Saving and backing up your Save

This teach you how to Extract your save file, and back it up again

Introduction

So, i did LOTS of search around, and nobody actually knew how to successfully backup a phantom pain save (at least i didn't found anyone who did it)

i finally did it, it works, thank god i dont need to do all over again in this mother****** huge game.
Btw i got my FOB back as well.

Saving your files

So, you actually only need to save the folder from

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<ID>\287700\"

you only need to save the "local" folder, but save the 287700 entire folder... you never know...

thats it, you have your files, your a good to go and start a new wiped out phantom pain save.

Backing up the save file

Lots of people, saved only the data from the:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\###\311340"

well, you actually need to save the:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\###\287700" files, specific the "local" folder.

to the people who saved only the 311340 folder, i actually dont know if you can backup your save with only this folder (i think you can), if this is your case, go to section "I ONLY SAVED THE 311340 FOLDER".

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***(if you followed the "I ONLY SAVED THE 311340 FOLDER" section, skip this part)***
So presuming you have saved the 287700 folder, go to your current-287700 folder, and delete the "local" folder, them, pick the "local" folder from the 287700-backup, and place in your current-287700 folder.
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go to your current-311340 folder, and delete everything inside it.

now, remove your internet connection (pull the plug or something), and start the phantom pain game on steam.
we gonna remove internet connection to avoid cloud sync or anything like that.

now, wait for the game to boot, and them he will try to load you save file, and he gonna say the save file is corrupt, and it will backup from the latest save.

this will make the game load from the 287700 "TPP_GAME_DATA" file.

wait for the load, and it will should load you old save file with no problems, even with FOB.
Do something in the game for it to save.

THATS IT!, close the game, connect again to the internet, your FOB should be there too.

Hope this guide helped you!

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By the way, im a game developer, check out Dark Old Sun on STEAM! thanks!

I ONLY SAVED THE 311340 FOLDER

so, this is experimental (i never tryed). i think it works, if it does or dosnt, please leave a comment!

open your current-287700 folder.
inside there, delete these files (backup them if you like to use them one day):

PERSONAL_DATA0
PERSONAL_DATA1
TPP_GAME_DATA0
TPP_GAME_DATA1

so, open your 311340-backup folder, you are gonna take the PERSONAL_DATA file from there, change its name to PERSONAL_DATA0 and move it to your current-287700 folder.
make a copy of that file, and change the name to PERSONAL_DATA1.

you will do the same process with the TPP_GAME_DATA file inside your 311340-backup folder, so creating a TPP_GAME_DATA0 and TPP_GAME_DATA1 file inside your current-287700 folder.

this should be enough for the game to think this is your backup files. now, got to the "Backing up the save file" section, and follow from there.

[RunForRest]

Unbelieveable something like this is needed in this age of gaming.
Some developers need a big fat slap in the face...

[Thiago Kadooka]

yes yes, the guide says that you need to save only the 287700 (phantom pain folder).

erasing 311340 will make TPP to load 287700 regardless the situation.
turning off the internet will cover the cloud situation.

so i think this guide cover all theose problems, so its a valid and good guide still.

[!RJ_Truth]

Yes, my script overwrites both locations automatically, unless one of the two physical locations does not exist. I ran into that with someone else who also didn't have GZ loaded, but his only ever loaded from the 287700. Although he also had strange custom paths that required me modifying the script just for his system. There may still be some if's and and's we don't know about, which is why the easiest is just to overwrite both locations with cloud turned off. You need to save one of the two files though as they are identical.

[Thiago Kadooka]

with both, i mean overwriting 287700 "local" folder, and erasing 311340 content

[Thiago Kadooka]

the thing is, i dont have the GZ installed, and the game loads from 311340 regardless, it could be reading the actually the 287700 save, but still, it reads from 311340 regardless.

if i delete the 311340 it says my file is corrupt, so it reads from this folder even so.

if i place my save file only in 287700 withouth erasing 311340, it loads from there...

all this with cloud disabled (actually without internet even).

maybe im overlooking something, but i tryed overwriting only 311340, didnt work, only 287700 didnt work either. i had to do both

[!RJ_Truth]

However, if you do not have GZ installed, it will then use the one in 287700\local\ whether you're playing offline or online. However, since both files are exactly the same, it really doesn't matter which one it loads at all which is why the quickest way is to backup one of them, but restore to both locations.

This has been tried and tested on multiple systems. I actually have a script I run that does the backup automatically before launching the game with a separate restore script should I ever need to restore a previous save.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but this guide is being WAY over-complicated for what is actually needed.

Peace -GeekDoctor (The Original GeekDoctor)

[!RJ_Truth]

The easy way to restore is to restore the same file to both locations, be sure Cloud Save is turned off or else the first time you go in, it will restore the cloud save instead. With cloud Save off, load the game and play to reach a checkpoint. Then you can turn cloud save back on and the game will recognize the existing save as the newest and back it up to the cloud.

The only other thing you may want to know and just for better understanding is when the two different save files are used.

Every time you hit a checkpoint (or autosave) the system rewrites out both files and yes, they are both exactly the same. That is assuming that one has both TPP and GZ installed. Explaining the differences can start to get confusing because there's a bunch of if's & and's to it. But plain and simply, if you have both GZ and TPP, then if you're playing offline, it loads the file located in the 287700\local\ directory. If you're playing online it loads the 311340\remote\ file.

[!RJ_Truth]

Apparently there are two things with this. 1. You actually don't know a lot of information and thus do things in a way that might work, but actually causes more work than is needed and 2. You've never actually read any of my posts on the subject.

Real deal. There's only 2 things you need to concern yourself. One of the save files (and it doesn't matter which one) and Cloud Share (either turned on or turned off).

The save files can be in one of two places.

<Steam Path>\userdata\<32BitUserID>\287700\local\TPP_GAME_DATA1

or

<Steam Path>\userdata\<32BitUserID>\311340\remote\TPP_GAME_DATA

These are both the exact same file despite being different filenames and locations. You only need one of them. As long as one of the two files are backed up, you have a backup. You don't need anything else. There is nothing else in either folder related to the actual save file, so nothing else is needed.