Moving My PvZ 2 Save: Part Two
The last post ended with a failed sync. Here's what happened next, in order:
- The icons were hidden by a birth year. Years ago I entered 2020 at install, so the game treated me as a child and hid every account button. A test profile with an adult year brought them back. The save was never broken — the door was just invisible.
- Moved to the new phone. Exported the save with the adb script, imported it, verified offline. Profile intact.
- Registered my email, went online, lost the coins. Seconds after the first online launch, coins and gems dropped to zero. Plants, levels, everything else untouched. The email signed itself out on its own.
- Same signature as the tablet failure. Updated theory: coins and gems live on the server's per-account ledger, and my fresh registration opened one that said zero. The client copy is a suggestion; the server's word is law. Plants and progress live on the device, so the server has no say over them.
- Verified the backup. The repo copy is byte-identical to what I pushed — the phone can't alter it. Whatever happens next, the pre-migration state is safe.
What's next:
- Hold for a few days. Nothing degrades by waiting. The old phone keeps its full balances, the new phone stays offline with the email signed out. Waiting keeps every option open — most importantly, the support ticket stays viable until I spend anything.
- The spending spree. On the old phone: screenshot the balances, then spend everything offline — coins into plant upgrades, gems into unlocks. This moves value from the part the server controls into the part I control. Then re-export, push, re-import to the new phone, and verify offline. After that, an empty wallet is all the server can zero.
- Decide on the email account. Once there's no currency left to lose, re-linking it is low-risk and buys cloud backup for the progression. Or I leave it signed out and stay fully offline. Still undecided.
- Done looks like: the profile on the new phone, upgraded plants, no currency worth stealing, and a repo backup that actually restores.
The lesson, sharpened from last time: your files are what you get to keep. Everything else is a negotiation — know which parts you're negotiating over before you sit down.