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Two Game Accounts One Folder - Now with Mac
来自 Keldesh
[Last Updated]:
2022/04/12
变更日志
补丁:9.2.0
目录
评分:
Many players have, and play on multiple license of WoW (usually referred to having multiple accounts). People do this for many reasons from being able to multi-box to the current character slot count per realm is not enough.
I, myself, am one of those that have more than one account. Being active on the Auction Houses, as well as having multiple bank alts with multiple bank guilds (guilds created to use the bank for storage), and being an altoholic. I have use up a lot of character slots between all of those, which lead to the multiple accounts.
With all the customization and alt information I had a slight issue with having multiple game accounts. This will probably not be an issue for a lot of people, but may be for a few that can find use out of this.
While this guide is mainly for use with your Addon Settings; I have also found this useful in having my screenshots linked between my multiple computers. Now this takes a little more setup and some other programs, but symlink can be really helpful with a lot of things.
WARNING: If you plan to do this you are doing it at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage or lost data that comes from an attempt at attempting this guide.
ACCOUNTS
After Account were assigned to a Battle.net account, and we were required to use an email for login, new licenses are now given random numbers like 908825#2 instead of having an Account Name. You will use that number in place of the WoW1 or WoW2, in the guide. If you had a game account before being merged into a Battle.net account, you would use your account name in all caps instead (what you use to use as your login) in place of the WoW1 or WoW2. You cannot make up your own names.
For example, if in my folder I have a folder labeled 908825#2 and one KELDESH.
KELDESH was my first game account name prior to being merged into a Battle.net account while 908825#2 was my second game account after the merged took place.
Please make sure that you get the correct account name and that you know which is your main account and which is your alt account(s).
For this guide, I am going to refer to the main game account as WoW1 and the secondary game account as WoW2. Please make sure you check in your Account folder for what your Accounts are labeled and use those.
For example, if in my folder I have a folder labeled 908825#2 and one KELDESH.
I will replace:
WoW1 in the guide with KELDESH
WoW2 with 908825#2
Battle.net Accounts can have more than one game account of WoW on it. Game Account is referring to each Battlechest game key you have on your Battle.net Account (some are starter accounts that haven't upgrade or Alpha/Beta). You can view your Game Accounts here:
https://us.battle.net/account/management/
(note this is US link). Please be aware that this will not show you your account names; you will still need to check in your WTF folder for those.
This guide will refer to Game Accounts as "accounts", and Battle.net Accounts as either "Bnet Accounts" or "Battle.net Accounts".
THE PROBLEMS
Though many think having multiple accounts is all good, and it is for the most part, there are are some issues that come from having character's that you actively play on two or more different accounts.
My main issue is that I do not have all 10 of my playable characters on one account, and nor do I have all my bank alts on one account. But how do I get information from one account to another about my characters and banks? Well I was using and addon called
Altoholic
. This is a great addon that allows me to view just about anything about my other characters without having to login and back out. However, one downfall was updating the information of the characters. Yes, you can update between two or more accounts, but you need to not only be logged into both accounts at the same time, but you need to remember to actually update the information or you are getting old/bad data. This was problem number one.
My second issue is addons and their custom settings. Though you can share your addon settings between two accounts, by copying folders and files, to keep both updated for every little change you make becomes rather annoying. Since I drastically customize my UI using
KG Panels
,
Bartender
, and a few other addons; the settings can take awhile to set up for one account let alone two. If I need to make any changes it just become too much work to be bothered with.
SOLUTIONS
So I thought there has to be a way easier way of doing this. For example, the addon, Altoholic, is just pulling the character information for the characters you are not currently logged in with, from a datastore lua file (part of the altoholic addon). This file gets updated with the character's information each time you log out of that character. So why not update the lua with both accounts info? So if you log into WoW1 it updates with the characters from WoW1 Account and if you log into WoW2 it updates with the characters from WoW2 account.
As of patch 8.1 (Tides of Vengeance), Blizzard has changed the file path structure in the World of Warcraft folder. Your folders are now located in a _retail_ folder inside your World of Warcraft directory. This is, more than likely, in preperation for Classic release at a future date.
Great idea, however, if you have more than one account you know that each account has its own Account folder in the WTF folder which these files are stored in. Even if they are on the same Battle.net account. You can open the lua files and manually update them, but that is kind of a pain, takes a lot of time, and frankly if I was going to do that I would continue with the Altoholic’s updating. Which both leads back to not having the timely (automatic) updates that has lead to this search in the first place.
So we have to make the WTF\WoW1 and WTF\WoW2 the same folder, and make the game think it is seeing two folders: one for account WoW1 and one for account WoW2. Making the WTF\WoW2 folder a shortcut of the WTF\WoW1 is basically the idea I wanted to do and then can change the name of the shortcut as well. However, the game will not see the shortcut as the WTF\WoW2 folder because it is an *.ink format, and would end up just creating a new folder for the WoW2 account.
Using the same logic, what we’re going to do is use
Symbolic Linking
. More specifically a Junction Point in this case will work. This will allow you to make a 2nd directory/folder that will be an alias for main directory. So anything you do in the 2nd directory will be as if you had done it in the main one.
BACKING UP FOLDERS
So how do you do this? It’s fairly simple really. I am only going to describe how to do this for Windows Vista and later and MacOS Yosemite (may work for earlier versions). Linux can also do this, just a little differently, but chances are if you run Linux you may already know about symbolic linking and how to do all this.
As always it is always important to BACKUP before you start anything. This is in case you mess up or type something wrong you don't lose everything. Trust me a little time taken here to backup will save you many headaches and a lot of work later.
We will start by backing our entire WTF folder. This is in case something happens we can revert back to it if need be. So make a copy of it and rename it to something like WTF-old or WTF-backup.
By defaul the folder is located at:
C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF
or
C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF
Next go into the original (not your backup) WTF folder and go into the Account folder:
< … \World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\>
You should see multiple folder. One for each WoW Game Account that has been logged in on that computer. So if you have 2 game accounts of WoW you should see two folders. If a friend or sibling logged in on the computer you may see their Account folders as well. So figure out which one is you primary (WoW1) and which is your secondary (WoW2). Really doesn't matter which is primary and which is secondary, but may help with some confusion.
Which ever is your WoW2 folder cannot be in the Account folder so we have to get rid of it. You can rename it (WoW2-old) or delete it all together. I would suggest renaming for now, and you can delete later (remember you do have a full backup WTF folder).
So you should now have a your main account (WoW1), and either nothing else or you second account's directory renamed (WoW2-old) like in the image.
If you have more than two accounts you are linking do the same (rename or delete) with WoW3, WoW4, etc.
We will start by backing our entire WTF folder. This is in case something happens we can revert back to it if need be. So make a copy of it and rename it to something like WTF-old or WTF-backup.
By defaul the folder is located at:
Macintosh HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/_retail_/WTF
Next go into the original (not your backup) WTF folder and go into the Account folder:
<Macintosh HD/Applications/World of Warcraft/_retail_/WTF/Account>
You should see multiple folder. One for each WoW Game Account that has been logged in on that computer. So if you have 2 game accounts of WoW you should see two folders. If a friend or sibling logged in on the computer you may see their Account folders as well. So figure out which one is you primary (WoW1) and which is your secondary (WoW2). Really doesn't matter which is primary and which is secondary, but may help with some confusion.
Which ever is your WoW2 folder cannot be in the Account folder so we have to get rid of it. You can rename it (WoW2-old) or delete it all together. I would suggest renaming for now, and you can delete later (remember you do have a full backup WTF folder).
So you should now have a your main account (WoW1), and either nothing else or you second account's directory renamed (WoW2-old) like in the image.
If you have more than two accounts you are linking do the same (rename or delete) with WoW3, WoW4, etc.
SYMLINKING FOLDERS
Setting up the Symlink isn't really that hard. Once you know what to do and what information you need, it takes all of a few moments to complete. I am only going to describe how to do this for Windows Vista and later and MacOS Yosemite (may work for earlier versions). Linux can also do this, just a little differently, but chances are if you run Linux you may already know about symbolic linking and how to do all this.
As mentioned before, it is always important to BACKUP before you start anything. This is in case you mess up or type something wrong you don't lose everything. Trust me a little time taken here to backup will save you many headaches and a lot of work later.
For Windows 8 and below
If you aren't any longer, go back to your WTF/Account folder. Hold SHIFT and click right click anywhere in the folder except on a sub folder. This will give you a drop down list of options to select from. You are wanting the Open Command Window Here.
You can also go back one folder into your WTF folder and hold SHIFT and right click. Then select Open Command Window Here from the drop down list.
It is important that you hold SHIFT when right clicking or you will not get the Open Command Window Here option.
You should now have a command prompt window popup on your screen. This is a black window with white text.
For Windows 10
In your Windows Search look for Command Prompt, and click on it in the results.
Next you will want to search for:
cd <PATH LOCATION>World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account
So by default would be something like:
cd C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account
If you need help locating it check out the Locating You WoW Folder section in my
Backing up Important WoW Data and You!
guide.
Symlink
In this you are going to want to type out the follow code:
mklink /j WoW2 WoW1
* Replace WoW2 with the name of the folder that is no longer in your Account folder and WoW1 with the name of one remaining.
Example:
mklink /j 908825#2 KELDESH
Hit ENTER.
You will notice:
Junction Created for WoW2 <<==>> WoW1
Go into the Account folder, and you will now see your new WoW2 folder. Going into that folder and you will see the files are those in your WoW1 account.
Remember any alterations you make in the WoW2 folder will alter that in the WoW1 folder as well. This also includes deleting any files.
If you have more than two accounts you are linking replace whatever WoW2 was with whatever your WoW3... is
mklink /j WoW3 WoW1
To make it easier on myself I have created a batch file I can run and it will do this all for me. Saves me a lot of time if I have to reinstall World of Warcraft or install World of Warcraft on a new computer I plan to play on.
Text Editor
You will need to get yourself a text editor. You can use notepad, but I prefer Notepad++ over notepad for writing batch files because it have syntax highlighting and syntax folding. It also has Multi-Language environment. You can get it from
their site
. You can use Sublime if you prefer.
Getting Started
You will want to start by opening Notepad++ going to Language and choosing Batch from the list. This will add the syntax highlighting and syntax folding for batch files.
Batch Code
Next copy and paste the following code into the batch file.
ECHO OFF
TITLE Make 2nd WoW Acct Sym Link
for /f "delims==" %%k in ('dir "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\WOW1*.*" /s /b') do (
mklink /j "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\WOW2" "%%~k"
)
* Replace WoW2 with the name of the folder that is no longer in your Account folder and WoW1 with the name of one remaining. Also make sure the the pathing to your World of Warcraft folder is in your Program Files. Otherwise change the pathing to the correct location.
If you need help locating it check out the Locating You WoW Folder section in my
Backing up Important WoW Data and You!
guide.
Example:
ECHO OFF
TITLE Make 2nd WoW Acct Sym Link
for /f "delims==" %%k in ('dir "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\KELDESH*.*" /s /b') do (
mklink /j "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\908825#2" "%%~k"
)
Saving Batch
Now go to File > Save As... I named mine WoW Junctions. Make sure you save it as a .bat file. For Notepad++ you have to add in the .bat to the file name when naming.
You should not have a batch file that will symlink your WoW Account folders for you!
Let's begin.
If you aren't any longer, go back to your WTF/Account folder.
Right click on your WoW1 folder.
When the menu options popup select Services.
Clear at the bottom and then Make Symbolic Link.
You will now see a new folder, WoW1 symlink, that has a little arrow in the corner. This is your symlink WoW2 folder. Going into that folder and you will see the files are those in your WoW1 account.
Remember any alterations you make in the WoW2 folder will alter that in the WoW1 folder as well. This also includes deleting any files.
You can delete this folder without deleting the folders in your WoW1. Just any alterations within the folder will also make changes in the WoW1 folder.
For WoW to be able to read the new symlinked folder you will need to rename your WoW1 symlink to WoW2 name. This is fairly easy to do.
Right click on the WoW1 symlink folder and select Get Info.
Go down to the Name & Extention: toggle.
Change the WoW1 symlink to WoW2 name.
Now close the window.
Your folder should now show with your WoW2 name.
If you have more than two accounts you are will make more symlinks of your WoW1 and rename them to match your WoW3...
WARNINGS
Though this works great for me and what I need, I have found some slight issues or "bugs" that you should be aware of so that you can determine if this is a solution for you.
Be aware that other issues may pop up for you based on your OS, other software, playing habits, computer maintenance. Each computer has their own factors to take into consideration.
Issue:
There are some issues with this if you multi-box often; as both the clients will be trying to update the same files. This can also increase the chances of your crashing your WoW depedning on your computer and network.
If you just have multiple accounts for the sake of having more character slots than you should be fine. You will also be find logging into both at once if you are like trading or whatever, which will only have the other account logged in for a short time.
Solution:
Just remember that each time you log out of the accounts it will write over the files. So if you have both open at the same time, and have made changes on your accounts (macros, UI layouts, etc.), the first one closed will be overwritten when you close down the second account. So be alert about which account you shut down first. Also if you are going to be AFK for awhile; logout.
Issue:
Anything that you do to the files in the new Junction directory is actually being done to your WoW1 directory. The new WoW2 directory is just an Alias of the WoW1. So deleting, renaming, altering or anything else to the files will be done in both as it is actually only one directory.
Soltuion:
Only make alterations to your main folder, and always ALWAYS backup your folders before altering anything.
Issue:
As with doing anything with your computer you are unaware of you run the risk of damaging or messing up files. More than likely the worse that you could do here will result in you losing the WTF folder and all that is in it. Resulting in have to reconfigure addon, macros, settings, etc. again.
Soltuion:
Read through the entire guide prior to starting, and always ALWAYS backup your folders before altering anything.
SHOULD I USE THIS?
This guide is specifically for people with multiple game accounts on one Battle.net account. Players who want to share their addons and account settings across those multiple accounts with little work as possible.
Please who are comfortable with their command prompt or make slight alterations to their computer, or willing to try something new.
People who have multiple accounts that they don't log into them simultaneously for game play.
People who have multiple accounts and do a lot of custom UI work and want it to update across all accounts easily.
People who have multiple accounts and use addons that let you know what is on other characters.
People who have multiple accounts, use Altoholic, and forget to update it often.
People who have multiple accounts, use AH addons for scanning.
People who have multiple accounts and are different regions, one is EU and one is NA.
People with only one account.
People who log into multiple accounts simultaneously for game play, such as multi-boxers.
People who don't understand the basics behind what are or how to do Junctions.
People who do not play World of Warcraft.
People who have multiple accounts, but don't care about the information and settings being the same or updated easily between them.
People who are not running a NTFS filesystem.
WARNING: If you plan to do this you are doing it at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage or lost data that comes from an attempt at attempting this guide.
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评论
评论来自
Maulis425
Nice guide! Explanations are great, the grammar is solid and the graphics do a good job of visualizing what needs to be done. Even if this doesn't get a lot of traffic, it's a quality guide for a niche market. Bravo sir.
评论来自
Suziekew
Excellent! Just what I was looking for. Thank you for taking the time to do such a clearly-written guide.
评论来自
dnisinson
Is there a way to do this on a mac?
评论来自
dnisinson
I'm on a Mac and have duplicated the WTF folder and renamed the copy WTF-backup.
When I go to original WTF folder it contains 2 folders as expected but they are named with numbers. One ends in #1 and the other in #3. I assume these are the 2 account folders. I'm guessing I should substitute the number names for the wow1 and wow2 in your description.
I got symlinker for my mac and a I am a bit unsure of the step by step in symlinker.
I'm working on my courage. :)
评论来自
CrazyPhish32
Followed this guide the other week and it works great, thanks!
评论来自
koota79
Great Guide for someone like me that has never done something like this and was scared to death to try thinking i would mess something up. Thank you for this worked out great!
评论来自
deeprave
I have been doing this for some, although my OS of choice is Mac OS X. I wasn't even aware that Windows' filesystem had symlink capability (ie. ln(1) on unix/mac) so I learned something useful from reading this.
WARNING
: there is a BIG downside to sharing the account wide SavedVariables folder between accounts (as happens with the above method because there is only 1 account folder) is that when multiboxing, if all running accounts are disconnected very close together in time there is a real risk that data files will be corrupted - in fact it is almost certain in my experience on Mac (although file access on Windows is different so may not happen there) - to the point you will need to reset your SavedVariables (remove everything) and start again.
So,
1.
Backup regularly
to avoid having to reset everything
2. Do not disconnect multiple accounts at once, shut them down one after the other - a few seconds between is fine
3. Multibox on a reliable connection, which hopefully won't often cause multiple accounts to disconnect simultaneously. If this does happen - and it is unavoidable sometimes - immediately close down WOW by killing the process (using task manager on Win or opt-command-esc on Mac), preventing the game from rewriting the lua files.
4. Don't AFK for long periods which will cause all running instances to time out and log out automatically at the same time.
Character SavedVariables are not affected by any of this as they are saved per character per server and generally do not get corrupted in this way. Unfortunately, and fortunately depending on your point of view, most addons - particularly those using the ACE libraries that allows you to create and share profiles - store config data in the shared SavedVariables store to allow access to all characters.
评论来自
RedSquirrel
An absolutely stellar solution.
I'm familiar with creating things like this in my file system, or using things like shortcuts to have the the file accessible in another location ... I can't believe that I never looked into it. All I did was Google it, and this was the first thing that came up!
Thank you so much for a well-written guide, and easy to follow directions!
评论来自
Keltian
Thank you! I ran into this problem after I created a second account so I could have my Horde and Alliance characters on the same server. This solution works great and your steps were easy to follow.
评论来自
silverhazed
I have been using your method for ages and love it - thank you for this. Just one issue I have - I have 2 accounts with my main and bank alt on one and another toon I play frequently on another account. After I've logged out of my main/bank alt account, then logged into my other account, it somehow doubles the number of items I have on th AH - ie If I have 200 ore on ah, after I've logged into and off both accounts, it then shows I've 400 ore on the ah. If i reset altoholics data, and just play my main it reports correct amount - just after I've logged into second account does it double the values. Anyone have any help on this?
Cheers
评论来自
cybertan
can you add for the windows 10 users that you will have to go to the start menu then type in cmd open the command prompt
then type in
cd C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account
or wherever World of Warcraft is installed
then you can link the files
评论来自
Seruki1918
Mine just keeps adding additional files. Not really sure why.
评论来自
larmoejr
Thank you for updating this with 8.1. However, I am running into a problem. When ever I log onto my WoW2 account, it overwrites everything that was put there from the WoW1 account. What am I doing wrong?
评论来自
WHTJunior
It might be helpful to note, if someone was using this prior to 8.1, they need to remove the original linked folders (any folders with the shortcut link on it), and rerun the commands in the new account folder under .
评论来自
WHTJunior
8.2.5 introduced a problem where the symlink folders are being deleted, apparently a known issue, according to the blue post below:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/why-is-wow-deleting-symlink-folders-now/311108/18
评论来自
Keannyn
I wished to say thanks very much for this well-put together and clear guide. Still working in 2023, windows 11, wow version 10.0.5 etc. For the cmd beginner or "slightly more knowledge than a beginner but not exactly great" crowd like myself, if you somehow end up using powershell, you won't be able to execute mklink command. You have to actually open a real command prompt as mklink can't run from the powershell, only the command prompt. I ended up doing this somehow and was confused until I just opened a command prompt and then followed the rest of your directions. This is such a headache-saver. Thanks again.
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