How to sync your character settings across multiple computers
Do you find yourself having to often play on multiple computers? Are you sick of re-configuring keybinds, macros, hot bars, and gear sets? Here's a set of instructions to reduce your work to zero (sorry, these instructions will only work for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, but if you're tech savvy the concept still applies to Linux or Unix if you know how to create symbiotic folder links. This can work in XP too but the process is more complicated and I don't know it off hand).
Character data such as things listed above is stored locally on your computer. So, whenever you switch computers, you have to start all of those things from scratch. I'm sure some of you may have already known this, but trust me, it gets even easier than transferring those files from a flash drive!
First things first! The folder that contains this precious data is stored at the file path: "C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn"
Here you will find folders for each of the characters that have ever been logged in on for this computer. They will have long gibberishy names such as "FFXIV_CHR004000111A111A11". Each folder corresponds to a character. Take a peek inside one of those folders and you'll see some files that look juicy such as "HOTBAR.DAT" or "GEARSET.DAT". Yep, those are your character settings! We're going to get those files all linked up across all of your computers.
Now, how to find out which folder belongs to which character can be a bit tricky, but it's not too bad. One way is to open up one of those folders, then continue into the "Log" folder, and look around in those .txt files. They contain battle logs and chat history, and should easily give away which character the folder is for. If you still aren't quite sure, you can always log into the game, and change a setting such as a gear set or a hot bar, and then check the file timstamps to see which one updates when you log off. If "GEARSET.DAT" gets a new timestamp, then you know that folder is for the character you just logged in on. Got it? Ok, so now we know where the files live, and we know which folder belongs to which character, so let's get started!
- Get ONE single computer to the exact setup that you want to exist on all of your machines. I'm sure you have a "main" comp that you use most often which has your desired settings, but just in case each comp is a hodgepodge of settings, take time to go ahead and create a "master" profile that you like that you will use on every computer.
- Make backups! Before we do anything, copy/paste each character folder somewhere safe so that it can be restored in case anything goes awry (on each machine!). I put mine here: "C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\Backup character data\FXIV_CHR004000111A111A11"
- Download a cloud-based syncing software. I use Google Drive for PC (it's free). I think Drop Box can also be used, and possibly Sky Drive. Basically the program has to have a section of your hard drive ready to sync real time to the cloud. I will be giving specific instructions assuming Google Drive.
- Open your google drive folder that is set to sync to the cloud. Mine is at: "C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Google Drive\". Now, only on the machine with the master profile (the one with the settings you want), copy and paste the entire character folder into it. So now we have "C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Google Drive\FXIV_CHR004000111A111A11". This should automatically start syncing those folders into your google drive on the web.
- Now DELETE (only if you saved a backup!) or RENAME the original character folder, so you no longer will have the folder path "C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\FXIV_CHR004000111A111A11"
- Now we're going to create a symbiotic link. Run a command prompt as administrator. Pull up your start menu and type "cmd" into a search bar and it should pop up. Right click on it to run it as administrator. Now type the following: mklink /D "C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\FXIV_CHR004000111A111A11" "C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Google Drive\FXIV_CHR004000111A111A11". You CAN use copy/paste to make this easier but in order to paste something into the command prompt you have to right click onto the command prompt and select paste - ctrl + V doesn't work. This will fail if the original folder exists, or if you didn't run it as administrator. If done properly, this create a symbiotic between the two folder paths, so that the original character path is actually a fake path that really points to the google drive path, but works as if it exists (so FFXIV doesn't get confused!). This part is crucial for real time updating.
- Congrats! You are mostly done! You have to repeat this process for EACH machine and EACH character, and then you will be finished! Remember to only copy the character folder into google drive from the profile that you want each computer to use - if you're on a machine with settings you don't care about, just simply backup your character data, and make the symbiotic link to google drive, and you'll be done.
With the above, ALL your computers will run on the same character settings on EVERY computer you use with this setup. So if you are on one computer and add a new gearset, then swap to another computer, your gear set should appear on the new computer without any work from you at all. Hope this helps ya'll out!
