IV Game Save not loading after installing Complete Edition

[lightningfiire]

I’ve had an issue with my save files with the base game after installing the dlc. 
 

I’ve been meaning to go back to GTA IV and get all the trophies on base game when I remembered I had the complete edition ready to go. I loaded it up and it installed to hard drive fine and started a bit of the DLC’s but when I try to load up my game from either DLC menu, it’s just says “GTA IV only save” and when I load up GTA IV base game, it starts a new game instead of my Story Complete game save.

 

The game saves are still on my ps3 but they appear in the Episodes from Liberty City folder with the Lost and Damned logo on it, so they aren’t missing.

 

Is there any known solution to recovering those save files or do I have to start my single player from scratch? Thanks in advance!

[MarcancooL]

It's a little bit late to answer but if anyone has this problem, I read that you need to make manual saves from the main game and the DLCs if you want to switch from main game to DLCs. If your main save is from main game and you play a DLC, as soon as you have an automatic save on the DLC there is no way to get back to you in game progress, and the opposite situation happens as well.

 

So yeah, if you want to switch from main game to DLCs, make manual saves on other slots or you will lose everything...

[DeepestTempest]

This happened to me when I played the game but nothing is lost. The game just likes to load the latest save instead of letting you pick a load right at the start. Make a copy of the main game save on a USB stick/PS+ and then take that same backup save and overwrite the main save (on the XMB's save utility, outside the game itself). That should bring the main game save up to recent time and date, while the TLAD/TBOGT saves should not take precedence over the main game save afterwards.  You would still have to repeat this action if you were to save TLAD/TBOGT again while them main game save becomes less recent. The game's save design is archaic, I know.

Edited January 10, 2021 by DeepestTempest
further clarification