Horrified, Entire Campaign, Everything is Gone!!

[xguild]

My group and I took about a 5 month break from our ongoing online campaign. When I came back, after launching Fantasy Grounds the updated kicked in naturally. I let it do the update and after completing everything is GONE. My entire campaign, all characters, basically the entire contents of the data folder.

I can't say for certain that it was the update that is at fault, but Fantasy Grounds has this ridiculous process of keeping things in the Roaming folder which is like the worse possible practice imaginable as any sort of windows update or upgrade can effectively clear this without warning which is what I suspect happened. I did an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and I suspect it was at that time the roaming folders probably got wiped or replaced.

In any case, please tell me my campaign files are not really gone! And please don't ask me if I did a back up! Because the answer is yes, I backed up all files except for naturally the obvious stuff you don't back up like roaming folders!

HELP!

[Zacchaeus]

Where is FG Data pointing to in settings? It may be that this has been reset because of recent updates to FG. If it has then you should repoint it back to the Roaming Folder which should still be there. Upgrading to win 10 should not have affected your file structure - at least it didn't affect mine when I upgraded.

[damned]

Hi xguild the data locations that FG writes to by default do not get cleared by any normal windows process. Things like outlook write to these same data locations.
Windows10 and Windows7 do some things differently - this is a massive upgrade/change to your computer.

Have a look at these two locations and your data should be in one or the other:

%appdata%\Fantasy Grounds\campaigns
C:\ProgramData\Fantasy Grounds\campaigns

I highly recommend that you do regular backups of your campaign folder and that you dont take 5 months off from your gaming :)

[xguild]

Yeah I don't really understand what happened. I'm a pretty PC savey guy, I can't imagine that I at some point manually went into a roaming folder and deleted all the campaign files and images, characters. So it had to have happened through some sort of automated process and the only major change on my PC since the last time I used Fantasy Grounds was the Windows 10 upgrade.

There is no trace of anything in the Appdata folders nor the installation folder. Its all just gone.

I can see that since the Fantasy Ground Updates the default folders have changed. What are the old default folders for Fantasy Grounds. They definitly have changed in the last few months.

[Valarian]

Have you looked in the Local AppData folder, this is where the Windows 7 data will have been stored (I think). Not sure Windows 7 had the Roaming profiles. FG has been using AppData storage for well over 2 years though, following the WIndows guidance not to have data storage in the Program Files folders.

[damned]

Yeah I don't really understand what happened. I'm a pretty PC savey guy, I can't imagine that I at some point manually went into a roaming folder and deleted all the campaign files and images, characters. So it had to have happened through some sort of automated process and the only major change on my PC since the last time I used Fantasy Grounds was the Windows 10 upgrade.

There is no trace of anything in the Appdata folders nor the installation folder. Its all just gone.

I can see that since the Fantasy Ground Updates the default folders have changed. What are the old default folders for Fantasy Grounds. They definitly have changed in the last few months.

You have checked both of these?

%appdata%\Fantasy Grounds\campaigns
C:\ProgramData\Fantasy Grounds\campaigns

[ddavison]

The update won't clear any campaign files, nor should a Windows update. AppData is normally hidden, so make sure you have your Windows Explorer settings set to show hidden and system files. Then check the two paths that Damned listed. You can email screenshots of Your new FG Settings window to [email protected] and we can also assist you there.

You will probably just want to change your Data Directory path back to C:\ProgramData\Fantasy Grounds and then check again.

[ardesia]

Hello!
Resurrecting this old thread, looking for help.
We have been playing D&D during pandemic, thanks to Fantasy Ground.
My husband, the DM, has the monthly Ultimate licence (which did not expire).

Right now, with huge horror of the whole game party, in his computer there is no trace of the campaigns we were playing.

The "campaigns" folder mentioned in a few threads from this forum, is nowhere to be found.
It's not in ProgramData (no, not even when watching for hidden files).
It's not in the waste bin folder.
It doesn't appear out of a search for "campaigns" in C:

He has no AppData (it's a Windows 10 machine)

We are at a total loss. Is anyone able offering help?
Thanks

[Trenloe]

He has no AppData (it's a Windows 10 machine)
Yeah, you will, it's a standard windows location - it's just usually hidden by default.

To get there type %appdata% in the Windows taskbar "Type here to search" field and press enter. You'll get a file explorer open at the .../AppData/Roaming directory and, if the original install used the standard directories, you should see a "Fantasy Grounds" directory here. Go into that and then the campaigns directory.

But, let's take a step back - what happened? What changed got installed/uninstalled on the computer?

[ardesia]

To get there type %appdata% in the Windows taskbar "Type here to search" field and press enter. You'll get a file explorer open at the .../AppData/Roaming directory and, if the original install used the standard directories, you should see a "Fantasy Grounds" directory here. Go into that and then the campaigns directory.

But, let's take a step back - what happened? What changed got installed/uninstalled on the computer?
Hi, Trenloe, thanks so much for the very fast answer!

Thanks to your suggestions I've been able opening the Fantasy Ground appdata folder, but there is no "campaign" subfolder.
Existing folders are extensions, modules, portraits, rulesets, utilities and vault.
I did a search for "campaigns" on the whole computer with no results :cry:

Last time he did open FG to work at campaigns has been around a week ago, all data was there.
No updates (apart default windows ones) nor install/uninstall of other software since then

[Zacchaeus]

When you click the small folder icon at the top right of the start screen (in Classic) or top left in Unity does that take you to the same place as above. Also where is FG pointing to the data folder in settings? Is your husband using any kind of cloud synced back up program?

[ardesia]

When you click the small folder icon at the top right of the start screen (in Classic) or top left in Unity does that take you to the same place as above. Also where is FG pointing to the data folder in settings? Is your husband using any kind of cloud synced back up program?

Hi, Zacchaeus. The folder icon points to the appdata folder mentioned before, but there is no campaigns folder in there. And no, sadly he is not having a cloud backup sync.
(And before anyone would ask, to my great horror he is not even making regular backup of his pc)

[ddavison]

If the campaigns folder is not there, do a Windows File search for "campaigns" to look for potential drag and drop into another folder. If it was deleted, it would typically show up in the Recycle Bin. Since it was not there, it may have been accidentally "moved" to a different location with some unfortunate drag and drop.

[ardesia]

If the campaigns folder is not there, do a Windows File search for "campaigns" to look for potential drag and drop into another folder. If it was deleted, it would typically show up in the Recycle Bin. Since it was not there, it may have been accidentally "moved" to a different location with some unfortunate drag and drop.

Hi, ddavison; thanks for the suggestion. We already did an extensive search for "campaigns", including hidden folders and bin - it's nowhere :cry:

[Zacchaeus]

Try a search for the name of the campaign; or db.xml or modulestate.xml

[TXCBoy36]

Have you looked in the Local AppData folder, this is where the Windows 7 data will have been stored (I think). Not sure Windows 7 had the Roaming profiles. FG has been using AppData storage for well over 2 years though, following the WIndows guidance not to have data storage in the Program Files folders.

I am still using Windows 7 on my machine and I have full access to all of my campaigns.....in the roaming folder....Hope doing the upgrade does not effect what I have....will be upgrading soon to Windows 10....I will be sure and backup everything that I have FG related...:)

[TXCBoy36]

What campaign were you running that appears to be lost?

[damned]

Yes - search for db.xml
If its not there please try a utility like this: https://kickassundelete.sourceforge.net/
and run it on the Fantasy Grounds data folder.

[Nylanfs]

Also the Windows search function is not the best, I recommend this. https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/