Your profile manager is a great program. I had problems setting up a custom game, however. It was not clear to me the directory and saves folder needed to be the same. In my case, the saves folder was located: D:\Games\Steam\userdata\48416257\203630\local\default\Saves\. The instructions “Directory, the folder that contains the saves folder and does/will contain the profile folder.” suggested to me that the directory entry should be D:\Games\Steam\userdata\48416257\203630\local\default\ since the default folder contains the saves directory. It appeared to me the Saves Folder entry indicated which directory within the default directory had the save files. This would not work. Specifying the full path name would not work either. In fact, every time I tried to activate a profile the actual saves folder was deleted!(?)
Through trial and error combined with much frustration, I discovered the profiles folder must be under the saves folder, therefore the Directory entry and the Saves Folder entry must both point to the same folder. This worked fine.
I am sure you already know how it needs to be setup. My point is I believe it necessary to clarify the setup instructions for those of us who do not fully understand what is required from your instructions. It might just be me, but I did not find the instructions to be very clear and I suspect this would be true of others. Others might not persist in trying to resolve it and might not attempt to contact you. This would be a shame since your application is quite good and very useful. It provides a much needed function and I am very grateful for your work on it.
I hope you will see this as positive feedback and not just criticism.
Actually, scratch that. Although it seemed to work, it is actually creating a save directory under the actual save directory. Changing the settings returns to being unable to move the save files to the correct folder. Perhaps I better wait for you to explain the proper setup to me since I don’t seem to be able to get it.
Thanks for the comments. Looking at the documentation, you are right it does need some clarification.
How the directory and save/profile folders work:
Directory is the parent folder where the saves and profiles should be stored.
Profile Folder is the name of the folder where the inactive profiles should be stored.
Save Folder is the name of the folder where the currently active profile’s saves should be.
So for example:
Directory: C:/Games/Awesome Game/
Profiles Folder: Profiles
Save Folder: Saves
So the inactive profiles would saved into: C:/Games/Awesome Game/Profiles/
and the current profile would be saved into: C:/Games/Awesome Game/Saves/
So for a practical example, lets set up Skyrim as a custom game:
Which results in the folder structure:
where Magelion is the active profile.
Hopefully that is clear enough for now. I’ll update the documentation as soon as I can, and clarify some other issues that come up.
Thanks for your quick response and for clarifying the instructions. It appears I had it working but was thrown off after getting the error message. You were right, doing it again does indeed work. I can see why you didn’t elaborate on it much because it really does appear to be fairly straightforward once you know to do it again.
I want to thank you again for making this tool. I – and many others I imagine – have wished for such a program for a long time. In the past I would write a batch file for it or do it manually. Your application provides a much more flexible and powerful method.
90
Sorry about the “90” ending. I was typing a final “Thank You” and signature when one of my cats thought I was done and walked across my keyboard. You wouldn’t by any chance have a kitty management utility? 😉
I have contacted you before for some help setting up your profile manager (as you can see in the comments). I don’t need help right now, though. I just wanted to tell you again about how awesome you are for making this tool available. I am using it for a number of games.
My wife and I are both disabled and living on one person’s Social Security, nevertheless, when we have some extra money I want to send some your way in gratitude. It sure beats the manual methods I have used in the past. It may be a while and it won’t be much, but you deserve it.
Do you have an application that can backup saves in games that do not allow you to make your own and don’t include check points? I have been writing batch files to back them up with some safety mechanisms in case I overwrite the wrong backup on accident. I haven’t programmed for a long time and I am so rusty I am not monitoring the folder and just tabbing out to run it manually via shortcut. A more elegant, robust, and flexible system would be wonderful. I have seen some written for specific games but none written for general use. Got any suggestions or recommendations?
It has been a while but my attention was brought back after having to re-setup my system after a crash. I found myself going “Damn! What was the name of that profile manager? I can’t believe I didn’t back that up!” I was rather desperate. Fortunately, I found you again after a long search.
I don’t know how many realize this program was designed for just about any game. (Actually, it can be handy with some other applications as well.) I have found it tremendously useful and wanted to thank you once again. Being disabled due to spinal injuries, I cannot really afford to throw money around but if I had it I would send some your way. Perhaps I should figure something out as this IS something I would be willing to pay for under normal circumstances. What are your thoughts on this? Is a hardy thank you OK or are you desperate for money too?
Regardless, thank you for your work and for providing for free that is certainly worth paying something for – although what I don’t know.
I’ve had a bit of a nasty experience so if I come across as a bit short I apologize in advance…
So basically I tried your profile manager, and it never detected my save games. I did try following the directions in the included read-me with no luck. Then (because I’m tired) thought, oh well I’ll scrap this and try again another day. I moved my backed up saves back into the saves folder after clearing out my attempts at making a profile. The game launches, and the only option I get is New Game. Not Continue, not Load, even though there are saves in the correct folder. I actually tried to copy these saves over on a USB drive and test them on my laptop. The laptop also does not detect any of them except the ONE I created after deleting the profile manager (as a bit of a test to see if it would detect a new game.) Now… I know the description says this will not mess up my saved games, so I’m clinging to the hope that something else has happened. I have my doubts that I’ll be getting my character back, but if you or anybody else has any suggestions as to what I can do, I’d appreciate it.
Basic Info:
Running Windows 7 64bit
Latest Version of Skyrim run through latest version of SKSE
What I have tried:
1- Deleting the save folder entirely and starting a new game then adding my backed up saves to that save folder.
***This resulted in only the new save being detected.
2.)Verifying the files of Skyrim, and SKSE through steam.
***This did nothing…
3.) Tried moving my backed up saves to a new pc and testing them on that.
***My saves were not detected, was only given the New Game option.
The Skyrim configuration file was probably modified to look in a different location for your save games. If you are not comfortable editing the skyrim.ini file yourself you can use the uninstall utility in the profile manager to set the file back to its original setting.
Hi,
The last comment was a few years ago but hopefully this comments section is still active.
I have been using Profile Manager for years and find it fantastic!
My problem is that I have just started using Mod Organizer for my modded builds although I cannot find how to set up Profile Manager to start a game through Mod Organizer (the way MO works unless tge game is started through it then none of the mods are loaded but I can’t work out how to link it to Profile Manager to start my games.
I really want to continue using Profile Manager so if you could advise me how I would greatly appreciate it.
Cheers
You can change the profile and then start the game using Mod Organizer.
You can also change the executable that runs when you hit play in the settings window, You can change it to start up Mod Organizer instead of the game. See: http://profilemanager.chockly.org/help/config-basic/
Oct 28, 2012 @ 07:14:17
Your profile manager is a great program. I had problems setting up a custom game, however. It was not clear to me the directory and saves folder needed to be the same. In my case, the saves folder was located: D:\Games\Steam\userdata\48416257\203630\local\default\Saves\. The instructions “Directory, the folder that contains the saves folder and does/will contain the profile folder.” suggested to me that the directory entry should be D:\Games\Steam\userdata\48416257\203630\local\default\ since the default folder contains the saves directory. It appeared to me the Saves Folder entry indicated which directory within the default directory had the save files. This would not work. Specifying the full path name would not work either. In fact, every time I tried to activate a profile the actual saves folder was deleted!(?)
Through trial and error combined with much frustration, I discovered the profiles folder must be under the saves folder, therefore the Directory entry and the Saves Folder entry must both point to the same folder. This worked fine.
I am sure you already know how it needs to be setup. My point is I believe it necessary to clarify the setup instructions for those of us who do not fully understand what is required from your instructions. It might just be me, but I did not find the instructions to be very clear and I suspect this would be true of others. Others might not persist in trying to resolve it and might not attempt to contact you. This would be a shame since your application is quite good and very useful. It provides a much needed function and I am very grateful for your work on it.
I hope you will see this as positive feedback and not just criticism.
Thanks,
Miles Webster
Oct 28, 2012 @ 08:29:18
Actually, scratch that. Although it seemed to work, it is actually creating a save directory under the actual save directory. Changing the settings returns to being unable to move the save files to the correct folder. Perhaps I better wait for you to explain the proper setup to me since I don’t seem to be able to get it.
Oct 28, 2012 @ 13:06:12
Thanks for the comments. Looking at the documentation, you are right it does need some clarification.
How the directory and save/profile folders work:
Directory is the parent folder where the saves and profiles should be stored.
Profile Folder is the name of the folder where the inactive profiles should be stored.
Save Folder is the name of the folder where the currently active profile’s saves should be.
So for example:
Directory: C:/Games/Awesome Game/
Profiles Folder: Profiles
Save Folder: Saves
So the inactive profiles would saved into: C:/Games/Awesome Game/Profiles/
and the current profile would be saved into: C:/Games/Awesome Game/Saves/
So for a practical example, lets set up Skyrim as a custom game:
Which results in the folder structure:
where Magelion is the active profile.
Hopefully that is clear enough for now. I’ll update the documentation as soon as I can, and clarify some other issues that come up.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 12:06:50
Thanks for your quick response and for clarifying the instructions. It appears I had it working but was thrown off after getting the error message. You were right, doing it again does indeed work. I can see why you didn’t elaborate on it much because it really does appear to be fairly straightforward once you know to do it again.
I want to thank you again for making this tool. I – and many others I imagine – have wished for such a program for a long time. In the past I would write a batch file for it or do it manually. Your application provides a much more flexible and powerful method.
90
Oct 29, 2012 @ 12:10:40
Sorry about the “90” ending. I was typing a final “Thank You” and signature when one of my cats thought I was done and walked across my keyboard. You wouldn’t by any chance have a kitty management utility? 😉
Mar 07, 2013 @ 21:59:00
I have contacted you before for some help setting up your profile manager (as you can see in the comments). I don’t need help right now, though. I just wanted to tell you again about how awesome you are for making this tool available. I am using it for a number of games.
My wife and I are both disabled and living on one person’s Social Security, nevertheless, when we have some extra money I want to send some your way in gratitude. It sure beats the manual methods I have used in the past. It may be a while and it won’t be much, but you deserve it.
Do you have an application that can backup saves in games that do not allow you to make your own and don’t include check points? I have been writing batch files to back them up with some safety mechanisms in case I overwrite the wrong backup on accident. I haven’t programmed for a long time and I am so rusty I am not monitoring the folder and just tabbing out to run it manually via shortcut. A more elegant, robust, and flexible system would be wonderful. I have seen some written for specific games but none written for general use. Got any suggestions or recommendations?
Thanks for your work!
Sincerely,
Miles Webster
Hypnos/Morpheus
May 18, 2014 @ 22:59:35
It has been a while but my attention was brought back after having to re-setup my system after a crash. I found myself going “Damn! What was the name of that profile manager? I can’t believe I didn’t back that up!” I was rather desperate. Fortunately, I found you again after a long search.
I don’t know how many realize this program was designed for just about any game. (Actually, it can be handy with some other applications as well.) I have found it tremendously useful and wanted to thank you once again. Being disabled due to spinal injuries, I cannot really afford to throw money around but if I had it I would send some your way. Perhaps I should figure something out as this IS something I would be willing to pay for under normal circumstances. What are your thoughts on this? Is a hardy thank you OK or are you desperate for money too?
Regardless, thank you for your work and for providing for free that is certainly worth paying something for – although what I don’t know.
Sincerely,
Miles Webster
Feb 02, 2015 @ 13:24:49
Thanks for all your comments and support Miles. I’m not desperate for money, so a your hardy thank you is just fine.
If you do feel the need to donate, I accept bitcoin. You can use the tip button at the bottom of this page.
Nov 11, 2015 @ 23:39:06
I hope you will add Fall Out 4 support,
Oct 20, 2016 @ 17:06:03
Since Fallout 4 has support for easily switching between multiple characters out of the box I won’t be adding any specific fallout 4 features.
May 14, 2016 @ 22:37:29
I’ve had a bit of a nasty experience so if I come across as a bit short I apologize in advance…
So basically I tried your profile manager, and it never detected my save games. I did try following the directions in the included read-me with no luck. Then (because I’m tired) thought, oh well I’ll scrap this and try again another day. I moved my backed up saves back into the saves folder after clearing out my attempts at making a profile. The game launches, and the only option I get is New Game. Not Continue, not Load, even though there are saves in the correct folder. I actually tried to copy these saves over on a USB drive and test them on my laptop. The laptop also does not detect any of them except the ONE I created after deleting the profile manager (as a bit of a test to see if it would detect a new game.) Now… I know the description says this will not mess up my saved games, so I’m clinging to the hope that something else has happened. I have my doubts that I’ll be getting my character back, but if you or anybody else has any suggestions as to what I can do, I’d appreciate it.
Basic Info:
Running Windows 7 64bit
Latest Version of Skyrim run through latest version of SKSE
What I have tried:
1- Deleting the save folder entirely and starting a new game then adding my backed up saves to that save folder.
***This resulted in only the new save being detected.
2.)Verifying the files of Skyrim, and SKSE through steam.
***This did nothing…
3.) Tried moving my backed up saves to a new pc and testing them on that.
***My saves were not detected, was only given the New Game option.
Oct 20, 2016 @ 17:21:09
The Skyrim configuration file was probably modified to look in a different location for your save games. If you are not comfortable editing the skyrim.ini file yourself you can use the uninstall utility in the profile manager to set the file back to its original setting.
I’m sorry that you lost your saved games.
May 20, 2020 @ 20:43:41
Hi,
The last comment was a few years ago but hopefully this comments section is still active.
I have been using Profile Manager for years and find it fantastic!
My problem is that I have just started using Mod Organizer for my modded builds although I cannot find how to set up Profile Manager to start a game through Mod Organizer (the way MO works unless tge game is started through it then none of the mods are loaded but I can’t work out how to link it to Profile Manager to start my games.
I really want to continue using Profile Manager so if you could advise me how I would greatly appreciate it.
Cheers
May 24, 2020 @ 15:45:31
You can change the profile and then start the game using Mod Organizer.
You can also change the executable that runs when you hit play in the settings window, You can change it to start up Mod Organizer instead of the game. See: http://profilemanager.chockly.org/help/config-basic/