Guild bank missing items - what happened?

[Vaelhaeyn-wyrmrest-accord]

I feel like I’ve just been the recipient of a giant eggplant in the eye socket.

Here’s what I got back in the mail for the three guild banks that I actually use:

Main Horde guild, which held at least a partial stack of -every single crafting mat type- for Warlords through Dragonflight:
434x Unbroken Claws
1x Ghost Iron Lockbox
598x Maybe Meat
10x Progenitor Essentia
875x Wildfowl Egg
This GB had seven tabs; before the failure, I had 6.75 tabs full and when the disappearances had stopped (at least for me) I had less than 100 slots occupied.

Main Alliance guild, with at least one partial stack of crafting mats from Vanilla through Pandaria:
1019x Netherweave Cloth
8x Small Barnacled Clams
921x Spirit Dust
385x Frostweave Cloth
This GB also has 7 tabs, with around 6.25 tabs of stuff before the failure, and perhaps 125-150 slots left occupied after.

Secondary Horde guild: used as a dumping ground for disenchanting and things to auction. Greens/blues/purples, pet cages, schematics/recipes, some random things, etc. I didn’t notice any pet cages missing, maybe ten recipes/schematics were gone, and for the most part it was mostly random things that I hadn’t found a home for. I estimate I lost perhaps a tab total worth of items. One Elixir of Giants recipe was returned, along with two Dark Iron Rifle schematics, one Imbued Silkweave Bag, and one Bulging Barrel of Oil.

I didn’t have anything I cared enough about to track in two of my remaining four guild banks. The last two were empty to begin with.

[Lycorisan-elune]

So . . . some of you have already gotten items back?

I have not. One guild is completely gutted and the other was missing 50% of the items from each tab . . .

Why do I have this feeling I’m not going to get anything back?

[Tinora-proudmoore]

So… ya’ll wanted a log of everything that everyone effected got back? Ok.

Guild 1 - had been cleaned out some time during Remix. What was left was patterns. A few patterns missing. Maybe 15? Suspected gold loss. Amount? Unsure. Anywhere from 0-1 mil. It had been a while since I’d been on that toon.
Returned - nothing

Guild 2 - pet and mog storage. Also minimally affected. Some pets and mogs gone. Less than 30 items total?
Returned - nothing

I was always one of the least affected players but I’m still livid that it happened at all and on behalf of all of you that lost so, so, so much more than I did.

[Lokutus-proudmoore]

out of all the things i lost, all the mog, unobtainable items, crafting mats, potions, pets, and more i got back a small handful of darkmoon faire turn in items. thats it. 7 tabs blinked out and i get that junk.

This is beyond insulting. This is blizzard saying F-you to the people who lost a ton of items.

[Lycorisan-elune]

Well, I got some things back on the one. I got . . . a whole seven (count 'em SEVEN) stacks of . . . things that weren’t missing. 686 slots, with about 300 and change missing and they return to me seven.
…
So a multi-million dollar company has no backups? Like, none AT ALL from before that patch? Who doesn’t backup their stuff before they implement new code? BLIZZARD, apparently.

[Testoraeu-aggramar (Testoraeu)]

From my point of view, the situation was avoidable.

I am 100% sure, that if Blizzard would have shut down the game after the bug was discovered, the items could have been saved. It is pretty clear to me, that the Data was overwritten when TWW hit the live servers and that the only items we get back, are those that show in our own personal logs as “deposited”. After all if those got in, then they were pretty sure lost - Blizzard logik.

By holding back the TWW release, they could have saved the items, but instead of shutting down the game until they secured the data, they let it go, well knowingly that it would screw thousands, mostly those who were loyal to the game for 20 years.

They sacrificed the old time players, for the wales that bought into early access and would have been very unhappy if they could not play earlier. I also believe that the bad reputation over this, would have caused some drama with the shareholders, mostly lowering the stock prices, making the rich lose some of their money.

Welcome to a world where money rules and the feelings of humans, loyality and trust are seen as expandable.

[Nuf-stormreaver (Nuf)]

@Testoraeu-aggramar

I am 100% sure, that if Blizzard would have shut down the game after the bug was discovered, the items could have been saved. It is pretty clear to me, that the Data was overwritten when TWW hit the live servers and that the only items we get back, are those that show in our own personal logs as “deposited”. After all if those got in, then they were pretty sure lost - Blizzard logik.

There is just … one problem with this. Among the items I got back in the mail, were NOT items that were missing. Each and every item, I had another in my guild bank that hadn’t disappeared. Anything that DID disappear, and I did not have another, did not come back. Furthermore, the items that returned, a few of them, were not touched in years. They were deposited years ago, and hadn’t been touched since; so, there is NO way those logs were even remotely recent.

[Testoraeu-aggramar (Testoraeu)]

Thank you, that is very interesting. Did you maybe move them inside the bank? Like from one slot to another, or so?

I think we may find a pattern in the long run, I first thought that everything that is no longer optainable is lost, while everything that is will come back.

But then I saw some replies where people mentioned even their DF mats, did not come back. I have not touched my mailbox yet…

[Sinsuality-hyjal]

@Nuf-stormreaver

This is a VERY interesting point, that I am glad you mentioned, because I didn’t think to check until now. Absolutely nothing that was restored, was something missing; in other words, every item that I received in the mailbox was something I still had in my guild bank that was unaffected and not missing. Now I am VERY suspicious …

SAME! In total I have 50 Tuskarr Jerky in my gbank and 12 was restored by mail. 12 is such a strange number because I have a stack of 10, 20, 20 – there is no way in hell I would have had a stack of 10 and a stack of 12. It’s very strange. I have 53 Progenitor Essentia in my gbank and 3 stacks of 10 were mailed to me. The way that my bank is sorted, I’m fairly certain I was only missing 2 stacks. The Recipe: Elixir of Frost Power was also in my gbank and I’m certain I would have only had one… so they restored an item I hadn’t even lost. The deposit date for the recipe would have been old, too. I most likely stored that back in December during Winter Veil.

[Sarabande-aggramar (Sarabande)]

@Nuf-stormreaver

There is just … one problem with this. Among the items I got back in the mail, were NOT items that were missing. Each and every item, I had another in my guild bank that hadn’t disappeared. Anything that DID disappear, and I did not have another, did not come back. Furthermore, the items that returned, a few of them, were not touched in years. They were deposited years ago, and hadn’t been touched since; so, there is NO way those logs were even remotely recent.

@Nuf-stormreaver

This is a VERY interesting point, that I am glad you mentioned, because I didn’t think to check until now. Absolutely nothing that was restored, was something missing; in other words, every item that I received in the mailbox was something I still had in my guild bank that was unaffected and not missing. Now I am VERY suspicious …

Yeah. The few (and I mean VERY few) item I “got back” were things I already had. I KNOW my own habits and I wouldn’t for example, keep 98 Brilliant shards in one stack while keeping more (not anywhere near 1000) in another. I had a very crowded bank and to optimize space, I wouldn’t do that. And yet, the things I got returned looked like someone just took stuff from the VERY FEW ITEMS I still had in my bank and just stuck it in the mail and said “Oh look we found these. There ya go - we’ve ‘returned’ your items.” NOT A SINGLE THING that I’ve had that’s no longer there (for example, stacks of silk cloth, elemental water, felblight) were returned. What the hell good is THAT?

What has everyone else’s experience been? If you kept mats and you KNOW you had full stacks that went missing, did you get full stacks back? Were things you got back partial stacks of stuff that were NOT missing from the “Missing Guild Bank Items Disaster of 2024?” Or did you actually get back things you KNOW were missing?

If people were keeping gear (say, for alts or for possible mog) and they came back, were they all BoP like the bags that some people mentioned? Is the restoration process almost as bad (or in some ways worse since we had expectation of things actually being fixed) as the original issue?

[Vaelhaeyn-wyrmrest-accord]

So I went back to the screenshots I took post-gutting. Like others, I have specific item placements that make it easier to pick out things in full tabs. What’s below is incomplete; I don’t have the heart to do much picking at this right now, so this is by no means exhaustive.

@Vaelhaeyn-wyrmrest-accord

Main Horde guild, which held at least a partial stack of -every single crafting mat type- for Warlords through Dragonflight:
434x Unbroken Claws
1x Ghost Iron Lockbox
598x Maybe Meat
10x Progenitor Essentia
875x Wildfowl Egg
This GB had seven tabs; before the failure, I had 6.75 tabs full and when the disappearances had stopped (at least for me) I had less than 100 slots occupied.

I had 1000 Unbroken Claws that disappeared and another 524 that did not disappear. I received 434 in my mail; that still leaves 566 not returned.

I had 1000 Maybe Meat that disappeared and another 402 that did not disappear. I received 598 in my mail; that still leaves 402 not returned.

I had 861 Wildfowl Eggs that remained in my bank , and received an additional 875 in the mail. No Wildfowl Eggs went missing to begin with.

@Vaelhaeyn-wyrmrest-accord

Main Alliance guild, with at least one partial stack of crafting mats from Vanilla through Pandaria:
1019x Netherweave Cloth
8x Small Barnacled Clams
921x Spirit Dust
385x Frostweave Cloth
This GB also has 7 tabs, with around 6.25 tabs of stuff before the failure, and perhaps 125-150 slots left occupied after.

One full stack of Netherweave Cloth disappeared. I have a guild tab log entry that stated that I had deposited 19x {additional} Netherweave Cloth seventeen days before the screenshot was taken on 08/17 with zero withdrawals of any Netherweave Cloth. I received the missing 1000x and the already-deposited 19x in separate mails.

No Frostweave Cloth disappeared from this guild bank as far as I can tell. I have a guild tab log entry that stated that I had deposited 385x seventeen days before the screenshot was taken on 08/17 with zero withdrawals of any Frostweave Cloth. I received another 385 in the mail.

Edit: I’m seeing a pattern in mine with something that happened 08/01. I’ll look into this further later.

I’m too angry to look at any more of this at the moment. There’s been no additional items returned in the mail. There’s no words in any language that adequately quantify what an absolute burning-trash-failure this so called ‘restoration’ is.

[Nuf-stormreaver (Nuf)]

Nope, one of the items that got returned was a full stack of Sanguine Hibiscus (Item ID #24246) which had been sitting in the same tab, in the same spot for, at the very least, four years.

Some of the other items returned were various lock boxes; some were recently added, and some had sat for years as well, so that was a mixture of new and old. Mainly, the new ones were from MOP and BFA, while the older ones were from Vanilla, BC, WOD, and Legion. I’d say all in all, I had about 40-50 boxes, and 20 of them were mailed back. Almost all of them disappeared, but a little bit of each returned.

Based on what disappeared, it seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Items I recently added disappeared, as well as things that sat there for years; likewise, things that DIDN’T disappear, were a mixture of both as well. It seemed totally random. The only non-random factor seems, that anything that got returned in the mail, I still had at least one of them in the gbank that didn’t disappear.

[Saturnine-dalaran]

I’ve not received any items back that were deleted from 7 full bank tabs, lost in mid-August. My entire bank was basically deleted.

[Aceofspadës-anetheron]

We are NOT beta testers! STOP releasing untested content!!!

[Quietus-arathor]

I am so glad I didn’t preorder TWW. I got back a pittance of what was lost.

I said before I was glad this came along because it shook me out of my complacency with this game. I really do enjoy hanging out with my friends online. But what I don’t enjoy is paying $15/mo for an unreliable SaaS product that constantly changes and removes features I enjoy (looking at you, Timewalking changes). That’s not worth it.

Weeks ago, this was the bug that broke the camel’s back and caused me to cancel my two subs. Looking at the issue resolution (and no, I don’t believe there will be anything else forthcoming) that was the right call.

There are other games to spend money on.

[Greasy-proudmoore]

Three questions,

How does Blizzard not have a data log of what people have in the game?
How does Blizzard prevent something like this from happening again?
Why is there no compensation for this error? Game time? Gold? Etc?

[Bloodynerf-dragonblight]

1. incompetence
2. they don’t give a sh*t
3. there isn’t, blizz doesn’t compensate when they f-up

you will accept it and continue to pay. no point on complaining, nothing is done about it, they don’t read these these threads either

[Testoraeu-aggramar (Testoraeu)]

@Greasy-proudmoore

Three questions,

How does Blizzard not have a data log of what people have in the game?
How does Blizzard prevent something like this from happening again?
Why is there no compensation for this error? Game time? Gold? Etc?

I honestly can not believe that they don´t have a data log, how else can they restore items that we once lost in Vanilla.

Wasn´t there some incident, where Blizzard could restore an entire profession path dating back to Vanilla, if someone unlearned it… that feature is still in the game isn´t it?

There was also a time when you could unlock achievements or even titles from TBC, long time into WOD. So there must be data stored somewhere, but for some reason Blizz either does not want to access it or can´t for whatever reason.

That being said,

I still believe that the release of TWW, is responsible that something went wrong. I do not know if old items might had blocked the implementation of warbanks, so that they had to remove items from our guild banks first to make warbanks work. (It seems as the items going kaboom happened right when the Warbanks were activated).

However, many people also lost non Vanilla items, like from DF…

This makes my assumption go kaboom itself, so it must be something else.

Maybe they had to wipe data, to make space for the warbank system? Would a company that is worth billions be so incompetent and not able to buy an additional data centre? Or was the downtime this would cause too much trouble?

I am trying to find answers, as that is my thing, but I am not sure if we ever will know the truth!

There are data miners on wowhead and co. that find every little piece of evidence about something, but they don´t seem to care to investigate what went wrong here.

As for the second question, I am confident it will happen again, it has happened multiple times before, but back then it was usually not a big deal, as fewer people were affected and Blizz did restore those items after contacting customer support.

I don´t trust these banks anymore!

As for compensation, we had this question before, what is a valid compensation? Nothing can bring back a letter of a deceaced person, nothing can bring back a love letter a now married couple wrote each other in Vanilla…

I also lost gold with my Gbank, sure they can mail me a few hundred k, but gametime I don´t want and don´t see as a valid compensation. EA offered me a full year compensation of gametime when they lost my char in the server merge.

I did not take it!

Ofc. if someone paid their gametime with selling rare stuff from the Gbank, then it is a different story.

But ya, I feel we will get nothing. The blue announcement is a joke and I am sure the last word we will ever hear from them about this.

[Bethwing-aerie-peak]

Making a few guesses here: I don’t doubt they do have logs of what everyone has, logs are so easy to keep. Likely the problem is a lack of human hand. Whatever items wouldn’t be restored via an automated process would have to be restored manually, and… well hey waddya know… they’ve laid off “over 2550” who might have been able to get that done in a week. So… oh well, too bad, SOL. Have to just settle for what the automated process can recover.

[Isellstuff-elune]

GOOD NEWS!!!

Just an update for people. I have put in 3 tickets, one each week from when this started… after the third week, I did nothing, other than bump this thread.

It seems yesterday some items were restored to me, but not via the guild bank. They were sent back via in game mail.

( EDIT: I apparently can’t put links to imgur…)

Hourglass Sand (x126)
Netherweave Cloth (x1000)
Frostweave Cloth (x1000)
Blackrock Ore (x753)
Laestrite Ore (x488)
True Iron ore (x759)
Sumptuous Fur (x1000)
Sumptuous Fur (x508)
True Iron Ore (x1000)

This is not everything, and not high value. But for anyone questioning why we care… this is a small sample… 9 bank slots… of the probably 60 or so I had just go empty one day.