Which files to backup for single player?

[Excessive Paranoia]

After losing a dino of sentimental value to the disappearing dino bug, I've decided I'm going to start backing up my single player files on a consistent basis with a third-party program. That said, I need to know which files aside from TheIsland.ark need to be included from the saved folder to give me a complete backup / restore. If someone with a complete list could please post it, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Rogue]

Not much to do. Simply navigate to steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame. Make a copy of your Saved folder and paste it back in the same directory. Now rename the copy to Saved-Backup or whatever.

Next time you want to restore your game to that point delete your Saved folder and rename the Saved-Backup to Saved.

You can keep your backup up to date by repeating the above method.

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Old Codger:

Not much to do. Simply navigate to steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame. Make a copy of your Saved folder and paste it back in the same directory. Now rename the copy to Saved-Backup or whatever.

Next time you want to restore your game to that point delete your Saved folder and rename the Saved-Backup to Saved.

You can keep your backup up to date by repeating the above method.

I'm going to be using a program that will make a backup every 30 mins while playing and I'll probably set it to keep at least 10 backups before deleting the oldest. My saved folder is currently almost 1GB, which means that will end up being a lot of wasted space on an SSD. There really isn't a reason to back up the game's already created backups (the dated ones and the new launch / anti-corruption) as that would again be a waste. I really only need the list of files that the game keeps up to date with current play data so I can backup just those files.

[Angelous Wang]

steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame\saved\SavedArksLocal\

TheIsland.ark = your islands current state.
LocalPlayer.arkprofile = your current charatcer

Or (depending on which map you use).

steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame\saved\TheCenterSavedArksLocal\

TheCenter.ark = your islands current state.
LocalPlayer.arkprofile = your current charatcer

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Angelous Wang:

steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame\saved\SavedArksLocal\

TheIsland.ark = your islands current state.
LocalPlayer.arkprofile = your current charatcer

Or (depending on which map you use).

steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame\saved\TheCenterSavedArksLocal\

TheCenter.ark = your islands current state.
LocalPlayer.arkprofile = your current charatcer

Ok, thank you.

Does LocalProfiles\PlayerLocalData.arkprofile need to be included as well? I've noticed that it has the same modification date / time as the files in SavedArksLocal.

[Angelous Wang]

Originally posted by Excessive Paranoia:

Originally posted by Angelous Wang:

steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame\saved\SavedArksLocal\

TheIsland.ark = your islands current state.
LocalPlayer.arkprofile = your current charatcer

Or (depending on which map you use).

steam\steamapps\common\ark\shootergame\saved\TheCenterSavedArksLocal\

TheCenter.ark = your islands current state.
LocalPlayer.arkprofile = your current charatcer

Ok, thank you.

Does LocalProfiles\PlayerLocalData.arkprofile need to be included as well? I've noticed that it has the same modification date / time as the files in SavedArksLocal.

That one is your overall surviour profile. It holds you map (discovered) progress and dino dossiars unlocked.

That one is not linked characters or maps you are playing. It's unlikley any crash could effect it.

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Angelous Wang:

Originally posted by Excessive Paranoia:

Ok, thank you.

Does LocalProfiles\PlayerLocalData.arkprofile need to be included as well? I've noticed that it has the same modification date / time as the files in SavedArksLocal.

That one is your overall surviour profile. It holds you map (discovered) progress and dino dossiars unlocked.

That one is not linked characters or maps you are playing. It's unlikley any crash could effect it.

Ahh, ok... I guess that would also explain why my map on a fresh character on a new server is in the same state as it is on my single player game.

I will just backup the first two files then, thank you.

[cmicroc]

I would strongly recommend backing up the "LocalProfiles\PlayerLocalData.arkprofile" file as well. I suffered a power failure which corrupted that file, and lost all of my tame progress towards the achievement.

[Danpool]

Doesn't work for me...i copy the entire Saved Folder, qhen i try to restore (deleting eh Saved folder and moving my Backup Folder to Saved..) the game just keep in the same spot . I CAN'T RESTORE.

[Gran]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=478320334

had to dig that up for another thread, might want to try it too.
don't know if it still works though.

[Danpool]

Originally posted by Gran:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=478320334

had to dig that up for another thread, might want to try it too.
don't know if it still works though.

Still doesn't work, the program say "save complete" "load complete " "ok backup" and stuff, but qhen i click PLAY and enter the game.....still at the same place.

[Kronzky]

Yeah, I wouldn't use that Savegame Manager.
I tried to restore a save from there, and it totally killed my progress. (Guess it lost compatibility with the updates at some point.)

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Kronzky:

Yeah, I wouldn't use that Savegame Manager.
I tried to restore a save from there, and it totally killed my progress. (Guess it lost compatibility with the updates at some point.)

I ended up just using a file backup utility to save the files to a seperate folder and then restoring them is just a matter of copy / paste. Worked just fine for the time frame that I played the ingle player game, which was nearly two years ago now, so way to necro...

[jexadox]

my signle player looks like they are adding dates at the end of the map. so simply deleting the most recent should fix it right?

I've made backups of the entire 'Ark/Shootergame/Saved' file, but when i load in im on the exact same file. same possition and stuff.

my theisland files look like: "Theisland_06.05.2018_05.55.46.ark" and variations. there are like 20 of them.

[RealLG]

I created a .bat file and it seems to work pretty good for me:

echo

robocopy G:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved\SavedArksLocal\ F:\ARK_Backups\T7610\SavedArksLocal\ *.* /MIR

pause

[Perfectnot]

Originally posted by jexadox:

my single player looks like they are adding dates at the end of the map. so simply deleting the most recent should fix it right?

I've made backups of the entire 'Ark/Shootergame/Saved' file, but when I load in I'm on the exact same file. same position and stuff.

my Theisland files look like: "Theisland_06.05.2018_05.55.46.ark" and variations. there are like 20 of them.

jexadox, you need to remove the excess to use the file. Rename "Theisland_06.05.2018_05.55.46.ark" "Theisland.ark" to use it. If you are not sure this is the file you really wanted to use, just copy/past your current "Theisland.ark" (Click the filename & press "Ctrl c Ctrl v") When you copy/paste this file, Windows will put a "copy" in the name of the new file to differentiate between the 2 files. Then you may delete "Theisland.ark" and rename the backup file "Theisland_06.05.2018_05.55.46.ark" as I said earlier, to "Theisland.ark". If you get into the game and hit yourself, saying "shizen!" it won't be the end of the world. Just delete the new "Theisland.ark" you just used, and replace it with either "Theisland_copy.ark" or another autosave (like "Theisland_06.04.2018_05.55.46.ark") the same way. It's fine to delete any other .ark files you want to, but I'd keep a couple just in case you get into a crash loop. I zipfile 6 of them and replace them with the next 6 as they save, deleting the original files to save space. Just make sure you have 1 called "TheIsland.ark" before you start a game or ARK will make a new one that does not include your current character. (I learned this when I failed to proof read and tried to start with a file called "Thesland.ark" ... oops, what a mess!