Character List and Hotkey setting between two computers.

[Ghoti]

Is there a way to keep the Character List configuration and Hot keys setting when I move between my laptop and desktop computer?
Its really inconvenient to have to remember all my hotkeys and character list of armors...

Please if there is can someone show me how this could be done ... thanks

[KraggyKor]

I devised this method based on the fact FFXI stores its character data in much the same way.

I have a system which allows me to do this on the two PCs I play the game on, and I use a file sync. tool (in my case Second Copy but there are many such utilities, often free) that can do it. I offered to post some details of how to do this and whoever I was chatting with said it would be a good idea: note sadly I have no reason to think this can be done between a PC and a PS3.

My PCs run Windows 7, the principles are the same for other flavours, the details of directory names may differ.

Where SE Stores Client-Side Setup Info

On Windows 7 systems there is a standard folder called My Games which is usually located within My Documents. Inside My Games will the a folder called FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn.

In here you'll find a couple of .CFG files (which I don't copy from one PC to the other since there are differences between them), as well as .DAT files if you've saved any Character Creations for later use: note these CAN be copied from one PC to another if you wish to create characters using a common set of 'templates'.

The Character Directories

Also found within the ARR folder are one or more sub-directories with names such as: FFXIV_CHR004000174A7F90E2.

Every character you've ever created has one, though there's no obvious way to know which is which. The long hexadecimal number in the name is unique to each character, as far as I know ever created and so if you copy this folder to another PC all details of the character it relates to will carry over.

The easiest way to identify which directory holds all the files for a particular character is simply to log into that character then log out again, then go into each of these CHR directories looking at the date/time stamps of the files in them and see if they were just updated (you may want to make a trivial change to a hotbar, macro or something to force one of them to be updated).

Alternatively, if you go into the LOG directory and simply open oneof the .LOG files in Notepad then you should easily find some reference to the character's name in there.

Copying A Character To Another PC

Once you've located the correct CHR directory then you can use Explorer (or whatever file tool you use) to open the ARR folder on the target PC and drag the CHR folder to it. You should be able to log in and play the character in the same state it is in on the first PC.

If you're unsure and are wanting to copy across an existing character, simply rename the CHR folder on the target machine (by say, adding - ORIGINAL to the end) and if bad things happen simply rename it back.

I have used this method for years in XI which is why I went looking for it in XIV, where I've used it since launch. As far as I know this cannot in any way screw-up your character itself, the absolute worst case would be you'd have to reset everything from scratch.

For backup purposes on just a single PC copying the whole ARR tree will mean if you need to re-install you can get back to were you were easily.


Note that you can use selective file copying to copy, say, the key bindings you've set up on one character to another, in this case you only need to copy the KEYBIND.DAT file from one character's folder to the other's, same for macros and pretty much any other per-character settings: the HUD I think is in the ADDON.DAT file.

If in doubt, rename the existing file before copy across a replacement, if bad things happen simply delete the replacement and rename the old one back to what it was.

[Ghoti]

Thanks.... I will try it tonite

[Furlamseere]

Greetings,

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