How do I Move my Football Manager Save to Another Computer?
What is the best way to move a Football Manager game between different computers?
Just bought a new laptop and want to know how to move your FM save to your shiny new rig?
Maybe you want to move a save between PC's that you already have. Well the Green Llama has you covered.
1. Steam Cloud
The easiest and most obvious way to do this is through Steam's own cloud saving tool.
This guide will show you how to do that but you will need to bear in mind that this can take time so be careful not to shut down your computer straight away as the game will need a little while for the file to upload.
How long this takes will depend on your internet connection and the size of your save game.
In order to set this up you need to navigate to Save Game As in the dropdown FM menu
Next you need to click on the drop down menu in the top left hand corner and select Cloud.
Then it's as simple as clicking save in the bottom right hand corner to begin the upload. At this point you are free to close Football Manager.
To check the progress of your upload you can hover your mouse over the Steam logo in the bottom right hand corner of your windows desktop and it will give you a progress report.
Once this is all completed you can now go to your new/other computer and install Football Manager. Once loaded click on Load Game and use the drop down menu as above and select Cloud to locate your saved game.
2. OneDrive, DropBox and Other Cloud Based Services
Okay so maybe you subscribe to a different cloud based service and would like to know how to use them instead.
Well the process is very similar to the Steam cloud solution, the only difference being that you will need to navigate to where your local cloud files are saved.
As with Steam you will need to bear in mind that this can take time so be mindful not to shut down your computer straight away as the game will need a little while for the file to upload.
How long this takes will depend on your internet connection and the size of your save game.
In order to set this up you need to navigate to Save Game As in the dropdown FM menu
On the next screen select Browse in the top right hand corner.
Then select the drop down menu on the left hand side and navigate to and select the OneDrive folder. Unless you moved it previously, it is probably directly under your C:\Users\[your username]\
(The same is true of most other cloud service providers)
You can now click Save and your upload will begin. Once you exit Football Manager you can click on the OneDrive icon in the system tray in the bottom right hand corner to check the progress of your upload.
Once completed you are free to install FM on your new computer and click on Load Game. The method of finding your saved game is the same as above.
3. External Hard Drive / USB Flashdrive
A quick and easy way to transfer Football Manager files is to use external storage like a pendrive or external hard drive.
The process is as follows
Windows
All your Football Manager game files can be found in the following location by default:
C:\Users\[Your Windows Username]\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\
MAC
All your Football Manager game files can be found in the following location by default:
Users\[Your Mac Username]\Library\Application Support\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022
By default this folder is hidden, so to access you need to do as follows:
- Open Finder
- Click ‘Go’ from the menu bar
- Press and hold down the ‘Option’ (Alt) key
- This will bring up the ‘Library’, click to enter then go to ‘Application Support’ -> ‘Sports Interactive’ -> ‘Football Manager 2022’
Once you have located your files you can then drag them to the external hard drive and once the files are copied you can plug the device straight into your new computer and navigate to the same folders as above.
Remember to make sure you have installed Football Manager on your new device in order for the folders to be there.
4. Recovering a Football Manager Save From a Computer That Won't Turn On
First we have to assume that the reason for the computer being broken isn't hard drive failure. If this is the case then your files may well be lost. However this is not always the case.
Your best option here is to take the hard drive from the broken Laptop/PC and put it into an external hard drive enclosure so it can be read by plugging it into your new PC.
The method of removing the hard drive varies depending on what computer you have so your best course of action is to look up the model number on YouTube in order to find instructions on how to open it.
There are various different sizes of Hard Drive so you will need to find out the type in order to match it to the right enclosure. Enclosures themselves cost around £10 - £25. This is an investment worth making in order to recover lost files and of course afterwards the drive can be wiped and then used for external storage.
All being well you should be able to easily navigate to the location on the drive where your saved games are stored much like you would do with a normal pendrive or external hard drive and recover your files by copying them into your saved game folder of your new PC.
Conclusion
As you can see there are many different ways of moving saved games but the best and easiest for most users will be the Steam Cloud solution due to it already being built in.
If you have any questions or would like any further guidance don't hesitate to message us on Twitter or hit the comment button below to ask a question on the LLM Forum