After latest patch, ESO does not recognize the local settings folder

rubander

What title says.

I mean I log in and all my settings are reset and it cant find any addon even though I didn't change anything from before the maintenance. Any fix/solutions? Anyone else experiencing the same?

It's strange because the Video settings look like are the only ones that are the same, the rest (even AUDIO) was completely reset.

rubander

What I tried so far:

- Moving the AddOns/Settings from the C:/YourUserName/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live folder to C/:ProgramData/Elder Scrolls Online/ live folder -> Does not work.
- Inside ProgramData/Elder Scrolls Online folder there is a ESO_CURRENT_BRANCH folder with same structure as live folder, but copying inside also does not work.
- Trying to change any setting in the game and then going back to those folders to see what changed -> Nothing, its like its not saving any user settings whatsoever.


Currently what I have left and I'm about to do is Uninstall and delete completely any folder related to ESO and reinstall (backing up addons and usersettings of course) but it was really weird that it was not saving the settings at all after changes in the game.


Also, maybe this should be under PC Technical support and not Bug Reports, though it is strange that it stops working after a patch

Danzio

rubander wrote: »

What title says.

I mean I log in and all my settings are reset and it cant find any addon even though I didn't change anything from before the maintenance. Any fix/solutions? Anyone else experiencing the same?

It's strange because the Video settings look like are the only ones that are the same, the rest (even AUDIO) was completely reset.

I have such problem. Quick search of client logs - and I discovered that all settings are not in C:/Users/%username%/Documents/TESO/, but in C:/Users/Public/Documents/TESO/
I don't know is this some kind of a bug or it was done intentionaly, I look forward for moderators to explain this... weird thing.
For now I just copied all addons and settings to Public folder

ZOS_GinaBruno

Hey all, this sounds like something tied to Windows and not ESO. Make sure if you have Windows Defender protected folders turned on, you are giving ESO64.exe access.

Lauranae

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey all, this sounds like something tied to Windows and not ESO. Make sure if you have Windows Defender protected folders turned on, you are giving ESO64.exe access.

Yes, i mentionned it earlier i had to add again ESO64.EXE to excluded in Antivirus and firewall, means you have to add it either in only windows or in my case Norton and Windows

Thunderclap

This one of the stupit bugs ever.

Almost every major patch they change the folder of the adds ons etc.

I have now 3 diffferent folder location on my PC.

You can check these list, maybe you find the new pos on your PC:
C:\ProgramData\Elder Scrolls Online\live
C:\Elder Scrolls Online\live
Current: C:\Users\[Name]\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live

rubander

I have it included in both Antivirus and Firewall, the only thing I did that worked was what @Danzio suggested -> The addons and settings are all now located in the Public Documents folder instead of the current user one. But only after I deleted everything and reinstalled the game. Prior to that after a search for any UserSettings.txt would get no results at all.

Way to check? Delete (or backup under a different name) every Elder Scrolls Online/live folders you have anywhere in your computer and then try to get in the game and change some settings. Now go to any folder and check that the UserSettings.txt matches the time you made those changes.

In my case it is fixed, but I guess more people will have this problem (someone was mentioning the same problem on Vardenfell Zone Chat just now)

keto3000

I'm having similar log in problems on my iMAc, macOS Catalina v10.15.7 on which I've played for years.
Launcher suggested Repair. Repair worked first time to the High Isle load screen, then unexpectedly quit. Now Launcher keeps telling me to REPAIR in a loop. Repair finishses cycle then says REPAIR again.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey all, this sounds like something tied to Windows and not ESO. Make sure if you have Windows Defender protected folders turned on, you are giving ESO64.exe access.

The_Eckhart

I have the same issue. I had no problem before the patch, nor with anything related to windows 10. But after I installed the new patch, the game was opened as if I opened it for the first time, making me accept the terms and select country etc. Then I saw that my addons were gone. I deleted everything and installed the game again. Nothing changed. I searched the net for 2 days and found nothing except that windows defender thing, oh and onedrive. I don't use onedrive. I checked defender for the protected folders and saw that it was already turned OFF. Thanks to someone's advice, I found the new folder that ESO created by taking screenshot in game and it showed me where it was saved on the right top of the screen: "C\Users\Public\Public Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\Screenshots". Bloody Mary, that's my new live folder! I moved all addons to that folder and everything went just fine. Then I tried to turn on the protected folders thing on defender and give permission to ESO in order to see if I can move my live folder to where it should normally be: "C\Users\Username\Documents" in my SSD. Guess what? It created another folder in the middle of my HDD. I quickly turned it off and tried to live with that public folder.

Tommy_The_Gun

I usually play on my desktop, but today I had to use my laptop, so I launched ESO, update downloaded, started the game to do the daily endeavours. I was greeted with "terms of service" window and the game forgot my user name.
"Whatever I probably have not played on this machine since last update, so it is normal."

Then I have noticed that my add-ons are missing.
"Whatever, I will deal with that later".

I did the daily endeavours. Then alt-tab and... wait. That is weird. My add-ons are where they are supposed to be... very weird.

I tried to troubleshoot the issue. Permissions, read-only, Anti-virus settings, allowed folders, blocked folders... all the other bs... nothing works. Game can save settings, but no add-ons. Out of frustration I hited "screenshot"... saved at:
C:\users\Public\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\

Whaaat ?!! Public? Why Public... like... wt...
So I moved the add-ons, screenshot & settings there, made a shortcut in my documents to this "public" ESO folder...

It now works... not a big deal since I am the only person using this PC...but wow, I was literally pranked by the game itself on the April 1st...

Later I tried reg-edit to see if there is a way to change path for the ESO settings folder to how it was before, but it seems there is no way to restore it. Not a big deal but... wow lol

Note: What is weird is that on my desktop pc, I use exactly the same version of Windows, same Anti-virus software, Windows username is the same... and on desktop pc it is still working as it should...
"COMPUTERS" I guess. All are build the same, but all of them work differently...

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey all, this sounds like something tied to Windows and not ESO. Make sure if you have Windows Defender protected folders turned on, you are giving ESO64.exe access.

I don't think it is a Windows 10 issue. Like I have mentioned - I have 2 machines, same version of Windows, same Anti-virus software, Windows Defender is disabled on both. I had not encountered such issues before. The issue appeared randomly on one Pc after last ESO update. Windows did not update. AV did not update. ESO updated.

If a program or game with administrator privileges can not for whatever reason create/use/see a folder - then it is fault of a program or game in question. And it should be better looked at since "public" documents are public. Every user account on Windows can access it. Not an issue if there is only one user, but if multiple people use one device & have different Windows accounts - then it is a critical security flaw.

@ZOS_Kevin

Tommy_The_Gun

Ok, after a bit of digging I might have a theory what might be causing this issue. I will need some verification from other players who also had this problem.

My theory is that after last update, from some reason ESO does not accept non-English alphabet letters when it comes to system folders. You know, some of those - ä,ą,ñ,ö,ó etc. The ones that do not exists in English alphabet. Very often programs have problems with that and do not work properly.

It just so happens that my user name in Windows has one letter like that (English is not my native language).

So, lets say your name is Björ, and your user name in windows is also Björn. ESO is trying to create an "Elder Scrolls Online" folder in:
C:\Users\Björn\Documents <-it can not do so and goes for what it can do, so:
C:\Users\Public\Documents <- that always has same path (and only English letters) no matter what language you are using in Windows.

On my Desktop PC it works, because my Documents folder is moved directly to a D drive, on the other disk, so it is:
D :\Documents <- ESO does not find any letters it can not recognize, so it works.

@ZOS_Kevin

rubander

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

So, lets say your name is Björ, and your user name in windows is also Björn. ESO is trying to create an "Elder Scrolls Online" folder in:
C:\Users\Björn\Documents <-it can not do so and goes for what it can do, so:
C:\Users\Public\Documents <- that always has same path (and only English letters) no matter what language you are using in Windows.

On my Desktop PC it works, because my Documents folder is moved directly to a D drive, on the other disk, so it is:
D :\Documents <- ESO does not find any letters it can not recognize, so it works.

@ZOS_Kevin

This is funny, because the route that I used to have included my name and that includes a é character. So I guess this is something related to that with a 99.9% of probability.

Szende

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Ok, after a bit of digging I might have a theory what might be causing this issue. I will need some verification from other players who also had this problem.

My theory is that after last update, from some reason ESO does not accept non-English alphabet letters when it comes to system folders. You know, some of those - ä,ą,ñ,ö,ó etc. The ones that do not exists in English alphabet. Very often programs have problems with that and do not work properly.

It just so happens that my user name in Windows has one letter like that (English is not my native language).

So, lets say your name is Björ, and your user name in windows is also Björn. ESO is trying to create an "Elder Scrolls Online" folder in:
C:\Users\Björn\Documents <-it can not do so and goes for what it can do, so:
C:\Users\Public\Documents <- that always has same path (and only English letters) no matter what language you are using in Windows.

On my Desktop PC it works, because my Documents folder is moved directly to a D drive, on the other disk, so it is:
D :\Documents <- ESO does not find any letters it can not recognize, so it works.

@ZOS_Kevin

Same here. I had "ő" in the username and moved itself to public. Annoying indeed.