, I don’t know why we’re different either except possibly different platforms.

[jrsquonk]

For the record, all my stuff is Android.

 

 

[jrsquonk]

@grammyk, did you find that link for contacting Rovio?

 

[grammyK]

@jrsquonk It’s in one of my other posts, about the 5th one down in this forum.

@vollfam Sorry I missed your name in my posts. You may want to read this discussion.

[Brian N]

Hi @hallieginsb, it may still be possible to get your progress back. The same thing happened to me so I r3started game offline and went to open8ng page and then immediately went back online pressed the button that asks you if you want to log in and I was asked for email and password. Seems to be just enough time to be able to do this before the game crashes. All progress has been restored. Of course it may not be possible to do this anymore or it may just be delaying the inevitable. Too much for my tiny brain.

 

As for why it affects some more than others it may be geographical. Seems we’ve had more trouble in Europe than Stateside though not exclusively. I think @ixan57 made a point a while back regarding different servers being responsible for the problem. Clearly not my field of expertise.

[HallieGinSB]

@briann thanks for the suggestion re opening offline, then going back to online and trying to log in. I tried it on the device where I lost my progress. It started out promising enough. Opened ABO offline, turned wifi back on my device, then went back to ABO and tried to log in. It thought about for a long time, then the app gave up and closed on its own. Tried it a couple of times, and no luck, so I think access to the old Rovio account is gone permanently for me. I live in California.

I’m thankful I have all my progress on my android tablet, which was the device I preferred playing ABO on, anyway. I just have to play it in airplane mode now.

[Brian N]

Glad at least you have that @hallieginsb. Since you live in California it’s clearly not geographical. Perhaps @jrsqonk is right and maybe it is more to do with the platform. Seems android users are having the most issues. Be good to hear from some ios flingers.

[Jabomination]

I play Classic on iOS in an iPhone 12 Pro. Haven’t had issues yet, but I am seeing the message discontinuing support. I have had the apps on my phone without deleting them, so I guess that’s why my progress saves. But if I delete it it’s all gone right? The new app introduces a new Rovio account, I wonder if that is transferrable… I’m hoping all the games come back in their full glory and none of this matters one day.

[Brian N]

Thanks for your observations @jabomination.Definitely seems android users are having the most issues.

Heads up though @hallieginsb. I started playing ABO this morning on my tablet offline then went online for a moment. Came back to the game and it didn’t crash. Tried opening the game online with my phone and it’s working fine including accounts being synchronised progress wise. Don’t know how long it will last but might be a window of opportunity to get progress back on your device.

[HallieGinSB]

@briann Thanks for the heads up. Cool! I was able to get back into my old Rovio account from my phone this morning and restored my progress there, and now I have progress on both devices again. Rovio is really messing with us!