Full UI Reset on Windows Update?

Hello.

I'm not sure if this is resolvable from the FFXIV side of things, but if anyone has any insight, it would be helpful.

Today, my system finally force-installed the latest major Windows update. I always loathe when this happens because ALL of my custom settings get completely wiped out, I also lost all of my bookmarks and important cookies. But that's neither here nor there. The issue as related to FFXIV is that in this case it also apparently reset ALL of my FFXIV settings.

On launching the game and logging in, I was forced to change my password due to "suspicious account activity" (I guess the system update caused the game to not recognize me or something). I got that done, logged in... and literally every setting in the game has been reset to default. My entire custom UI is gone, all my macros are gone, all system and character settings were reset to default. All my gear sets are gone. Everything is gone. Fixing it will take hours, and even then, I won't likely be able to get it back to exactly the settings I had.

I don't understand why this happened, though. As far as I was aware, game settings and the like are completely separate from Windows. It's not like I had to completely re-install the game. My FFXIV folders are still where they were before, and my settings should all be saved to that, or if not that, then the server.

Why would a major Windows update reset my game settings, and how can I avoid this in the future?

this happens with some of the last windows updates, it just redirect to the wrong documents folder.
please search on your disk, somewhere have to be the original ones so you can restore.

for the future: use the ingame cloud sync at character select screen to save it to Square enix servers

Good afternoon and thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

These files are located in the My Documents folder (Specifically My Documents > My Games > Final Fantasy XIV). If the update changed a lot of Windows settings, it may have done something to the My Documents folder as well. Check for that Final Fantasy XIV folder and see when it was created or modified (or if there is more than one with a different name).

If you can't find that original folder, you may need to reset all of the settings from scratch, unfortunately. As the other poster mentioned, you can sync that folder with the server to recover them in the future.

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!