Irrelevant that the PTR uses parts of the retail client. The downloads are separate. The PTR downloads and the background downloader are not connected.
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I remember downloading the PTR for Beta access. It was like downloading WoW for a second time although Live and PTR shared the same files (except PTR had the extra content so was a few GBs more).
I’m pretty sure they actually fixed it so that the files from Live get copied over to PTR and only the new content required downloading. I could be wrong though…
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Correct, it rolls both ways. Retail is used to support PTR installation (the differential between the retail build and the PTR build is what’s downloaded), and vice versa. That’s why those of us who use PTR often only download something like a 300mb patch prior to a major retail release, since just about all of the PTR data is used to support the update.
It’s been like this for a few years.
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This is correct. The PTR client is entirely separate and does not share data from PTR to Live.
I had a ton of updates 
. I got em all downloaded now!
I definitely remember it like that for Overwatch. Made the PTR a breeze to download and get into the new action for testing and trying with the playerbase/community.
Yup! That space usage was a major roadblock for many of us, but since Blizzard enabled sharing of most game data, that roadblock to using PTR went bye-bye. And of course, when a new major release is right around the corner, we already have 99% of the data downloaded just by the mere presence of the PTR install.
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I just checked all 3 computers where WoW is installed. There is no download for any of them and there is no way it could have already been done on them. I don’t do the PTR because I don’t want to play through stuff before it goes live.
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You can just install the client and never use it. That’s close to what I do. The most I’ll do in PTR is see if an old recipe was put back into the game or check for new achievements, but otherwise I don’t touch it.
I just found that the BackgroundDownloader.exe file doesn’t even exist in the WoW folder any more.
300MB is not nearly enough of a download for a major patch.
You know, I find that really odd too. Rather small. Maybe we had most of the files before, and Blizzard just encrypted the files so they weren’t able to be datamined or looked at the entire time.
Bad post . I found an announcement but it turned out to be an old one for the expansion pre patch
We do not, because data does not go from PTR file folders to our Retail file folders. That’s not how it works.
You might already have the default “Apply latest updates and download future patch data for recently played games.”
In your client:
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
Yes I do have that but I have never seen a download for 9.2. There has been no notice of it being available on the background downloader and the file doesn’t even exist in my WoW directory any more.
They used to be. They are not anymore. They now share files. They are heavily linked. Someone who has the ptr downloaded and up to date has a far smaller download of new patch then someone who doesn’t. Been like that for last couple of expansions
Same with X-Pac betas now as well
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I think they may have done away with the background downloader. The file no longer exists and I haven’t gotten anything. I’ll probably get a big download on Tuesday during the maintenance period.
My launcher downloaded most of the patch on the background downloader a couple of weeks ago.
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Since patch 8.1, all wow files share one unified data folder. Having ptr installed will get you the majority of the upcoming 9.2 update for the base game.
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