Windows HELP. Game crashes after loading save file

[noodledoodle]

Hi, so I've never had issues running my game in the past, don't use mods or have SMAPI. Today when I was going to log into my save file, it sat on the loading screen for about ten seconds and abruptly crashed. I thought it was odd, so I restarted my laptop and tried again. Same results. Tried opening a save from a different farm, and it loaded fine.

I uninstalled Stardew from my computer, reinstalled it and it's still doing this. So now, I'm just afraid that I've lost the farm I've been working on for like 2 IRL years now ;_;

Here's the error log from the most recent crash:

Message: There is an error in XML document (1, 6291454).
InnerException: System.InvalidOperationException: There is an error in XML document (1, 6291454).
---> System.Xml.XmlException: '.', hexadecimal value 0x00, is an invalid character. Line 1, position 6291454.
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String[] args)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseText(Int32& startPos, Int32& endPos, Int32& outOrChars)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseText()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
at System.Xml.XmlReader.FinishReadElementContentAsXxx()
at System.Xml.XmlReader.ReadElementContentAsString()
at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderObject.Read108_Object(Boolean isNullable, Boolean checkType)
at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderObject.Read109_Object()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events)
at StardewValley.SerializableDictionary`2.ReadXml(XmlReader reader) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\Farmer\Farmer\SerializableDictionary.cs:line 206
at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializationReader.ReadSerializable(IXmlSerializable serializable, Boolean wrappedAny)
at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderSaveGame.Read191_BugLand(Boolean isNullable, Boolean checkType)
at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderSaveGame.Read245_GameLocation(Boolean isNullable, Boolean checkType)
at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderSaveGame.Read273_SaveGame(Boolean isNullable, Boolean checkType)
at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderSaveGame.Read274_SaveGame()
Stack Trace: at StardewValley.SaveGame.getLoadEnumerator(String file)+MoveNext() in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\Farmer\Farmer\SaveGame.cs:line 1449
at StardewValley.Game1.UpdateTitleScreen(GameTime time) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\Farmer\Farmer\Game1.cs:line 5607
at StardewValley.Game1._update(GameTime gameTime) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\Farmer\Farmer\Game1.cs:line 4106
at StardewValley.Game1.Update(GameTime gameTime) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\Farmer\Farmer\Game1.cs:line 3185
at StardewValley.GameRunner.Update(GameTime gameTime) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\Farmer\Farmer\LocalMultiplayer.cs:line 927
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.DoUpdate(GameTime gameTime) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\MonoGame.Desktop\MonoGame.Framework\Game.cs:line 917
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Tick() in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\MonoGame.Desktop\MonoGame.Framework\Game.cs:line 620
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.SdlGamePlatform.RunLoop() in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\MonoGame.Desktop\MonoGame.Framework\Platform\SDL\SDLGamePlatform.cs:line 90
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Run(GameRunBehavior runBehavior) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\MonoGame.Desktop\MonoGame.Framework\Game.cs:line 481
at StardewValley.Program.Main(String[] args) in D:\GitlabRunner\builds\Gq5qA5P4\0\ConcernedApe\stardewvalley\Farmer\Farmer\Program.cs:line 200

...I don't know what any of it means, but if anyone smarter than me does, I could really use some help!

 

[noodledoodle]

Update BC I figured it out on my own:

I ended up going down a giant google rabbithole and found my solution on stardewvalley.net

Here's the link to the page where I found my solution, It's under the subheading "Finding your files". Just in case anyone else has the same issue, I want to mention that I had trouble finding the folder with my save files because I am a vanilla stardew player using Steam, and just browsing in my local files wasn't getting me anywhere. In order to find my files I had to hit "Windows+R" and then copy paste "%appdata%\StardewValley\Saves", and that finally was where I was able to follow the instructions from SV net.

Basically my save file was corrupted and I needed to go back one day from my last save and re-do that day. Games running just fine now :D