Question regarding XIV data back up

[Daniolaut]

I’m not sure if anyone will be able to offer up any insight, but here goes.

So I had an issue with my PC, and I had a copy back up of the FFXIV file.

I took that file and pasted it where the FFXIV file is, and I was playing the game just fine. At one point I felt I had some items missing in my inventory but figured I moved them and forgot about it. I ran Shinryu a few times, and then went to go do the new event. I noticed someone standing in Ul’dah and they had no legs. Literally their legs were invisible, and I could see through their character.

I examined them to see what they were wearing and the item name was also missing. I sent them a tell to ask them and they said it was the Rath ex gear. I went to Kugane to see what was up and the NPC’s weren’t there. I even checked raid finder and Rath ex was not an option to queue for. I don’t even know how I got past the updater with missing files like that.

So I deleted XIV, and am redownload it now.

Any chance anyone will know if my Rath ex tokens will reappear (as I’m 99.99999% sure those were the missing items in my inventory) or are they gone for good?

[HyoMinPark]

The information on specific items in your inventory (as well as items in your Armory Chest, Armoire, Chocobo Saddlebag, and your retainers’ inventories) are stored server-side, not client-side. The only things stored client-side are things like gearset lists, HUD layout, hotbar layouts, inventory layout (i.e., if you have it organized a particular way), graphics settings, and other settings such as those you find in Character Configuration/System configuration. More than likely, something got corrupted when you started moving the FFXIV files around. A clean install should fix your problem.

[HyoMinPark]

So what does that mean? Just the Rath stuff temporarily disappeared or what? “Files got corrupted” is rather vague.

Once I redownload will it all return as if nothing happened? I have another 106 minutes so I’m bored posting on the forums.

Thanks in advance for any info.

If you’re moving around files, it’s possible to miss important ones or move important ones into places where they should not be. Most programs cannot simply be uninstalled/re-installed elsewhere via copy-pasting the contents of their program folders. It sounds to me that items from the most recent patch were corrupted, hence why Rathalos gear will not display properly for you (in-game on a character, and when you view their avatar) and why you cannot seem to find your Rathalos Scales.

As I said before, the specific items in your inventory are not stored on your system, but on SE’s servers. So they should reappear when you do a clean install of the game. If they do not, you can contact a GM in-game to see about using your one-time item restore. Not sure if they will do it for a stack of tokens, but I don’t see any reason why your items would vanish without a trace unless you physically discarded them in-game.

[Daniolaut]

Not sure if they will do it for a stack of tokens, but I don’t see any reason why your items would vanish without a trace unless you physically discarded them in-game.

Yeah sorry i deleted that comment cause i read everything but the very last line of what you said.

It makes 100% sense, that simply the item disappearing from my clients view would not cause me to lose the actual item itself.

Thanks for the input.

[HyoMinPark]

Yeah sorry i deleted that comment cause i read everything but the very last line of what you said.

It makes 100% sense, that simply the item disappearing from my clients view would not cause me to lose the actual item itself.

Thanks for the input.

I saw you removed your comment after I already posted. ^^;; But you are welcome.

[KisaiTenshi]

I examined them to see what they were wearing and the item name was also missing. I sent them a tell to ask them and they said it was the Rath ex gear. I went to Kugane to see what was up and the NPC’s weren’t there. I even checked raid finder and Rath ex was not an option to queue for. I don’t even know how I got past the updater with missing files like that.

This would be the result of somehow applying the previous patch over the current patch, which would have only happened if you copied data files and not the game binaries.

Speculatively speaking, I know exactly what else would cause this, and I'll just say you are better off deleting the FFXIV directory and reinstalling, because you're only in for a world of hurt trying to fix it now.

Your game state itself is likely fine, as inventory and token data is sent every time you change zones.

When backing up FFXIV, you need to copy both BOOT and GAME from "%ProgramFiles%\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn", so that the launcher remains in sync.

To copy the state of your game profile, macros, ui layout, hotbars, etc, also copy
"%HOMEPATH%\Documents\my games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn"

[Dzian]

If you ever want to back up your settings generally the easiest way would be just go into your documents folder and open the my games folder in there. And just copy the entire final fantasy 14 directory.

This will contain your screenshots. And all your settings. Hud layouts macros. Gearsets. Config settings everything.

I have a sync program that keeps all my files backed up and synced and it does this automatically on all my devices. Proves to be advantageous because if I change my hotbars on my laptop they're automatically changed on my pc.

If your missing inventory items they're probably still there. Just if you haven't copied the settings correctly. They'll be in a different slot. So if you were looking for an item on the first tab for example it might be on the second or third or whatever if you didn't copy the inventory sort info.

If peoples gear is coming up invisible as in you can't even see the body underneath I'd say you've got some corrupted files. If it's just a naked body with no gear on maybe it's flavoured with emporers stuff.

[Daniolaut]

Just so everyone is aware what happened...


I had a copy folder for FFXIV. I copied that folder and saved it to a USB.

I did 1-2 updates to XIV since then. (Rathalos extreme patch being one obviously.)

I then pasted said file over current file to restore the data because i was having an issue with my PC.

This didnt restore XIV properly, so i uninstalled and re-installed FFXIV.

This fixed my problem with Rathalos Extreme and other similar patch items/data components.

Thanks again for the help.