Game settings not loading/saving properly (manual fix, workaround)

[DJ]

On Steam/PC, we have a problem with settings not being loaded properly. I believe this same problem has happened with SnowRunner as well. I've submitted this as a bug report, and thought it would be helpful to post here as well, in case it helps anyone.


The game uses 5 different plaintext files to store its settings. At first, it looked like there was only one folder used to store them:
"\Steam\userdata\[user-id]\2477340\remote\*.cfg" -- Let's call this the "remote" folder, and the file type is "cfg".

It turns out there is another folder:
"[This PC]\Documents\My Games\Expeditions\base\storage\*.dat" -- Let's call it "storage", but the files are "dat" files.

If you change settings in-game they are saved to the .cfg files. However, when the game starts it tries to load them from the .dat files instead, but since they're not automatically created or updated, you end up losing settings (more detail below). The only exception is video settings, which are saved to both places and therefore not lost.

When the game starts, I think these things happen:
• For any .dat file not found or not valid, the game will use default values for the particular settings it contains.
• For any existing valid .dat file, the settings will be loaded.
• All settings, whether loaded or default, are then saved into their respective .cfg files. If you're going to lose settings, because no .dat files, then this overwrite is when it actually happens.

Given that info, I found a way to reliably save and load all my settings:
• Start game, go into Settings, set yourself up.
• Close game.
• Copy the 5 relevant .cfg files, from the "remote" folder into the "storage" folder.
○ shared_user_settings.cfg
○ user_profile.cfg
○ user_settings.cfg
○ user_social_data.cfg
○ video.cfg
• In the "storage" folder, rename those 5 files you just copied, changing the file extension from ".cfg" to ".dat".
• Game will now have some .dat files to load settings from when it starts.

Keep in mind:
• If you change any settings later, you need to again copy and rename the relevant .cfg file(s). Or just manually edit the .dat file using a text editor.
• If you alter "video.cfg" or "video.dat" manually, and the files are different when the game starts, it will overwrite both their contents with the word "null". Effectively losing your settings and reverting to defaults, so keep some backups.


Finally, an interesting side-effect. If you use all 5 .dat files, a few video settings which previously did not load will now work with a bit of help.
After starting game:
• Go into Settings > Video.
• Effects Quality, Shadow Quality, Texture Quality will appear to have defaulted to "Ultra", and Filtering to "16X".
• Change nothing, but press Escape or click on another tab.
• Message pops up, "Your settings have been changed. Do you want to apply changes?" Press ESCAPE/cancel.
You should still be in video settings, except now those 4 options have the correct values (or at least they did for me anyway).

[Sethioz]

this is really strange, because my game doesn't have anything in documents and settings apart from mods, which i removed using folder symlink to my games HDD, cuz i don't want anything game related on my primary SSD.

i only see "video.dat" which contains just the basic info
for me the problem is that video presets don't save, it always starts on ultra.
everything else saves fine (keybinds, basic video such as resolution, vsync, audio ..etc).

i want couple things on high and shadows on low, but those settings won't save. it's strange.

snowrunner had this issue aswell, but it was because of windows security that didn't let game edit files in documents and settings, i think this is why they moved data from docs and settings to steam's userdata folder.
i had this issue in snowrunner 3-4 years ago when it launched, but i fixed it by disabling that annoying windows feature (one that controls protected folders).

[DJ]

Thanks for the info and yes very strange.

Out of curiosity, I deleted the Expeditions folder from My Docs and then started the game. It recreated the folder structure, and unfortunately settings were reset to default, which tells me it still didn't use my CFG files. Copied them over as DAT files and it was ok again.

Edit: checked the controlled folder access option, and it is "off".

[w_h_0_r_e_m_0_a_n_a_l]

This is the fix, thanks a lot.
It helped me finally after relaunching game for more than 40 times in 2 days trying everything else from reinstalling to deleting data.

[Edmund Bestoiber]

Had this issue in Snowrunner, helped there too.
Just the game ID differs (1465360) and there are not all 5 files.
Thank you very much!

[ryguy216]

If you're having troubles finding the remote folder like I was search for completesave.cfg