Midway
First Lieutenant
Posts: 20
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Post by Midway on Jan 9, 2022 15:47:57 GMT
Hey all!
EW5 was always one of my favourite ET games, so I was very happy when I revisited it a while ago and saw they implemented cloud saving, as I had a lvl 99 account I wanted to continue playing on my newer mobile devices.
My problem is that I can't get cloud saving to work. I originally played EW on an emulator on the PC (long before cloud saving was a thing) and when I fired it up and tried to log in, the game kept saying I used a different google account to install EW so it won't let me save my progress to the current one. Not sure how that's even possible as I can't remember changing the accounts on the emulator, but even so, why does the game care which account I used to install it? I never had a game complain about such a thing when trying to connect a google play account to something I already had some local progress on.
Anyway, I used several google accounts over the years, so I tried all of them just to be sure, but the game wasn't happy with any of them. I'm blanking on what happened next, but I think I decided to accept one of those ominous prompts, which ended up nuking my in-game progress, resetting everything to lvl 1. Fortunately I had a backup of the emulator, so I restored it and tried again, but now whenever I start the game, it says my current google account already has a cloud archive connected to it, and I will lose my local progress if the cloud archive is loaded, even though I never performed a cloud save before. If I accept the prompt, it nukes my progress instantly (again!) *without* me loading any cloud saves. When I go to the cloud archive screen, it says there's no cloud archive yet... then what on earth did it just reset my progress for?
So now the only way to keep my progress is to decline that prompt, which leaves the game disconnected from google play accounts, without which I can't upload any cloud saves. Check mate.
This has got to be the worst cloud save implementation I've ever seen... Why can't I connect *any* google account to a local progress that never had a cloud archive connected to it? Why can't I delete/disconnect/overwrite whatever blank cloud archive became connected to my google account while suffering through this convoluted, torturous mess of a process and tell the game to save my current *local* progress onto it? Why is the game so obsessed with wanting to delete my local progress at every bloody opportunity? Oh, you used a different account? Delete local progress! Oh, your account already has a cloud thing connected? Delete local progress! As if PRESERVING my original local progress wasn't the entire point of implementing a cloud save feature in the first place...
Sorry for the rant, but this thing just ticked me off... I was so happy when I found out they still updated this game and even added cloud saves, but damn, if my progress hadn't been on an emulator, I'd have lost it twice by now, just trying to get it saved to the cloud. And even so, I still can't get it saved, so it's stuck on that emulator 'till the end of time it seems, while I had zero such issues with the cloud saving on any other ET titles.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this thing working? I think I already tried everything, including disconnecting the game from my google accounts, but I think they keep a server-side log of google accounts with cloud archives because it still says those accounts have a cloud archive connected to them.
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Post by jonblend on Jan 9, 2022 17:17:01 GMT
First, I'm no expert. Have you tried getting a new google account?  And, I need to install google play games on the emulator to activate my desired account and it usually takes some time before it works but I know the frustration... maybe try again with a fresh and patient mind later. At least you haven't lost your progress. |
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Midway
First Lieutenant
Posts: 20
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Post by Midway on Jan 10, 2022 23:53:42 GMT
First of all, thank you very much for replying and trying to help. Yes, I tried making a completely new google account too, but that gives me the same prompt as the first attempt, something along the lines of: "Warning! You used another google play account to log in. If you want to log in with a new account, your game progress on this device will be lost!". If I accept that prompt, it wipes my progress and resets the game to lvl 1. If I decline the prompt, the game stays disconnected from google play, so can't do cloud saves. If I go with the wiping (since that's the only way to log in), restore my emulator backup and try again, I get to the second prompt, which is largely the same deal, only that one is outright misleading, because it says "Warning, a cloud archive already exists for this account. Your progress on this device will be lost if the cloud archive is loaded." This implies that you can click accept, log in and you'll get to decide whether you want to lose your current progress by loading the cloud save or save the current one to the cloud. Instead, what actually happens is that it wipes your progress as soon as you accept the prompt, without ever even touching the cloud save/load button. In fact, if you go to the cloud save screen on your freshly wiped account, it says there's no cloud archive yet, so the load button is greyed out because there's nothing to load. Then why was the prompt saying "a cloud archive already exists for this account"...  So yeah, I'm just shaking my head, lamenting the hours I wasted trying to solve this nonsense when it should be as simple as starting the game, logging in and getting a prompt asking if I want to keep my current progress *and* save it to the cloud or if I want to lose it and load what's already in the cloud. PS: Thank you for the upvote, Skittle-chan!  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2022 19:33:02 GMT
my saves being on my Google account and cloud saving/loading ingame works every time I reinstall an easy tech game or use it ingame
No pc, just always android
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Post by jonblend on Jan 11, 2022 21:59:11 GMT
First of all, thank you very much for replying and trying to help. Yes, I tried making a completely new google account too, but that gives me the same prompt as the first attempt, something along the lines of: "Warning! You used another google play account to log in. If you want to log in with a new account, your game progress on this device will be lost!". If I accept that prompt, it wipes my progress and resets the game to lvl 1. If I decline the prompt, the game stays disconnected from google play, so can't do cloud saves. If I go with the wiping (since that's the only way to log in), restore my emulator backup and try again, I get to the second prompt, which is largely the same deal, only that one is outright misleading, because it says "Warning, a cloud archive already exists for this account. Your progress on this device will be lost if the cloud archive is loaded." This implies that you can click accept, log in and you'll get to decide whether you want to lose your current progress by loading the cloud save or save the current one to the cloud. Instead, what actually happens is that it wipes your progress as soon as you accept the prompt, without ever even touching the cloud save/load button. In fact, if you go to the cloud save screen on your freshly wiped account, it says there's no cloud archive yet, so the load button is greyed out because there's nothing to load. Then why was the prompt saying "a cloud archive already exists for this account"...  So yeah, I'm just shaking my head, lamenting the hours I wasted trying to solve this nonsense when it should be as simple as starting the game, logging in and getting a prompt asking if I want to keep my current progress *and* save it to the cloud or if I want to lose it and load what's already in the cloud. PS: Thank you for the upvote, Skittle-chan!  This reads like your progress is already tied to an account (which you can't remember or did accidentally wipe). Don't know if that's encouraging but I'm successfully using an emulator for conquests in EW5 and other titles so theoretically the combination phone <-> PC should work. |
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Midway
First Lieutenant
Posts: 20
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Post by Midway on Jan 13, 2022 13:49:46 GMT
I know that combination works because I cross-played many games between my tablet/phone/PC, including some other ET games and never had any problems sharing progress across platforms, EW5 is the only one where I just can't get my progress shared outside this emulator. I even tried rooting it and copying the files to a different emulator, but even that doesn't work because EW5 has some kind of a copy protection in place where it doesn't recognize profile/save game files from a different device, even though the exact same method worked just fine with EW4.
As for the account issue, I tried literally every google account I ever had, so it can't be one I'm forgetting. The accidental wipe could be a possibility, but I still don't get why I'm not allowed to re-bind or re-upload my progress to that or any other google account for that matter.
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Post by Iron Duke on Jan 13, 2022 13:55:51 GMT
I know that combination works because I cross-played many games between my tablet/phone/PC, including some other ET games and never had any problems sharing progress across platforms, EW5 is the only one where I just can't get my progress shared outside this emulator. I even tried rooting it and copying the files to a different emulator, but even that doesn't work because EW5 has some kind of a copy protection in place where it doesn't recognize save games from a different device, even though the exact same method worked just fine with EW4. As for the account issue, I tried literally every google account I ever had, so it can't be one I'm forgetting. The accidental wipe could be a possibility, but I still don't get why I'm not allowed to re-bind or re-upload my progress to that or any other google account for that matter. I think your only chance is to identify which account it's tied to and save it to that one. Perhaps ET can help? My original game was pre-cloud save but luckily I always used the same account so it worked fine when it became available, but I did try saving it to another account and couldn't. |
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Midway
First Lieutenant
Posts: 20
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Post by Midway on Oct 18, 2022 4:47:19 GMT
Aaaand just to give a little closure on my story...
...9 months later, I finally managed to (partially) solve the problem by installing EW5 on my PC from the Microsoft Store and extracting/copying the save files (primarily the headquarter.sav) from the Android emulator's "data\com.easytech.ew5.android" folder into the "LocalState" folder of the Microsoft Store version which, thankfully, proved cross-compatible.
I'm calling this a partial solution, because the Microsoft Store version's cloud save can only be connected to a Microsoft account (not a Google Play one), which I don't think can be loaded on an Android device, but at least I can continue playing the game this way, because a few months after my initial post, my emulator stopped working too, so I couldn't even access my old progress anymore... until today.
For the record, I also emailed Easytech a couple times, never got a response, so that channel didn't work for me.
But I'm happy anyway, because I can now play my old save again on a reliable platform that will hopefully stand the test of time better than an emulator and perhaps one day I will figure out a way to transfer this onto my Android devices as well.
In any case, big thank you again to everyone who tried to help and I hope if someone finds him/herself in this rare predicament, this solution helps them too. Cheers.
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Post by ππ³π°π΅π΄π¬πΊ on Oct 24, 2022 16:05:49 GMT
Aaaand just to give a little closure on my story... ...9 months later, I finally managed to (partially) solve the problem by installing EW5 on my PC from the Microsoft Store and extracting/copying the save files (primarily the headquarter.sav) from the Android emulator's "data\com.easytech.ew5.android" folder into the "LocalState" folder of the Microsoft Store version which, thankfully, proved cross-compatible. I'm calling this a partial solution, because the Microsoft Store version's cloud save can only be connected to a Microsoft account (not a Google Play one), which I don't think can be loaded on an Android device, but at least I can continue playing the game this way, because a few months after my initial post, my emulator stopped working too, so I couldn't even access my old progress anymore... until today. For the record, I also emailed Easytech a couple times, never got a response, so that channel didn't work for me. But I'm happy anyway, because I can now play my old save again on a reliable platform that will hopefully stand the test of time better than an emulator and perhaps one day I will figure out a way to transfer this onto my Android devices as well. In any case, big thank you again to everyone who tried to help and I hope if someone finds him/herself in this rare predicament, this solution helps them too. Cheers. Great ! Thank You a lot Midway, for your detailed explanation. You are calling this a partial solution, I would call it a advanced solution: You can archive different (intermediate) states of your progress something what, with hosted save files (they call it cloud) is not possible. Maybe we can play even EW5 without the troians (on a pc). So you can access the .sav-files on a PC as I always assumed. I asked this already a few time in the Modding-board, but Your documentation is the first complete answer to this question. Knowing this can make btl-modding much much easier. I will quote you these days in the modding-board if You don't mind. Thanks for Your update! |
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Midway
First Lieutenant
Posts: 20
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Post by Midway on Oct 26, 2022 5:38:07 GMT
So you can access the .sav-files on a PC as I always assumed. I asked this already a few time in the Modding-board, but Your documentation is the first complete answer to this question. Knowing this can make btl-modding much much easier. I will quote you these days in the modding-board if You don't mind. Thanks for Your update! You're very welcome! Yes, the .sav files for the HQ, campaigns, conquests etc are easier to access on the PC version. They're in the Yourusername\AppData\Local\Packages\xxxxEasyTech.EW5xxxxxxxx\LocalState folder. They're also accessible on the Android version, inside the data\data\com.easytech.ew5.android folder, the device just needs to be rooted to see those folders, but that's easy to do on an emulator (rooting can be turned on/off in their settings). The problem with the PC version (as I just found out) is that it's several updates behind the Android version. It's missing the General friendliness feature, the Castle siege, the 7th troop star upgrades, the Princess and Unit trials, along with several IAPs like King Arthur or the Legend raid feature. So now I installed a new Android emulator and copied my PC save into a brand new EW5 installation to play with the new updates. It works, my progress is there, I can even save to the cloud, the only problem is that I can't access that cloud save on any other Android device, no matter which Google account I use. It's really pretty comical, I'm just laughing at this point because my progress will once again be confined to this new emulator, even *with* a working cloud save.  Except now I know how to manually transfer my saves between emulators - the trick was to move only the headquarter.sav and change its read/write permissions to match those of the other files in EW5's Android folder. |
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