Item Duplication Possible Lead Found! | Forums

[JolanXBL]

I have been performing tests for the last hour. Here are my findings. I'll hopefully post a video of my research within a few days.
After each action, I restart the game or console. I started already with some duplicates at 137 / 800.
I uploaded pants -> 162
Uploaded helmet -> 177
Then for whatever reason it returned to 75 (normal).
So I uploaded a jacket with 8 stickers and it shot back up to 208.
I have just booted up the game after typing all this, it is now at 211.

> It definitively has connections with the Player Shop. I experience duplication after Sharing an item. I will Report my uploads to be removed to see if my inventory clears with nothing in the shop. This never happened in the Betas, nor did my clothing ever reset.

> I thought it had to do with how much effort was put in (less than 8 stickers), however my last test was 8 stickers and it duplicated twice so this may not be a factor..
> It appears to happen with items that have not been worn in at least 1 match, offline or online. So perhaps items which have gone through multiple Autosaves AND have a minimum amount of work put into them are safe from duplication? Throughout this ordeal, my Kenny (wore online) and Minecraft Steve (wore offline) were not duplicated in any way. However my Monsieur with mustache and smile (6 stickers total) is constantly getting copied.

** Side-note. While I wore the full-body outfit of Steve in a match, I did not do a match with the picture on his back, which got deleted after posting screenshots.. so if you want to save your designs, make sure to race or two before shutting down.

If you delete all your saves on PS4, a new game will still have your inventory (did for me). Stickers which disappear may return within 1 hour, suggesting all rider edits are stored primarily on a server. So duplication may occur while the server is comparing inventory items with the user's profile. It's trying to sync the items but failing to detect the ones it has already copied over. Maybe the method of owning multiple versions of the same piece of clothing is causing the system to add additional items rather than overwriting the older instances. And because the new versions are copies of the old ones, they become 'fakes' or 'ghosts' and unrecognizable by the player for interaction.

It's basically like renaming a JPEG file without applying its .jpg extension. The file exists but the OS doesn't know how to handle it anymore.

Could it even be as simple as files being set to Read-Only thus preventing them from being overwritten?
What do you think?

[crunchewy]

I just got the item duplication, as well as spinning gears on items and all my customizations going poof bugs last night. I’ve never shared anything on the shop.

[Ubi-Raziel]

Hello everyone,

First of all, thank you very much JolanXBL for the extensive troubleshooting and an explanation of your steps.

The dev team are still trying to reproduce and resolve this issue so I will add this to it, I'm sure it will be a big help.

I personally experienced this on my PS4 and deleting the Inventory save file removed all duplicates, however it does not seem to resolve it for everyone and the issue may re-occur.

Also thank you crunchewy for your input, it's interesting that you're facing this issue despite not using the store. The spinning gear issue we are aware of and should have a fix implemented soon.

Your help is much appreciated!

[JolanXBL]

Fantastic! Thank you for the update if only a short one. So if I read this correctly, deleting the inventory save file is safe to do? I assume it is only used when playing offline then? Otherwise there wouldn't be any point as far as I can see to having an inventory save if the server just rebuilds it anyways.

* Could it have something to do with apending server information into the local file? It would see the original but not recognize it as the original thus trying to add a second copy. But the profile says you should only have 1 so then the second and each after creates a conflict..

However if that fixes it for me, that could be helpful in more testing, such as performing most of those steps with the PS4 disconnected from the internet.

If it helps, I'm also connected through Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Maybe have your Dev team trick their PlayStation into thinking they're connecting from another region and see what that does. It could be the distance people are from the server, or even connecting to Ubisoft servers through the PlayStation network in different parts of the countries.

My PSN will often fail to connect to the store, communities, or anything else in the network like profiles, and return a connection error or not available at this time. However often if I simply retry after it times out, it works. It also has a better chance of working the first time immediately after PlayStation has booted up.

If the Dev team can't reproduce it, may have to replicate the conditions of someone who's affected with their router model, ISP, region and connection type :/.

[redshirt.]

I have also done my own tests to try and figure out what causes this glitch.

My first experience with the glitch was on my main account day 1 after opening 100 crates. I came back the next day and my inventory was full, 800/800.

Obviously, I tried selling the duplicates but would get error messages on some items. After a while, I figured out that if you sold everything you could (leaving the glitched items) and repeating this process, you could eventually get rid of almost everything. After selling hundreds of jackets, shirts, shoes, pants, rims and over 400 mantis headlights, I had finally gotten rid of most of my items. Unfortunately, now my inventory is full of Wild West jackets, helmets and gloves that I cannot get rid of.

So I gave up on that account and started fresh on a different profile. This time however, I made sure to never open a single crate. I have only purchased "Official RedLynx" items from the shop. The duplication glitch has happened but to a much lesser extent and I've been able to keep my inventory clean except for 1 duplicate of each of the DLC items (Wild West, Samurai, and Stuntman)

I can't say for certain if this has helped but I figured it's worth mentioning. After getting the glitch on this profile the first time, I started launching the game offline and re-connecting when I was in the main menu. The glitch has still happened once or twice but for the most part, everything seems to be working just fine.

Screenshots for proof and examples.
https://imgur.com/a/ahLDBNl

[PirateAfter40]

Wow you guys have really put a lot of effort into solving this problems. While I’m not happy to hear of others suffering my same fate, I am glad to not be alone in with this issue.

It sounds like there are a couple of routes to take. I have a plus account so I would like To know what steps I should take to fix the problem.

[redshirt.]

I honestly hope this is seen by somebody and helps figure out the root of the problem because I have spent way too much time on this. I can make a video with my phone if needed but for now, screenshots will have to do.

So, like I said in my previous post, after getting rid of every duplicate outside of the DLC items, mainly Wild West jackets and gloves, I tried one last thing, deleting my inventory save. To my surprise this actually worked. I was finally at 109/800.

I thought I was finally in the clear but after restarting the game, my inventory started duplicating again. So I decided to try my method of starting the game offline and re-connecting in the main menu after deleting the inventory file once again. And to my surprise it worked.

To be clear, here are the steps I have been taking. I have done this 5 times and have been able to re-create the glitch and also avoid the glitch. So for me, this is consistent.

1. Delete Inventory save file
2. Start the game for the very first time while being connected.
3. Close the game
4. Start the game offline
5. Connect when in the main menu

As long as you do steps 4 and 5 every time, you will not get the duplication bug. If you start the game again while connected, after the first time you delete your inventory save, you will get dupes.

Screenshots with explanations.
https://imgur.com/a/FEXi0yn

[Ubi-Raziel]

Hello again everyone.

So if I read this correctly, deleting the inventory save file is safe to do? I assume it is only used when playing offline then? Otherwise there wouldn't be any point as far as I can see to having an inventory save if the server just rebuilds it anyways.

There should be no harm at all deleting the inventory save file, however it is best to save a backup first. This issue is still under investigation but I will make sure to mention it in the forums the moment I have an update.

Also thank you xxDuckDuckGoose, I will add these steps to the investigation, as well as your imgur link with the images.