question about game data on iPod

[SarcasticOne]

not sure if this is the right place for this or not but I figured I would put it here since 5th Gen iPod Videos are the only iPods that play the games from iTunes. If this is the wrong forum, please move tot he correct one. Thanks

ok, I've had to restore my iPod a couple times because for some reason something would happen during the sync proccess and I would lose my "Other" data which basically freezes the sync and requires me to restore. No problem, I restore and everything gets put back on. Except one thing, I no longer have all my previous high scores, player names, ect from my Tetris, Pac-Man or Vortex games. I have to go back through and redo the user name and replay to get all my high scores back. It's not a huge pressing issue but it is a bit frustrating.

I figured the game data would be backed up to iTunes but I guess not. Is there an area on the iPod I can access to copy the file that contains these settings? This way I can do this from time to time and if I ever need to restore my iPod I can just replace the file so I don't have to redo everything again.

Like I said, it's not a huge deal but I would prefer if I could back it up in some way so that I don't have to worry about losing it all if I have to restore my iPod.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

[studogvetmed]

I have a new games library file in my iTunes folder after I downloaded mini golf... Not sure if that information is synced to that file or not...

Have you checked hidden folders on the iPod disk for where this information might be stored? I'll try to to putz around the iPod later...

[SarcasticOne]

no, I haven't explored my iPod at all. I don't know if I would know what to look for if I saw it though.

I also noticed the game folder in iTunes after I downloaded the games but I would assume my game data from the iPod doesn't get writen to it because it wasn't reloaded when I restored and reloaded my iPod. But I could be totally wrong.

[jhollington]

No, the game data is not backed up to iTunes in any way, so you have to backup this data manually yourself if you want to preserve it.

You can find the appropriate folders under the hidden \iPod_Control directory by accessing your iPod in "disk mode"... "Games_RO" contains the games themselves (RO meaning "read-only"), and there's no need to back this up as it's the same data that iTunes syncs into the iPod in the first place.

GAMEDATA_RW and GAMESTATS_WO are the folders that you would likely want to preserve in this case. Most likely only the GAMEDATA_RW folder is actually necessary, as I suspect the GAMESTATS_WO is just somewhere that game statistics are written for some future plans that Apple may have (the "WO", or "Write-Only" implies that the iPod doesn't read this directory).

[SarcasticOne]

ok, I figured there had to be somewhere i could back this data up at, I just didn't know where.

So if I back-up the GAMEDATA_RW and GAMESTATS_WO folders from the iPod then I should be covered in the event of another restore? Then if I need to restore, I just copy the back-up folders back onto the iPod to replace new folders? I figure I'll probably back it up every week when I do my normal scans and back-ups on my computers, this way if somethign happens, I only lose one week of data, I do this for all my computers and files.

I keep my iPod in disk mode anyway so thats no problem. Now I would assume I need to show hidden folders to see these two game folders? Once I show hidden folders, will they be in the main directory of the iPod or will I need to open another folder to find them? I'm sure I could find them but just figured I would ask to make sure I do it the right way.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

[studogvetmed]

Jesse comes through again. You in San-Fran yet?

Sounds like you'll have to go into iPod_control to find the game data, SarcasticOne.

[SarcasticOne]

ok, I'll check that out later when I get home.

Thanks

[studogvetmed]

I did a maintanience restore today. First copied out the three hidden game folders, restored, then after the restore, erased the ones on the iPod, and then copied back the one I had copied to my desktop. Seems my Game data is maintained with this method. Wasn't too bad. You have to first erase the iPod versions after the restore, it would appear you can't "replace" invisible files, or so the finder told me.

[jhollington]

Yes, if doing it through Finder you will run into that problem.

I've actually successfully transferred my games from my own iPod to my wife's just by copying the directories between devices via Terminal. The destination iPod of course has to be authorized for the account the games were purchased under, but copying the Games_RO directory from one iPod to another is otherwise all that is necessary to transfer the games themselves, and the GameData_RW directory to get the current stats and user profile settings.

[SarcasticOne]

yeah, I did some things a few weeks ago and restored my iPod. When doing so, I just copied the game files back onto the iPod after the restore and it worked fine. Finally, I didn't have to redo my games after a restore.

Since I play games while on break at work and that, I usually just back up my game data every Friday when I back up my computer files.