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I have just bought a laptop in order to give me a bit more mobility when I want to write. But I also have a PC still which holds all my old saves, tactics, shortlists and training. I was certain to make sure that when I purchased a new laptop that it was going to run Football Manager 2010, so that I could take the game with me anywhere as well. But do you know how to play one saved game on multiple computers?
How can I play my one saved game on more then on computer?
If you are like me then you may use more then one computer to play Football Manager, so sometimes I may want to continue the game on elsewhere. There obviously is a solution to have all the computers on a local network and having the ability to pick off files from one central server. But this means you need to have some technical expertise, investment and if a computer isn’t on a network you won’t find your files. But a much simpler way to to have all your save game files, tactics, training or anything else that you want to share on multiple computer is to use Dropbox.
Dropbox gives you 2GB of free space with the option of upgrading to even bigger spaces if you are willing to fork out a little money. But 2GB will give you more then enough space to hold the vital folders that you need on the two computers to play Football Manager. Dropbox stores your file online, in a cloud so they are available anywhere in the world for yourself or to share as long as you have an internet connection.
If you can install the Dropbox folder on any of the computers that you use, such as your laptop or PC or even at work to have a sneaky play of Football Manager when the boss isn’t looking. Dropbox will update automatically and sync on all computers when you turn them on without you even having to do anything other then starting up the computer. So if you play your saved game and win the league on the one computer and you have saved the original file in the Dropbox already, as soon as you save the game you can carry it on when you get on your laptop.
Backing up
One of advantage of keeping your saved games online in the cloud is that they are being kept safe by Dropbox. It acts as a backup for your games too. Find that the files becomes corrupt, after hours of effort and time put into your side it can be a frustrating thing. Dropbox keeps backups of every copy of your save files. Therefore you can go back to previous times you have saved that game.
How to setup your Dropbox
When you download and install Dropbox it is possible then to add the folder to your documents and then from within Football Manager you will be able to map through to the Dropbox directory in order to save all your content there instead of at current it will be documents > SI Games > Football Manager 2010 > Games. Tell me what you think in the comments below.
Those that join up and install dropbox using my links will earn me extra space in my own dropbox. Why not join up and tell your friends about it and get extra space of your own.
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I hadn’t heard of Dropbox until your article. Truly brilliant cloud application which can be utilised in so many different ways, not only Football Manager!
I ran into the same problem, wanting to continue a game on my laptop so that I wasn’t shut away in my room and could see my family and had resorted to “sharing” the save game file over the LAN, but performance wise this just wasn’t up to scratch.
The best thing about this is you aren’t exposed to performance issues with Internet speed or ISP downtimes, or network downtimes like the LAN option because the file is stored on your local disk and synced across the cloud and onto any other PC you’ve installed dropbox.
Truly amazing that this is free also for 2GB of storage, plus an extra 250mb by carring out the simple steps on the getting started tab.
Thanks for the heads-up and keep up the good blog!
I totally agree and you can install it onto your iPhone so that you can carry files with you on the go and read through files etc…
I used it alot while at university, instead of having to carry around and lose USB sticks and having just one file instead of several and trying to figure out which was the latest draft of my 9,000 word dissertation.
It does really help me to keep all my important files in one place but able to use them on different computers.
Great article, see drop box on the news the other day and it’s a quality little application, perfect for this sort of thing
.-= Daniel Monksfield´s last blog ..How to Play Football Manager 2010 Online Tutorial =-.
I used to use Avvenu so I could play FM at school \o/
Good times, when Im switching between PCs I just stick all my shit on my portable hard drive and then Ill just sit and play FM until my heart is content. I hope they bring back the thing on FM09 that let you play without the CD, that was a godsend for me.
Who knows, maybe that still is the case and Im just a twit.
.-= Skacel´s last blog ..FM06 screenies =-.
If you have installed STEAM, a program I haven’t had any problems with you can install the game without having to use the CD afterwards. I think shifting round a portable hard drive just can be a pain in the arse having another piece of kit to carry around or the chance of it failing.
There’s a similar program from Microsoft called Live Mesh…
Yeah I have heard of the Microsoft version, I have never used it myself so couldn’t really vouch for how good it is or not. Does it support iPhone usage?
I think dropbox could do really well because at the moment the small company is just working on this product and the different things that they can do with it. So might develop in a must need application in the future.
It’s an interesting application. Although I have 3 PC’s and a laptop, only one PC is good enough to play Football Manager on, so for that use it doesn’t help me. The other 2 PC’s I use to work from home anyway, and the poor laptop is now over 4 years old.
One of the things that this did bring to mind is how important it is to make sure you make other copies of files, and not just your FM save files, which are of course one of most important things we have on our machines. I used to work for a data recovery company, so I have plenty of experience of what disasters can happen. Having a copies of files that are stored in a total different physical location is an excellent strategy for being able to cope when things do go wrong. Also CD’s and DVD’s are not the most stable backup media, so if you can give yourself lots of options, of where important data is held, the less likely you are to lose anything.
Just remember one little thing, if you have any files you want to store elsewhere that have private information in them, then make sure they’re encrypted, using something like WinZip. You wouldn’t want to fall victim to a security breach that allowed someone to steal your identity.
.-= TheZiggy´s last blog ..September 2012 – Keeping Up The Solid Start =-.
Good advice Ziggy, I think I will definitely make sure that anything personal that I have got on my dropbox is password protected and encrypted. Although at the moment I don’t have too much up there worth taking, unless you want my Southport saved game.
I just hate carrying around extra stuff, so to stick it on the computer and forget about it, that is such a win for me.
Hey Thomas! It’s me again, Samir, from the FM Legends, and I have just added your blog to my pages, could you do the same with mine?? By the way, great advices, I already use Dropbox!
.-= Samir´s last blog ..Loving my new tactics… =-.
I’m rather focus on 1 PC only as this PC is very powerful to run FM2010+3D+Big database. I love to watch 3D and it a must for me to analyze my tactics. Perhaps I have tried using laptop but my laptop is not powerful enough to coupe with my need.
.-= zam´s last blog ..Touchline instructions and the effect =-.
That’s a nice idea Levo, I already knew dropbox but I never thought to utilize it for FM purposes.
Hey Thomas, I installed Dropbox and it seems great. Could you please explain, though, which files and folders we need to copy to the dropbox to play FM on multiple PCs? And then all we do is change the save game file path in the FM game, right?
Thanks again.
You will need to install Football Manager as normal on each computer, I recommend using STEAM that way you don’t have to carry the disk around with you.
Then just make sure that the files that you want to use on other computers are in a folder in your dropbox. So tactic files, training, save games and shortlists. Within FM all you do is change the save game file path to where you have all your other saved games in the dropbox.
Hope this helps.
Thanks, that’s what I thought. Will try it out, seems like a great way to do it.
Hey,
I am maybe being completely stupid but when I save a game file and try to open it up later in dropbox( I am opening it on a computer with FM saved) and it comes up as a file that can not be opened. Can you tell me why?
I even went through the programme list to find FM to see if I could open it with that and it said that it isn’t a vaild win32 application.
All help is welcomed!
Thanks!
When I get back home I will have a nose for you to see if I can figure out what the problem you are having is.
Have you tried this with any other save games? Maybe there is something up with that file. I just tried ot see if their was any problems on my computer and I could do everything fine. Not sure what the problems is
Good idea here!
Actually have Dropbox for my phone but never occurred to me to do this!
Got a question for you. I always download large graphics packs for FM, which would be too large to share on Dropbox (without paying any fees).
Do you know how i can sort this so the graphics are stored locally on each PC, but the saves etc. are saved in the Dropbox folder.
Cheers for your help
I have never really checked, whether this is possible. But I presume not. Probably best to download the graphics packs and install them on the two computers. You should only have to do this once so not too much of a problem.
Maybe get more referrals? I have managed to get quiet alot of space on my dropbox account through referrals.
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