FG Files and backups - use of cloud storage

[iborg001]

This is more of a technical question about how content is saved, accessible, backed up and recoverable. I get the impression that all purchased content such as rule paks, are stored locally on my PC. If I make customizations & create campaigns, that info exists only on the machine I create them on. Or does this data get saved to a FG Cloud mothership so its accessible to any machine that I use to DM? If not, and all of this is just saved locally, I was wondering if it is possible to override the default location where stuff is saved to perhaps reference a Dropbox, Google, or MS OneDrive cloud Drive without causing problems when running the campaign?

Curious how others handle backup & recoverability issues. Is a synched drive like the above the best approach?

[Trenloe]

FG does not store anything in the cloud for you - other than your base purchases which can be downloaded via the update function if you put your Username and password in the setting window. Everything else is stored on the local hard drive.

A word of caution - do not use your own cloud storage to keep live FG data backed up. i.e. don't point DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. directly at the main FG data directory - you will get corruption issues at some point as the cloud synch apps don't work properly with the constantly changing FG data.

So, do a manual backup - after you exit FG backup your campaign directory somewhere, or ZIP up the whole FG app directory and manually transfer that to a cloud storage or similar. Manually copying files when FG isn't running is fine, just don't have any auto backup/synch applications directly connected to your FG directories as sooner or later you will encounter corrupt campaign files.

[iborg001]

Excellent. Thank you!

[Nylanfs]

It could easily made into a bat or script file. Exit Fg and it copies your campaign to x folder.

[iborg001]

Is it safe to say that the entirety of the directory "C:\Users\mike\AppData\Roaming\Fantasy Grounds" should be backed-up?

Also, I plan to do some campaign creation on my desktop and then run the campaign on my laptop at a friend's. Would I just zip up the entire "C:\Users\mike\AppData\Roaming\Fantasy Grounds" directory and restore it to the laptop, and then later do the reverse if I want to do more design on the desktop (zip up the directory on the laptop and restore it to the desktop)?

[Trenloe]

Campaign data is stored in <FG App Data>\campaigns\<your campaign name>.

If you add tokens these are in <FG App Data>\tokens

Library modules are in <FG App Data>\modules

Extensions are in <FG App Data>\extensions

Rulesets are stored in <FG App Data>\rulesets - no need to back this up unless you are using custom rulesets.

Probably the top two are the main ones you'll want to backup. If you're not adding tokens or modules or extensions then you won't need to back them up. Sure, to be safe, ZIP up the whole <FG App Data> folder, but there's really no need to go to that length...

[TheoGeek]

Late to the party on this thread. I have a Synology NAS that I use as a data repo, picture storage, etc. Is it safe to use such a device as a permanent location for my FG data folders since I can access folders on the NAS via a windows network mapped drive (i.e. no cloud synching).

Thanks!
Jeff.

[Trenloe]

Late to the party on this thread. I have a Synology NAS that I use as a data repo, picture storage, etc. Is it safe to use such a device as a permanent location for my FG data folders since I can access folders on the NAS via a windows network mapped drive (i.e. no cloud synching).
That should be OK, as long as you don't have two installations using the data at the same time.

[TheoGeek]

It works, but when I click on the "Data Folder" link from within the FG app, nothing happens. I did need to set the data folder location to something like: "\\DISKSTATION\Storage\Fantasy Grounds" because the updater doesn't recognize my Windows mapped drive.

Any idea what's going on there?

Thanks!

[damned]

Try mapping the drive as a drive letter like: G:\FGData and see if that sticks.

[TheoGeek]

Hey damned - I do have the drive mapped as "Y:\" but that doesn't show up in the folder selection dialog box from Fantasy Grounds. When I manually type in "Y:\Fantasy Grounds" (or when I remove the space in the actual folder name and try that), I can not write to the folder, even after I copied the files to that folder from teh same PC I'm running FG from - I know it's not a permission error, unless FG is doing something wonky when it tries to write data.

Thanks!

[damned]

Hey damned - I do have the drive mapped as "Y:\" but that doesn't show up in the folder selection dialog box from Fantasy Grounds. When I manually type in "Y:\Fantasy Grounds" (or when I remove the space in the actual folder name and try that), I can not write to the folder, even after I copied the files to that folder from teh same PC I'm running FG from - I know it's not a permission error, unless FG is doing something wonky when it tries to write data.

Thanks!

Other things you can try...
Try using the Subst or mklink commands to Point a C Drive location at the network location or network (mapped) drive?

[Ken L]

I manually use rsync with my web server. Simple, and without the fear of it executing at an inopportune time.

[Delrok]

Old thread but I really would love to be able to work on my campaign on my Surface Pro even though the games are played on a different system. It's the only thing Roll20 has which I find I appreciated greatly.

[hawkwind]

You can always stream Fantasy grounds to your surface pro via Steam

[Zacchaeus]

Old thread but I really would love to be able to work on my campaign on my Surface Pro even though the games are played on a different system. It's the only thing Roll20 has which I find I appreciated greatly.

There's nothing stopping you from doing so. The advice is not to use cloud back up actively - that is let the cloud sync automatically especially when FG is running. There is nothing stopping you from manually backing up to the cloud so that you can access your files elsewhere. You can also save your data files to an external hard drive or pen drive or something similar.

[LordEntrails]

I used to use a USB drive and a couple of scripts to move between my laptop and desktop. But I retired my desktop a year or more ago and just use my laptop now.