Factorio Forums

I've been trying to ask around on Discord and google this for about an hour now, but to no real help so far.

I played a online map a few days ago and the server was running 0.17.79, (I was running latest experimental just before which were 0.18.31 at the time) and I know that if I downgrade the game version my current bp library will be unusable.
So I made a backup copy of my bp file, and put it in another directory.

So I wanted to go back to latest experimental, which had in the meanwhile been upgraded to 0.18.32.
But my blueprints didn't show up, so I thought I might have to begin from 0.18.31 and then restore my save.

So if I go back to 0.18.31 and restore the backup it works fine.
But if I upgrade to 0.18.32 afterwards the library isn't showing up at all.

I do really like my library, and I'd really like it back. What could be the issue?
The backup file does work as it should, as far as I know.

Hm, I know there have been issues with the file blueprint-storage.dat in the past, when downgrading and upgrading again. Though haveing a backup usually solves all the problems.

I had a look in the factorio user directory and found some places that could affect the bp-storage.

1. In the file blueprint-storage.dat itself, there seems to be a list of migration scripts the storage has to be run through to be usable in a version. But I don't see anything for a version later than 0.17.something. So strike this one from the list.
2. In the file config.ini there is the option disable-blueprint-storage, but which usually is commented out and mostlikely defaults to false anyways, unless something messed up your config.
3. A bit more likely option is enable-blueprint-storage-cloud-sync. If that is true, then maybe you get an empty storage synced into your folder, which was created when you downgraded factorio? I don't really know.
4. And in player-data.json there is the porperty last-played-version. If that got messed up, it maybe has some effect on factorios willingness to accept a certain storage file.

I don't have any speculations beyond that.

Thanks for the information!

I will test it out when I get home tonight.

Impatient wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2020 10:25 pm Hm, I know there have been issues with the file blueprint-storage.dat in the past, when downgrading and upgrading again. Though haveing a backup usually solves all the problems.

I had a look in the factorio user directory and found some places that could affect the bp-storage.

1. In the file blueprint-storage.dat itself, there seems to be a list of migration scripts the storage has to be run through to be usable in a version. But I don't see anything for a version later than 0.17.something. So strike this one from the list.
2. In the file config.ini there is the option disable-blueprint-storage, but which usually is commented out and mostlikely defaults to false anyways, unless something messed up your config.
3. A bit more likely option is enable-blueprint-storage-cloud-sync. If that is true, then maybe you get an empty storage synced into your folder, which was created when you downgraded factorio? I don't really know.
4. And in player-data.json there is the porperty last-played-version. If that got messed up, it maybe has some effect on factorios willingness to accept a certain storage file.

I don't have any speculations beyond that.

You were right about the cloud sync!
I got it up and running again, just by disabling cloud sync.
Thanks alot!

Hey! Cool! And thanks for your feedback. Makes this thread a resource of knowledge. You could mark this topic as solved, by putting [SOLVED] in the thread title (by editing the title of your first post), like here ( viewtopic.php?f=25&t=86060 ).

Impatient wrote: ↑Thu Jun 18, 2020 5:57 pm Hey! Cool! And thanks for your feedback. Makes this thread a resource of knowledge. You could mark this topic as solved, by putting [SOLVED] in the thread title (by editing the title of your first post), like here ( viewtopic.php?f=25&t=86060 ).

Thanks for the guidance! I do very rarely have problems with Factorio, so I'm not an experienced user of the forum.

This thread helped me a lot. I had a problem restoring my blueprint library (blueprint-storage.dat) from a backup after I've deleted it for testing stuff.

nb: I had my blueprints still available even after deleting the file, I had to delete all books/blueprints from the ingame menu to get it empty.

After restoring the file from my backup it was still empty. This trick does it for me:

1. Restore your blueprint-storage.dat
2. Start the game
3. Empty the checkbox "Enable blueprint library Cloud Sync" (Settings -> Other")
4. Load a save, make sure you library is back
5. Return back to main menu (stop playing)
6. Now you can enable the cloud sync feature again (checkbox "Enable blueprint library Cloud Sync")

nb: Maybe it's enough to turn the setting off and on again (with confirm in between), to mark the local file for "please upload to cloud".


Thanks @OlaEli @Impatient for your posts

Yenz wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:13 am This thread helped me a lot. I had a problem restoring my blueprint library (blueprint-storage.dat) from a backup after I've deleted it for testing stuff.

nb: I had my blueprints still available even after deleting the file, I had to delete all books/blueprints from the ingame menu to get it empty.

After restoring the file from my backup it was still empty. This trick does it for me:

1. Restore your blueprint-storage.dat
2. Start the game
3. Empty the checkbox "Enable blueprint library Cloud Sync" (Settings -> Other")
4. Load a save, make sure you library is back
5. Return back to main menu (stop playing)
6. Now you can enable the cloud sync feature again (checkbox "Enable blueprint library Cloud Sync")

Screenshot 2021-03-25 120550.png


nb: Maybe it's enough to turn the setting off and on again (with confirm in between), to mark the local file for "please upload to cloud".


Thanks @OlaEli @Impatient for your posts

I was also having trouble restoring a blueprint library backup I had.
This post helped me greatly, and I think I understand what's going on (I think this setting controls whether the game reads the blueprints from %APPDATA%\Factorio or directly from Steam's "remote"/cloud folder for the game), but I'm still confused by the overall behavior.
Here's the process I initially went through, and my assumptions along the way:

• I down-dated (opposite of update) the game to version 1.0, got the error about not being able to read the blueprint storage, so it renamed the unreadable storage "blueprint-storage-backup" as usual. This was placed in %APPDATA%, adjacent to blueprint-storage.dat, implying I would just need to copy the backup back into place, in that same folder
• I updated the game back to the original version (1.1.59, specifically). Figuring nothing would be wrong, I removed blueprint-storage.dat and renamed (yes, RENAMED) "blueprint-storage-backup.dat" > "blueprint-storage.dat"
• I spent the next hour or 2 trying to troubleshoot why, despite my restored blueprint-storage.dat clearly having over a megabyte of data in it... the game was saying my blueprint library was empty.
• I eventually happened upon this thread and followed the steps above.

Here's something I'm wondering: what would have happened to my blueprints if I had tried to drag and drop a new blueprint into the empty library? Would it have written the almost-empty storage to both the cloud remote AND %APPDATA%\Factorio? Even though that's not where it read the file from?

PS:
@Yenz: what does "nb:" stand for?

Twisted_Code wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 5:44 am PS:
@Yenz: what does "nb:" stand for?

nota bene: note well; note

Nidan wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 10:58 am

Twisted_Code wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 5:44 am PS:
@Yenz: what does "nb:" stand for?

nota bene: note well; note

for some reason I did not recognize the abbreviation, though I have come across the phrase before. Thank you for the clarification!