1. #1

    How to preserve my UI/settings/profiles when transferring to another server?

    Hi all,

    The last time I transferred, I noticed that my addons went whack. I'm guessing they suddenly didn't recognize my character as the one they and their particular settings belong to now that my name was suffixed with a different realm.

    My question is simple in nature, but tough for me to find what I feel is both a reliable AND recent answer to (especially with the latest WoW folder changes): Is there an idiot-proof way to ensure that my UI and all my current addons look absolutely identical on my new realm? Or would I have to do it the hard way and ensure each one of them has a profile with my latest settings and just set it to that once I arrive?

    Thank you in advance!

    - - - Updated - - -

    Oh, and also: is there a way to ensure all my macros are there on my new realm?

  2. #2
    Literally nothing changes in the WoW interface. All your key bindings and macros etc will be retained across all characters and servers. Even when you create a new character, the only thing you have to manually set is the Auto Loot option, where you want your HP and your target's HP, and the Party/Raid frames.

    If you're using add-ons that save a profile for you, then go into that add-on and find the name of your profile (or set the name to something you'll remember) so you can reactivate that profile on a different toon or different server or whatever.

  3. #3
    copy from
    \World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\ACCOUNTNAME\OLDSERVER\OLDCCHARACTER
    to
    \World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\ACCOUNTNAME\NEWSERVER\NEWCCHARACTER

  4. #4
    Stuff from the default UI and probably settings of addons that save per character are transferred, yes, but many addons use global profiles to store settings - mainly so you can manage them on any character, copy them to new characters etc.

    For these, I recommend e.g. Notepad++, a text editor which allows you to search across whole directories instead of just one file. There are certainly other programs that can do that, too.

    After the transfer, preferably before logging in, search for your character's name (the old one, if you changed it) in the \World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\ACCOUNTNAME\SavedVariables folder. Use *.lua in the file filter, ignore .bak files.
    I advise to back up the whole folder (read: copy elsewhere) before doing this, so mistakes are less severe.

    For the most part, the name will come up as a profile index, something like:
    ["Charname-Realm"] = {
    Change the realm, as well as the charname if you changed that.
    Note that this might occur more than once per file.

    Occasionally, the addon uses the realm as a higher-level wrapper, so your character would be alongside your other characters from the old realm. This should usually just be addons that collect data about the character, e.g. inventory or boss kill counts, automatically re-created for the "new" character, so make a note of this, and maybe purge the old data later, using the addon's ingame methods.
    If the data is important, you can move this, too, but be mindful of the syntax, most importantly the curly brackets, and I suggest to log into and out of the transfered char first, to let the addon show you exactly where and how it would put the data.
    Notepad++ knows the Lua syntax and lets you collapse a bracket that covers multiple lines e.g. data for a character, so you can simply cut that one line and get the whole data for the character without having to worry about the brackets:
    But your duty to Azeroth is not yet complete. More is demanded of you... a price the living cannot pay.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Nathanyel View Post
    Stuff from the default UI and probably settings of addons that save per character are transferred, yes, but many addons use global profiles to store settings - mainly so you can manage them on any character, copy them to new characters etc.

    For these, I recommend e.g. Notepad++, a text editor which allows you to search across whole directories instead of just one file. There are certainly other programs that can do that, too.

    After the transfer, preferably before logging in, search for your character's name (the old one, if you changed it) in the \World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\ACCOUNTNAME\SavedVariables folder. Use *.lua in the file filter, ignore .bak files.
    I advise to back up the whole folder (read: copy elsewhere) before doing this, so mistakes are less severe.

    For the most part, the name will come up as a profile index, something like:

    Change the realm, as well as the charname if you changed that.
    Note that this might occur more than once per file.

    Occasionally, the addon uses the realm as a higher-level wrapper, so your character would be alongside your other characters from the old realm. This should usually just be addons that collect data about the character, e.g. inventory or boss kill counts, automatically re-created for the "new" character, so make a note of this, and maybe purge the old data later, using the addon's ingame methods.
    If the data is important, you can move this, too, but be mindful of the syntax, most importantly the curly brackets, and I suggest to log into and out of the transfered char first, to let the addon show you exactly where and how it would put the data.
    Notepad++ knows the Lua syntax and lets you collapse a bracket that covers multiple lines e.g. data for a character, so you can simply cut that one line and get the whole data for the character without having to worry about the brackets:
    I do have Notepad++ and know how to use it, so thanks a whole lot for this detailed breakdown. I will report back later today on how it went .

    As for the above comments, I did copy everything from my ACCOUNT folder (I'm a 2005 vet, this is how it used to be done way back iirc), but it did not carry over everything. Specifically, my keybinds (Bartender) and UnitFrames (Shadowed UF) were messed up. Hence my question here. @Nathanyel knows what's up .

    Thanks again all! I'll make sure to come back and report just in case other people in the future are looking for an up-to-date answer to this like I did. Googling this is surprisingly a disappointment.

  6. #6
    Also you will lose any character specific macros (the general macros will transfer over). So be sure to copy/paste them into a text file and re-create after the transfer.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Nathanyel View Post
    Stuff from the default UI and probably settings of addons that save per character are transferred, yes, but many addons use global profiles to store settings - mainly so you can manage them on any character, copy them to new characters etc.

    For these, I recommend e.g. Notepad++, a text editor which allows you to search across whole directories instead of just one file. There are certainly other programs that can do that, too.

    After the transfer, preferably before logging in, search for your character's name (the old one, if you changed it) in the \World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\ACCOUNTNAME\SavedVariables folder. Use *.lua in the file filter, ignore .bak files.
    I advise to back up the whole folder (read: copy elsewhere) before doing this, so mistakes are less severe.

    For the most part, the name will come up as a profile index, something like:

    Change the realm, as well as the charname if you changed that.
    Note that this might occur more than once per file.

    Occasionally, the addon uses the realm as a higher-level wrapper, so your character would be alongside your other characters from the old realm. This should usually just be addons that collect data about the character, e.g. inventory or boss kill counts, automatically re-created for the "new" character, so make a note of this, and maybe purge the old data later, using the addon's ingame methods.
    If the data is important, you can move this, too, but be mindful of the syntax, most importantly the curly brackets, and I suggest to log into and out of the transfered char first, to let the addon show you exactly where and how it would put the data.
    Notepad++ knows the Lua syntax and lets you collapse a bracket that covers multiple lines e.g. data for a character, so you can simply cut that one line and get the whole data for the character without having to worry about the brackets:
    After so many years of manually doing back most of my profile, I tip my hat off to you. Thank you!
    There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't..

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •