Transfer save files

[Biggieboy]

How to transfer save file to other account?

[stanley37861]

So I tried to copy the whole games save folder to another place so that I could replay the game over and over again without having to replay the tutorial, and the first few missions. So I have the full folder. I go and replace the save folder with the one I copied. I start the game and I have no save files at all. Complete wipe of everything. So, I do not know how to do it and I would be careful and moving files around, the game may not like it.

So I am not much help. I believe its your C:\users\(you)\appData\Local\U01 If you want to try your luck. Who knows it might work for you.

[Biggieboy]

Originally posted by stanley37861:

So I tried to copy the whole games save folder to another place so that I could replay the game over and over again without having to replay the tutorial, and the first few missions. So I have the full folder. I go and replace the save folder with the one I copied. I start the game and I have no save files at all. Complete wipe of everything. So, I do not know how to do it and I would be careful and moving files around, the game may not like it.

So I am not much help. I believe its your C:\users\(you)\appData\Local\U01 If you want to try your luck. Who knows it might work for you. :secretweapon_hoi:

Nope, simple copy to another account not work.

[Insane Chainsaw]

Saves are tied to a specific steam ID, so you'll have to hex edit them to transfer, then update their stored MD5. If that sounds obscure to you, the rest of my post won't be of any use to you.


As stanley said, your saves are in appdata\local\U01, followed by \Saved\SaveGames\[your steam ID]\[your profile ID].
Make a save with your new steam account to know what's the corresponding profile ID, then replace its GameSaveData.sav with the one from the other account, but keep the new NowSelect.sav.

GameSaveData.sav contains both your steam ID and profile ID (as text, very close to the end) so you'll have to edit these. Then you'll have to update the MD5, stored at offset 4 as text, and calculated from offset 25 (included, hex) till end of file. Make sure you write the MD5 in lower case, the game rejects saves with upper case MD5.
...But uses uppercase profile IDs.

[stanley37861]

seems like more then alittle bit of work to copy a save file. By any chance do you know why they have their save files Locked to a players ID? Is this common for games now? I do not think I have had to edit any file to copy a save before.

Also isnt it also saved in the some place else also? I believe the game will ask you if you want to go back to a past save file or does the editing the MD5 fix that problem?

[Biggieboy]

Originally posted by Insane Chainsaw:

Saves are tied to a specific steam ID, so you'll have to hex edit them to transfer, then update their stored MD5. If that sounds obscure to you, the rest of my post won't be of any use to you.


As stanley said, your saves are in appdata\local\U01, followed by \Saved\SaveGames\[your steam ID]\[your profile ID].
Make a save with your new steam account to know what's the corresponding profile ID, then replace its GameSaveData.sav with the one from the other account, but keep the new NowSelect.sav.

GameSaveData.sav contains both your steam ID and profile ID (as text, very close to the end) so you'll have to edit these. Then you'll have to update the MD5, stored at offset 4 as text, and calculated from offset 25 (included, hex) till end of file. Make sure you write the MD5 in lower case, the game rejects saves with upper case MD5.
...But uses uppercase profile IDs.

I edit the ID-s and folder names at the end (not work, its error), but this MD5 things, i dont understand sorry. I found this inside the GameSaveData.sav file? Or this is different file?

[Biggieboy]

I edit with hexed.it, i change the id, not work, i change back to original ID, and then not work too, with same data, so something happened, when i save the file. The editor not good, or?

[stanley37861]

Originally posted by Biggieboy:

I edit with hexed.it, i change the id, not work, i change back to original ID, and then not work too, with same data, so something happened, when i save the file. The editor not good, or?

Same problem I was having just moving the files from the folder and moving it back made the file not work. Best I can guess is the saves are saved in the cloud some place and when our save doesnt match the clouds save it creates an error. The MD5 that was talked about is a checksum for files. I havent worked with programming (or really anything IT related) in about 20 years so my memory on the topic might be alittle off but a checksum is something that checks to make sure all the files are intact. So that might be something that has to be changed as well. To allow the game to accept the file back. Messing with this stuff is a bit out of my wheel house. so maybe others might be able to give a clearer answer or correct what I am wrong about it.

[Insane Chainsaw]

Originally posted by Biggieboy:

I edit the ID-s and folder names at the end (not work, its error), but this MD5 things, i dont understand sorry. I found this inside the GameSaveData.sav file? Or this is different file?

The MD5 is stored inside GameSaveData.sav, at the beginning of the file.

For verification, you can open a known working GameSaveData.sav in hexed.it, go to offset 25 hex (ctrl+G, "0x25" in hexed.it), and select everything from there to end of file (tip: use ctrl+shift+end). Then click tools->hash generator, select MD5 in the list, scope=selection only, and generate hash. If you did this right, you should see the same hash as text at the beginning of your save.

Once you have understood how the MD5 is calculated, change the IDs at the end, then calculate the new hash, and replace the MD5 at the beginning.

Originally posted by Biggieboy:

I edit with hexed.it, i change the id, not work, i change back to original ID, and then not work too, with same data, so something happened, when i save the file. The editor not good, or?

I don't like online editors, but I tried making changes in hexed.it, compared the result with HxD, and the only differences were those I asked for.
Possible explanations for your problem:
-you accidentally edited something you didn't intend to.
-the game replaced the save when it failed loading it, and mayhem happened when resaving from hexed because it "does not keep entire files in memory. Instead, it loads chunks of the file as required", but did not notice the file was replaced.

Hmm... Cloud saves are something I had not taken in consideration. It's safer to turn them off, at least until the transfer is done.

Originally posted by stanley37861:

By any chance do you know why they have their save files Locked to a players ID? Is this common for games now? I do not think I have had to edit any file to copy a save before.

Sorry, I do not know why developers do this, but it's not the first time I see it. From the top of my head, Carmageddon Max Damage and Strange Brigade also tie saves to steam ID.
I don't transfer enough saves to tell you if it's common, but it's definitely not the majority of the games I had to move saves on.

Originally posted by stanley37861:

Also isnt it also saved in the some place else also? I believe the game will ask you if you want to go back to a past save file or does the editing the MD5 fix that problem?

I am not aware of any other file holding the MD5 of GameSaveData.sav, and ATM I don't see why they would do this.
The game warning you that your save is not the latest has nothing to do with the MD5, it's likely based on save date which is also stored in the file.