setting a save path for screenshots ?

Uryel · May 2019

Greetings,

It happens that at home, we can't save screenshots in ESO when a specific user account is logged in. To be as clear as I can, I'm not talking about a game account but about a windows username. The thing is, the username has a special character

small i acute - í

And that special character isn't recognised by ESO. I've tested it with another user account, it works. The game only has issues saving a screenshot when this particular account, which is the only one that has a non standard character in its name. Basically, ESO cannot write to "<username>Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\Screenshots" because of that special character. When using "<DifferentUserNameWithoutSpecialCharacter>\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\Screenshots", it works.

Since changing both a user name and user data file name in Windows 10 is a hassle (to say the least...), we basically have 2 choices :

- Create a new user profile, import everything, set everything up again, and so on... Gonna take a day or two, likely, and quite an annoyance just to be able to take an occasionnal screenshot.
- Find a way to tell ESO where to save screenshots.

Simply put, I need to change the default path for ESO to save screenshots. How do I do that ? It's nowhere to be found in the game options, and if it's in some .ini file, I haven't found it.

Thanks.

SirAndy · May 2019

Scanning through the EXE it does not seem like there is a setting for a custom screenshot path, only the type can be set with "ScreenshotFormat.2" in the user settings.

ESO has had all sorts of problems with utf-8 characters over the years, it's clear that they never really dealt with multi-language support before working on ESO and they have been band-aiding the client ever since.

Heck, their server-side database didn't even initially support utf-8 for account or character names and neither did the chat window ...

Firstmep · May 2019

Im suprised there isnt anything in the .ini to set the screenshot path.

Dimitris_1 · July 2019

I have a similar issue.
I always played ESO in my Desktop PC with Win 7 without any issue saving screenshots at the default location elder scrolls online>live>screenshots

Recently I bought a laptop. It has Win 10 and also the One drive application activated. Because I have 2 discs and the C disc is SSD with small capacity I have the game installed on D which is HDD with big capacity. So ESO is located on drive D
When I save a screenshot the game gives me the message:

Screenshot saved as: C:/Users/My Username/OneDrive/0000000/Elder Scrolls Online/live/Screenshot

Where 0000000 is a name in Greek (the Windows 10 are in greek version) and it showsn empty boxes as the games doenst understand those letters. I found that the name is actually Documents, as this folder is the only one in OneDrive with the Elder Scrolls Online subfolder inside. But inside the Screenshot subfolder is no screenshot and I have pressed Printscreen button dozens of times and none is ever saved!

How can we change the saving location? I want them to be saved in my Desktop location or in another folder!

Some translations for the last picture to understand:
Αυτός ο Υπολογιστής = My Computer
Χρήστες = Users
Έγγραφα = Documents

dtsir is the user.

So I wander if the problem is the greek words, or there is other issue.

In the Desktop PC I mentioned at the beginning I have Windows 7 English, so everything is in English.

Can you please inform us how to change the screenshot location? I am afraid many people will have this problem

And also I want to tell you that I can still take screenshot manually by pasting at paint, after I press the print screen button of course.

Uryel · July 2019

Found a way around the issue. It might be especially usefull for you if your C drive is small. Basically, it invloves... Moving your entire "my documents" folder.

Create a folder anywhere you please, so long as the whole access path has NO special character that doesn't exist in english. In my case, it was "E:\Documents", but it could be anywhere. Just, it can't have special characters.

Then, open your old "my documents" properties, and select the "location" tab, or whatever it's called in your language. Should be the 4th tab from the left. You will have the option to chose a new location and will be prompted if you want to copy (or move, I'm not sure) the content to the new location. Do so. Obviously, make sure your system remains powered during the whole process. Alternatively, you can manually copy your whole folder and THEN change the "my document" target, then refuse the files to be moved, because they are already there.

Basically, this just changes an environment variable. You just tell Windows that your "my document" folder is elsewhere. If that elsewhere doesn't have any special character, it works like a charm with ESO.

It would, of course, be alot better if the game allowed to change the saving path manually, but once again players have to make do with ZOS' inability to code something clean.

SirAndy · July 2019

While this may work, it is still a crutch to a problem that simply shouldn't exists.

It's 2019 and ZOS can't figure out how to deal with UTF-8 characters in a path name?

Uryel · July 2019

Well, mate, I can only provide whatever solution is accessible to us players. I'm no ZOS dev. I'm no dev at all, else maybe I'd code an addon to customize that

But consideing ZOS can't fix a problem with a necromancer ultiumate without nerfing a whole weapon skill line... i'm not really surprised they can't get their sh*t right.

Dimitris_1 · July 2019

I have solved the issue I had.
The problem is connected to the OneDrive.

If the Elder Scrolls Online folder (and its subfolders - live etc) are under the OneDrive the game cant save at the screenshots subfolder the screenshots.

If you try to choose the default location at the location tab (4thn tab) for the documents [the default location for me is C:\Users\dtsir\Documents] the system refuses to do that change!!!

You must remove the synchronization of the folders from the one drive settings, then remove the folders from its list (uncheck them) and remove the documents (Έγγραφα in my case) from the One drive folder manually!

Only Externally should exist the folders Documents, Music, Videos, Pictures etc.

Before removing the contents of the Documents folder from One Drive copy the Elder Scrolls Folder somewhere temporarely (or even make a backup of the whole folder). Why? Because the game will never search on other drives for it. It will instead make a new one and you will need to put again all the addons and the settings....

After removing the documents folder from the OneDrive manually, you go to the original Documents folder C:\Users\username\Documents is the location and you copy all the elderscrolls online folder you had backed up.

And then the game will save screenshots inside the screenshot folder on this location.

So, the conclusion is simple. If OneDrive is active and includes the Documents and inside is the Elder Scrolls Online folder (and inside the live subfolder the screenshots one.... ) then you will not be able to take screenshots.

Jus remember to take a backup of the elder scrolls online folder before deleting the documents folder from inside the one drive. Because when you remove it, then a shortcut of the OneDrive will be there at the C:\Users\username\Documents and nothing else....

So you must take backup of everything in there before deleting it.

Good Luck in the game!!!