Bug/Issue Nintendo Switch: Pam Deleted (With Successful Attempts to Reproduce)

I am very aware that Pam being deleted by the game is a bug that the developers have been struggling with for a long time without finding a solution.
As a game programmer myself, I understand the struggle.

However I'm very certain there is a solution to this problem and I'm trying to provide you guys with as much test data as I can.

Now for the actual report...

The bug happened for me on Winter 26 of Year 1.
Pam is at max heart level.

Here is what happened:

• I leave my home and go straight to the bus stop.
• I wait until 10am for her to arrive...
• Once I see her walking towards the bus I eagerly spam the Ticket Station to save time.
• I end up successfully buying a ticket while Pam is still walking (she is VERY close to the area where she stops to stand in front of the bus at this point. I'd almost say one pixel away?)
• She is seen in the driver window of the bus, all seems normal so far.
• I arrive at the desert

She stops existing in the game once the Desert scene loads.
At this point, I was unaware that she doesn't exist in the game anymore.​

• 6pm I went back to Stardew Valley, she is seen in the driver window
• As I arrive at Stardew Valley, she is still seen in the driver window
• Once my player exits the bus, I noticed she didn't exit the bus like she usually does.
• I checked my relationship tab and she was no longer there, I knew I had the infamous "Pam Deletion" bug at that moment.
• I re-loaded my save file in order to prevent permanent loss of Pam.

Here's a video of me reproducing the bug. This was recorded after all of my tests were completed so I guess you could consider this video my final test.




I have tested my theory on how to reproduce this bug by attempting to do the same thing twice.
Here are my results.

Test 1
I recreated the scene and spammed the ticket station again once I see her get close to her post in front of the bus.
Once again this results in me buying a ticket while she's mid-walk animation.
The bug happens again, she no longer exists in the game once I arrive at the Desert.

Test 2
I recreated the scene again, except this time I did a few extra tasks before going to the bus station.
I picked up a few foraged materials like a Crocus. I also collected the items from my recycling machines.

I then spammed the ticket station as she got closer and successfully bought another ticket while she was mid-walk.

She stopped existing again when I got to the desert.

Test 3
At this point I was wondering if the day itself is glitching out. So I tested that.

This time I let her get to the post successfully. Once she stands still I buy a ticket and head towards the desert.
When we arrive, she is not deleted. She still exists!

Test 4
Just in case... I did the same thing as in Test 1 and Test 2.
Same results, she disappears.

Test 5
I did something risky for this test. I went to sleep immediately after waking up to see if this bug would happen on a day other than Winter 26 of Year 1.

So here we are... Winter 27 of Year 1.
I woke up and she still exists. That's good.
I'm going to try and reproduce the bug the same way I did in Tests 1 and 2... spamming the Ticket Station and hoping I can buy a ticket before she comes to a complete stop.
I successfully do it.
We arrive at the desert and once again she stops existing.

Test 6
In this test I will attempt to reproduce the bug, except I will talk to her before spamming the ticket station.
I'm hoping this will do something in the game's code to prevent this bug from happening.

So I talk to her. Then I spam the ticket station. I successfully buy a ticket JUST before she arrives at her post.
When we arrive at the desert... she still gets deleted.

Test 7 (Final Test)
Similar to Test 6 except instead of talking to her I will attempt to give her a gift instead.
However I already gave her two gifts this week so I had to sleep through one more day just to make it Sunday.

She still stopped existing once we arrived at the desert.



So in Conclusion

6 out of the 7 tests were attempts to reproduce the bug.
All 6 attempts to reproduce it succeeded.

1 of the tests was just me waiting for her to get to her post successfully, just to see if my save file itself had an issue instead of the Ticket Station spamming being the issue.


I hope this test data helps you pin this bug down and squish it.

If you've already given up hope on this bug, then I understand.