Synchronizing two installations of Fantasy Grounds?

[Rabenrecht]

It is possible to synchronize the campaign data between two instances of FG (same license)?

I use FG as a tool to collect and organize my campaign material, the combat tracker for smooth combat and as a dice tool.

When I'm working on the campaign at home I use my desktop PC. But for the play session I take my notebook with me.


Sadly I have not found an option to automatically synchronize the campaign data between the two installations. I always have to do it by hand.


Is there an option for this?
This is one instance where a cloud save would be useful.

[celestian]

You could try putting your campaign directory (and probably modules) on dropbox and symlinking both of those back to where FG expects them. I do it for a few things (tho not FG)

[JohnD]

Do not do that.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi Rebenrecht welcome to FG and to the community.

Do NOT use any kind of cloud based synchronisation on your FG data folder. You will, sooner or later, corrupt the data and lose work.

The only way is to manually copy your campaign from one computer to the other. You can, if you want, use Dropbox (or similar) to make a copy so that you can access the data remotely but don't, as I said synchronise. Just use it as a storage area that you can access.

[celestian]

Do not do that.

That's really helpful.

[celestian]

Hi Rebenrecht welcome to FG and to the community.

Do NOT use any kind of cloud based synchronisation on your FG data folder. You will, sooner or later, corrupt the data and lose work.

The only way is to manually copy your campaign from one computer to the other. You can, if you want, use Dropbox (or similar) to make a copy so that you can access the data remotely but don't, as I said synchronise. Just use it as a storage area that you can access.

Is there a specific reason FG has a problem with dropbox type filesystems? I use the mentioned method for various things tho have no need to do it with FG itself.

[Zacchaeus]

The data in your FG folder and the Dropbox folder can get out of synch if FG is being used when files are synced to Dropbox. This can lead to the FG data folder getting wholly or partially overwritten. There are a number of users who have lost data through doing this. There are some who say they have used it with no problem. You could switch off syncing whilst FG is being used but, again, it's just safer not to use any kind of cloud based syncing.

[celestian]

The data in your FG folder and the Dropbox folder can get out of synch if FG is being used when files are synced to Dropbox. This can lead to the FG data folder getting wholly or partially overwritten. There are a number of users who have lost data through doing this. There are some who say they have used it with no problem. You could switch off syncing whilst FG is being used but, again, it's just safer not to use any kind of cloud based syncing.

Dropbox I would think would be one of the safe ones since it syncs your drive, not some virtual drive mount. Files being locked by FG would certainly cause issues ... specially if they did not allow syncing to finish when they finished their game.

My suspicion is they had both systems up at once and used both at once. That certainly would cause problems ;)

[Trenloe]

Do NOT use dropbox or any other sync application on your FG data. Fantasy Grounds uses data files to store all of the campaign and player data, these are updated in real time and Fantasy Grounds needs exclusive access to these files. If there is something like DropBox syncing data while FG is writing it then the data can get corrupt - I've seen it happen in DropBox myself.

Don't use sync applications on your FG data. Sooner or later you'll have issue.

[JohnD]

That's really helpful.

You're welcome. Best I could do with chicken wings fingers and no wet naps.

Negative reputation huh...? Well screw you then.

[Roakana]

"Do NOT use any kind of cloud based synchronisation on your FG data folder. You will, sooner or later, corrupt the data and lose work.

The only way is to manually copy your campaign from one computer to the other. You can, if you want, use Dropbox (or similar) to make a copy so that you can access the data remotely but don't, as I said synchronise. Just use it as a storage area that you can access."

I do this and it works well. i just remember to copy files into DB every week or 2 and recopy back out. Yes it is more work than just a passive sync but so far i havent encountered any corruption.

[Trenloe]

Lookup damned's data copying command files he created to help doing offline (FG not running) copying via DropBox etc..

Here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?35578-How-to-back-up-AppData-folder-to-OneDrive-automatically&p=308736&viewfull=1#post308736

[Roakana]

cool. will check out. thanks.

[damned]

Hi Guys,

Even though the FG database is a relatively simple one - being a flat XML file - the regular writes by the application can conflict with the cloud syncs own read/writes and cause corruptions.
I have seen people point their FG data to a cloud sync path and STOP/PAUSE their cloud sync app while playing and start it again post game/prep.
At some point you might still mess this up forgetting to start/stop on one or the other computers.

I have seen others use something like GitHub or BitBucket and manually run a sync pre and post game from whichever computer they are using.

Most people simply do a manual copy and paste either via network, thumb drive or even a cloud sync.

My backup script - at this stage - only backs data up - I havent set it up to download data to another computer as I use the one computer 95% of the time. I do find it very useful to ensure I have a backup of all my campaigns, extensions and rulesets though!

[nic227]

I use a 32gb USB stick that i backup regularly, on my key chain, ready to go in short notice.

You could do a dropbox or cloud if you copy your files from the working directory to the cloud then copy them to your other machines working folder. at least if it does corrupt you have your last save on the other machine.