Hi Lothaer,
A hotfix was released yesterday that tackles one of the triggers that causes player’s to be caught in the “Cleaning Up” phase. Unfortunately saves caught by this error cannot be restored but the hotfix should prevent the issue from occuring if items are lost at sea or through the ground. The team are investigating other potential triggers and information can be found here: [Known Issue][PS4/XB1] Stuck in "Cleaning Up" phase on load
It appears that files stuck in this phase being inaccessible is a result of the hotfix (you may find the files still exist on your console though). I am currently gathering information on this for the team as they want to ensure it doesn’t happen in other situations. If your would be happy to share a copy of your save so the team can investigate further that would be greatly appreciated.
I’m sorry to hear this happened to your save, so far the most common triggers were items being dumped in the sea, saving while a notification is on screen or traveling to a new island and saving. One player reported that when the freeze happens when saving, if you change the wildlife setting to passive in the options menu it may unfreeze the game but loose items will be thrown into the air.
If any of the triggers match what you recall about your gameplay session before saving, please let me know.