Help needed: Restoring a campaign from backups or old files

[jowe01]

Dear all,
I have somehow destroyed my campaign. Some assets are still there, but a my player characters and NPC are gone. As are mayn maps.
Is there a way to restore the campaign from old files? I have taken images of my data folder and of the specific campaign folder on various moments. Also, given that I use several PC and FG is installed in a One Drive folder, older replicas are still on other PC which I have taken care to not be linkled to the net and thus not to replicate recent One Drive changes to the Campaign folder.

Ho can I restore an earlier status of the campaign? Which files do I need to overwrite/add to the current status of my campaign folder?

Thanks in advance for your support?

[humby]

OK, job one - get your FG data folder out of that OneDrive folder, as this is likely to have been what has destroyed your campaign - there are multiple reports of this happening here on the forums. Once you've moved the data folder, you'll need to go into the settings from FG's launch screen, change to the advanced tab and then change the "Data Directory" setting to the new location.

Regarding fixing your campaign, you have two options:

Option 1 - Restore the Entire Campaign
If you have a recent backup of the entire campaign, you can go into the campaign folder in FG's data folder, rename the existing campaign (e.g. from "my campaign" to "my campaign.old" or similar) and then copy and paste the backup into the campaign folder. You should then be able to go into FG and load the campaign as normal and once you're happy that you have everything, you can delete the "my campaign.old" folder.

Option 2 - Restore the DB XML
If you don't have a backup, or it's not recent, you can try and restore the campaign from FG's backups - FG stores most of it's data about the campaign in a file called db.xml in the campaign folder, which it automatically backs up on a regular basis. To restore one of these back ups, you can go into the campaign folder in FG's data folder, then into the folder for your campaign. In that folder, rename "db.xml" to "db.xml.old" and then rename the most recent "db.session.<date>.xml" (e.g. "db.session.20250904.xml") to "db.xml" and then fire up your campaign in FG. If the campaign is still broken, go back through the db.session files in reverse date order until you hopefully find one that works.

Just in case you're not sure where the FG data folder is, there is a button in the top left of the FG screen when you first open it that will open the folder for you.

[Zacchaeus]

See here for how to restore your campaign to an earlier save https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/1207304196/Restore+Campaign+to+an+Earlier+Save

[Nylanfs]

Also see my sig for auto-backup to a synced location every time you exit FG. Remember the 3-2-1 rule!

[jowe01]

OK, job one - get your FG data folder out of that OneDrive folder, as this is likely to have been what has destroyed your campaign - there are multiple reports of this happening here on the forums. Once you've moved the data folder, you'll need to go into the settings from FG's launch screen, change to the advanced tab and then change the "Data Directory" setting to the new location.

Regarding fixing your campaign, you have two options:

Option 1 - Restore the Entire Campaign
If you have a recent backup of the entire campaign, you can go into the campaign folder in FG's data folder, rename the existing campaign (e.g. from "my campaign" to "my campaign.old" or similar) and then copy and paste the backup into the campaign folder. You should then be able to go into FG and load the campaign as normal and once you're happy that you have everything, you can delete the "my campaign.old" folder.

Option 2 - Restore the DB XML
If you don't have a backup, or it's not recent, you can try and restore the campaign from FG's backups - FG stores most of it's data about the campaign in a file called db.xml in the campaign folder, which it automatically backs up on a regular basis. To restore one of these back ups, you can go into the campaign folder in FG's data folder, then into the folder for your campaign. In that folder, rename "db.xml" to "db.xml.old" and then rename the most recent "db.session.<date>.xml" (e.g. "db.session.20250904.xml") to "db.xml" and then fire up your campaign in FG. If the campaign is still broken, go back through the db.session files in reverse date order until you hopefully find one that works.

Just in case you're not sure where the FG data folder is, there is a button in the top left of the FG screen when you first open it that will open the folder for you.

Dear Humby,
Thank you very much for the extensive and well-explained answer. I went with your Option 2 first - and it was enough to get everything working again :-). SUPER!