Sharing Campaign Files Between Different Computers

[casteffens]

Tried setting the Data Directory hoping I could access it from different computers in different places. Didn't work. Suggestions?

Thanks.

[Trenloe]

Copy the relevant data from one FG data directory to the other. The "folder" icon in the top right the FG launch screen gives access to the local FG app data directory, your campaign data will be in the campaigns\<campaign name> directory. Copy the directories you need from one computer to another.

Don't use a cloud/synch service like dropbox, google drive, one drive, etc. as these have known to cause FG data corruption.

[casteffens]

Copy the relevant data from one FG data directory to the other. The "folder" icon in the top right the FG launch screen gives access to the local FG app data directory, your campaign data will be in the campaigns\<campaign name> directory. Copy the directories you need from one computer to another.

Don't use a cloud/synch service like dropbox, google drive, one drive, etc. as these have known to cause FG data corruption.

Thanks, I was attempting this with Microsoft's SkyDrive.

[Trenloe]

I was attempting this with Microsoft's SkyDrive.
Nooooo, don't do it! :-o Quite a few users have reported FG data corruption pointing their FG app data directory at Skydrive (or similar cloud sync apps). By all means use Skydrive to store FG data that you manually backup outside of the FG app data folder (which can make it a bit easier to transfer FG data from one computer to another), but don't use it for the FG live data directories.

[Nylanfs]

Actually that's an idea for a setting enhancement "Automatically backup current campaign to X location" then you can point it to a sync drive.

[Mirloc]

I have set up something similar using Beyond Compare (https://www.scootersoftware.com/) as the medium to keep the files in sync between different systems (my laptop and my desktop). The process can be set up as a stored sync setting, and activated when the two computers are on the same network.

It does an outstanding job of keeping the files synchronized without using something like the cloud sync files.

[casteffens]

Thanks, Milroc!

[Trenloe]

I have set up something similar using Beyond Compare (https://www.scootersoftware.com/) as the medium to keep the files in sync between different systems (my laptop and my desktop). The process can be set up as a stored sync setting, and activated when the two computers are on the same network.

It does an outstanding job of keeping the files synchronized without using something like the cloud sync files.
This looks good. Does it run all the time checking for file changes or do you schedule a sync/kick it off manually? The reason I ask this is that if beyond compare tries to sync up a currently active campaign database or player cache (i.e. while FG is running) you might still get file corruption.

[Mirloc]

No Trenloe, it is not an all the time sync, it's run manually. The one thing that makes Beyond Compare excellent is that it not only checks the date/time but also can dig into the details of the files since they are text files rather than binary files. The advantage is that you can see the details of the files prior to the sync.