What could cause a VC Crystal save to "revert" to previous save state?

[Misdreavus]

Last night, I played VC Crystal for a few hours. I vividly remember saving and SRing using the VC menu multiple times along the way (i.e. in front of the red Gyarados). Eventually I saved for the final time and powered off my 3DS. I just picked the game back up, and to my shock, I was saved in the same spot where I began the night before. All my progress was lost, despite the multiple times I saved and SR'd (but never hard reset).

What could possibly be the cause of this? Could it be a faulty SD card, or a problem with the 3DS?

Edited March 11, 2021 by Misdreavus

[theSLAYER]

5 hours ago, Misdreavus said:

Eventually I saved for the final time and powered off my 3DS. I just picked the game back up, and to my shock, I was saved in the same spot where I began the night before.

I'm curious: did you close the VC app then power off your device, or did you just power it off straight away?

[Misdreavus]

4 hours ago, theSLAYER said:

I'm curious: did you close the VC app then power off your device, or did you just power it off straight away?

I can't be certain, but I may have just powered it off straight away. Can that cause this sort of loss of data? I've played through multiple VC games on a different 3DS system and I have to imagine there were plenty of times I just powered it off after saving with no consequences.

[theSLAYER]

2 hours ago, Misdreavus said:

I can't be certain, but I may have just powered it off straight away. Can that cause this sort of loss of data? I've played through multiple VC games on a different 3DS system and I have to imagine there were plenty of times I just powered it off after saving with no consequences.

I can't be certain, but I'm under the impression that you powered off completely when the text "*** saved the game" finished printing, but the textbox didn't close.

IIRC, if you were to do that on a retail Game Boy, there's a chance that the save may not have completely saved, so powering off immediately might throw you back to the previous save.

Always wait a bit, then close the app first, before powering off. This applies to all games on all consoles, not just VC Pokémon.
Impatient powering off the device could always lead to data loss. As a result, I always save twice, cause I'm paranoid.

[Misdreavus]

14 hours ago, theSLAYER said:

I can't be certain, but I'm under the impression that you powered off completely when the text "*** saved the game" finished printing, but the textbox didn't close.

IIRC, if you were to do that on a retail Game Boy, there's a chance that the save may not have completely saved, so powering off immediately might throw you back to the previous save.

Always wait a bit, then close the app first, before powering off. This applies to all games on all consoles, not just VC Pokémon.
Impatient powering off the device could always lead to data loss. As a result, I always save twice, cause I'm paranoid.

The part that confuses me the most is the multiple saves I made throughout that time playing, and even SRing to those save points successfully, only to have the game revert to what was a few saves ago. I've really never experienced anything like this.

It would surprise me if I didn't let the text finish before powering off, considering how many times I've successfully saved a Pokémon game in my life, but I suppose it's a possibility. I was thinking the issue was more along the lines of a corrupt SD card or something like that.

But you do make good points. I was able to get back to where I was, and I'll be sure to follow what you said.

[theSLAYER]

There were times I saved the game, the game finished printing the text, but the text box has yet to close, and I powered off.
My save apparently didn't stay.

My two thoughts to this is:
1) Textbox not closing is and powering off means the data may not be properly written to flash: Game specific
2) VC specific: Powering off without closing the app *may* cause the game to not be able to commit the saved data to proper save location.