Imported Save files not working

Hello, this is my first topic on the forums. For most of my GBA games, I use imported saves whether they be from my other computer or downloaded off of gamefaqs. When I load up Super Mario Advance 4 for example, I’m at Water Land. I’ve beaten that world many times but every time I reload the game I’m back at Water Land. Save states don’t work either. I would greatly appreciate some assistance.

Did you overwrite you save data by loading another save state?

No, I’ll load up the game, make some progress, and close Retroarch. When I load Retroarch back up and start the game, I’ll be right back where I was before the last session, all the progress I made gone. In regard to save states, I’ll make a state during the first session and close Retroarch, but when I open it back up and try to load it, it does nothing.

What happened to me before was I had a save state that saved progress before my actual game save so when I loaded the save state it lost the game save on a GBA game. If you are using saves downloaded from the internet it may not work with some cores and they should be used with the right region, game revision etc.