Game wont save settings, addons are not recognized
 

I posted this on official board but getting no help from ESO staff...

My game was working fine until this morning. I logged on and it was like it was the first time, asked me to accept terms, set video... I made sure the game was set to run in admin mode (UAC is off anyways), it was - never changed it from when I first set it. Made sure the shortcut and exe were both not set to run as admin and not read only. I made sure that the usersettings was not set to read only. I created a txt file, added content and saved the file in the Live folder to validate... I then uninstalled the game, removed the original folders and validated all above again... now the game does the same thing, but it wont even create the Elder Scrolls Online folder in documents folder, let alone the Live folder which stores the usersettings files to save the settings. Again, both the launcher and exe are both set to run as admin, they are not read only. I have full permissions to everything, I am a local/domain admin on this PC. I can write to all folders where the game needs access to. This is a windows 8.1 machine, was working fine as of 3am last night. Nothing changed, no updates installed... no reboot.

So, game didn't found your local settings.

Ouch.

You should not. if you do so, i suppose settings will go in Documents folder of Administrator account, does this folder exist? You should only launch it with your current user.

Not really.

PS: I strongly recommend you to do not desactive uac



So.

I've just tested : Launcher does anything on saved prefs.
Eso.exe creates : a folder called the Elder Scrolls Online in your document folder

Your document folder is the value of : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders (use regedit.exe)

Key "Personnal" (for me , it's C:\Users\Erica\Documents)

Then it create a subfolder, this subfolder is the value of the key SET ChannelName in the file AppSettings.txt where your ESO.exe is located. tested with value livetwenty, hey, it was here.

Then the game create its files.

Just follow the path.

when you set a application to run as admin, it doesn't actually run as the local administrator account... You are just telling it to run with elevated privileges. ESO tells you to do this in all their troubleshooting requests. I actually just have this set on the application properties of the launcher and executable.

The documents path is correct in registry, c:\users\<myusername>\documents

All this was fine and working before this morning and the folders and files where located in here correctly. The game settings would not save this morning, and the addons were not showing up. I copied all the directory and then removed it,reinstalled the game and then the game didnt create a subfolder in c:\users\<myusername>\documents for Elder Scrolls Online. I created one manually and added a live folder and a usersettings file with the contents found on ESO sticky for that file. I have my addons located in the Live folder, nothing changed... it will not save game settings, and it will not load any addons.

If you go in c:\users\<myusername>,

Then right click on my documents > properties > security, do you get 3 lines ?
It hould be system, your user and administrators, all with full access (herited in grey)

Plus, If you go on 4th tab, is the path correct ?

If this is correct, you can try to go (still on my documents properties) on security tab > advanced (bottom) > edit permissions (at bottom) > and check last checkbox "replace all child permissions with thoses .. " > yes , it will mass-edit permissions in your My documents subfolder by the ones established at the root of My document folder. it should be a 0 risk. (it can be 1-2 minutes long).

If it doesn't work, maybe you got an antivirus preventing the creation ?.. I don't know..

ps: do all those things with your user settings, not admins ones).

Yep, all three are there and I have validated this all against another machine that is working fine. My antivirus is not the issue. It has been set the same all along and I even disabled it to test this.

If ZOS didn't answser and do not want to reinstall Windows , you can try process monitor
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../bb896645.aspx

- Download, start it, then start eso.exe (not patcher).
- Wait for login to appear then close the game
- then in procmon, do a Ctrl+F "eso.exe", right click in eso.exe in process name column column and select "include "eso.exe", it will only show you the actions mad by the game.


There will be a lot of things, just search (ctrl+f) for "elder scrolls", and try to find something, for my part, I had to do ~15-20 F3 (next result) to find something interesting = big section about files creates in C:\programdata then My doc folder). The result should be SUCCESS (if file is created, i've tested) or NAME_COLLISION if file already exists.

On my computer, It can see that first ESO copy the settings to C:\ProgramData\Elder Scrolls online, then it creates the folders in My doc folders.
Does an Elder Scrolls Online folder exists in C:\ProgramData per exemple ?

If you don't find anything more, it's really for ZOS IT team.. We couldn't help you a lot more

Thanks. I got it working just now. I uninstalled the program again (second time) and went through the whole PC and deleted any file/folder that reference ESO. then I downloaded the game again. I came on this morning and I logged in, it saved my info. I then added all my addons and now it is back to normal again. I have no idea what screwed it all up to begin with though.