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Restore WoW Backup Guide
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restore-wow-backup-guide.md

Paths are always in relation to the _retail_ folder (or whichever flavor you wanna restore a backup for).

  1. Start the Game and login to a character once.
  • installing the game only sets up the necessary folder structure for it to start. your macros and some CVars are stored server side, so logging into the game downloads and effectively restores those.
  1. Close the game completely again. You can leave Battle.net open.

Restore Game Settings

Difficulty: Trivial

  • literally copy paste a single file into the correct folder

Necessity: Low

  • while it doesn't hurt doing this, I'd recommend just redoing the settings, particularily Graphics following this guide.

In the WTF folder, make sure Config.wtf is present. If so, copy paste over your old Config.wtf, replacing the newly created one.

Restore AddOns

Difficulty: Trivial

  • copy pasting a bunch of folders from A to B

Necessity: Medium

  • you likely have some addons installed you actually don't need. Reinstalling via CurseForge, WoWUp or similar is also easy because you have a list of addons. Take the time!

Verify the Interface/AddOns folder exists. If not, it's safe to create.

Copy paste the folders from the old Interface/AddOns folder into the new one. You're likely familiar with this.

If you reinstall via a client, make sure to not forget P2Win sub-only addons since those are only partially available.

Restore Macros & AddOn State & Settings

Difficulty: Severe

  • finnicky, buckle up

Necessity: High

Macros & AddOn State

Macros should already be restored automatically after logging into your character(s). So make sure you logged into each character once and exited the game properly (no Alt-F4 etc.).

If not, here's how:

  • in your backed up WTF/Account folder, there's a folder with either a number or your legacy Blizzard account name from ye olden times
  • inside of that folder, there's folders for each realm you ever logged into as well as a macros-cache.txt and macros-cache.old file
    • move these files (WTF/Account/macros-cache.txt and WTF/Account/macros-cache.old) into the corresponding new folder
    • these are your global macros, not character specific
  • now for the annoying part:
    • for each character that is missing its macros, go into the corresponding realm and then character folder
    • due to Warbands, every realm folder has a subfolder for all your characters! make sure you're in the correct folder for this toon!
    • e.g. WTF/Account/12345/Blackrock/Xephyris contains a macros-cache.txt and macros-cache.old file
    • copy paste the contents of the old file into the new one. again, if the corresponding folder structure is missing for your fresh installation, log into the character first and let the game try to figure things out
    • do the same with the AddOns.txt
      • this file holds info which addons are active for a character
    • if you have custom chat settings, do the same wtih chat-cache.txt

AddOn Settings

  • in your backed up WTF/Account/12345 folder, there's a SavedVariables folder

  • copy paste this into the corresponding new folder

    • the files inside contain global addon settings, e.g. all your WeakAuras, MRT, RCLootCouncil etc.

  • for each character, go into the corresponding realm and then character folder, just like above with Macros & AddOn State

    • if you skipped over above, make sure to read it regardless. the process is nearly identical, except different files
    • e.g. WTF/Account/12345/Blackrock/Xephyris/SavedVariables
    • copy paste the contents of the old file into the new one. again, if the corresponding folder structure is missing for your fresh installation, log into the character first

TLDR

  • copy these from old to new. if the folder structure is missing, log into the character first
    • WTF/Account/12345/REALM/CHARACTER/macros-cache.txt
    • WTF/Account/12345/REALM/CHARACTER/macros-cache.old
    • WTF/Account/12345/REALM/CHARACTER/AddOns.txt
    • WTF/Account/12345/REALM/CHARACTER/chat-cache.txt
    • WTF/Account/12345/REALM/CHARACTER/SavedVariables
    • WTF/Account/12345/macros-cache.txt
    • WTF/Account/12345/macros-cache.old

Restore Custom Sounds

If you were using the SharedMedia addon, you're already set up via above steps. If you have a Sounds folder in your old Interface folder, make sure to copy that over to the new one.

Additional Links

Further Resources

Technical in nature, largely for the curious and likely outdated over time.

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