PoL User Backups

I wanted to post this in support but like.. it's not windower or site related. So I guess it goes in general for now. Admins can move it if they want.

I was tinkering around with backing up PoL user directory. I found that this does not work with clean installs of windows/PoL. The user will just get gibberish and be forced to wipe the "login_w.bin" in order to fix it.

It'd be really nice to fresh install 11 and not have to be forced to redo the entire user entry list each time windows decides it needs to be reinstalled or say when a new pc comes along.

Is there a way to fix this?

It's easy enough to just manually back up your user information if you want to keep it safe. Go to the location where your Final fantasy XI folder is stored. The directory will end like this

PlayOnline/SquareEnix/Final Fantasy XI

That folder will have the Rom folders which contain the games dat files, the sound folders, and several other things that make the game run, and along with it will be a USER folder. That's what you want to back up. The user folder contains a sub folder for each character you've logged in with on that PC, and inside will be your in game macroes, user settings, chat filters, font colors, etc etc... If you ever need to reinstall a fresh copy of FFXI on a new machine then it's as simple as copying the USER folder from your current install to the new one and all of your settings and configurations will be carried over with it. I keep a backup of mine on a separate hard drive in case I ever accidentally log out improperly and end up losing all my in game macroes. It happened to me once a long time ago when my power went out and ever sine then I've kept a relatively up to date backup just in case.

It's currently not possible to transfer login_w.bin from one POL installation to another (across PCs) as a means of moving credentials. Playonline uses specific parameters about your machine (like GUID) to encrypt, sign and obfuscate your credentials from others. This prevents a bad actor, or anyone with access to your file system or hard drive, from stealing your account credentials.

TLDR: Every new POL installation requires you to manually enter/install the 4 POL accounts that can be configured by default. (Yes, there's a patch out there to let you store more than 4 accounts in the POL screen, but that doesn't negative or remove or bypass the necessary security restrictions that SE put in place.

A patch to expand beyond 4 users you say, since when an where? This is news to me.

If I don't ask questions I never know of such things, just like finding out from you that the encryption is what prevents the bin file from being able to move around.. sad but reasonable given things.

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/58584/ffxi-manager-login-chaos-has-been-nerfed/

Like a month or two ago. Fairly recent. If you use Windower its applied automatically. Normal client are still limited to 4 without modifying things.

It was added back in October: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/57459/windower-v4-dev-tracker/4/#3766124

Launch PlayOnline through windower and try adding a 5th account, it will allow you. Maximum is now 20. It's also possible on Ashita through their own thing.

I was able to test windower (no mods) today with others to confirm it can support more than 4 login names at one time, not sure how this was made possible but congrats to the ones who fixed it. I'll be sure to pass it along to others.

As a repeat in-case someone from google runs into only this post, it was determined that PoL doesn't permit the moving of the "login_w.bin" file between clean PoL installs/new pc-systems for any reason. You'll be forced to re-enter all the login data each time.

This post is considered closed by me, thanks goes to all those who 'positively' contributed here.