Stop Wow from Server Syncing Macros?

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So, the short version: I have multiple wow accounts linked to the same WTF folder in my WoW folder via junction links for the purpose of keeping my settings constant across all separate accounts.

The PROBLEM: If I have not logged into one of those accounts in a while, WoW will attempt to pull the last macros it remembers that account having, from its own server-- which overwrites my local macros. I do not want this as WoW is then overwriting current macros with older ones.

How do I force WoW to accept my local macros over the server-side ones?

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Under your WTF folder each of your accounts will have it’s own folder with a name that is like “8145774#12” and each account folder should have it’s own macros.txt. Unless you are doing something weird with Windows and folder mappings that is unnecessary or using an add-on that syncs stuff across accounts (poorly), what you describe shouldn’t happen. It also shouldn’t delete the local macros.txt file unless you have problems with local permissions that prevent wow from reading the file originally.

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This is what a Junction link is: https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/j/junction.htm
The way I have it setup: all of the folders like “8145774#12” filter into a single folder, and in this way, macros.txt is universal across all accounts.

I’ve actually had this issue for a long time now, and the way I have gotten around it in the past is to remove the write permission from EVERYONE on macros.txt, which will force WoW to accept my local copy instead of overwriting it with what it has on its servers. The downside is that I can’t save anything written inside of WoW until I restore write permission…

The point at which it overwrites my local macros is during the character loading screen, when loading into the game world. Another work-around I have found is to leave macros.txt open in notepad and SPAM “Save As.”

I know there was a time when WoW did not sync macros at all, so I am figuring there is an “off” value somewhere.

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Months ago (back in the old forum?) while helping someone else, a bunch of us figured out that WoW uses the local file (the macros.txt) as it’s primary copy and the version on the server as the backup. That way if you go to a new pc that you’ve never installed wow on (and has no macros.txt), you won’t lose all your macros and it will it create a new macros.txt with the server version of the data. It also uses the server copy if there is a problem reading the file locally.

There is no way to turn that off.

I think the setup you have with junction files is causing the problem you now have. If your file permissions weren’t a problem you wouldn’t need to use junction files.

Focus on fixing the permissions issues.

  1. Make sure you’re logged in with an account that has admin rights to the whole drive
  2. Make sure wow and the bnet launcher was installed using this account.
  3. do not use a shortcut to run either wow or the bnet launcher as Administrator. That makes it run as a different user account and can contribute to the permissions issues.
  4. If you’re using the twitch desktop app, it has a handy feature for fixing file permissions and file associations that can help prevent problems later on.
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I appreciate the input, but I am not certain you understand. Without the junction links, I would have a macros-cache.txt file for “51474193#1” and a completely separate macros-cache.txt for “95100047#1” and another separate file for “95100047#2” and so on…

Now you say that the game prioritizes the local copy instead of the server copy? In my experience it has been the opposite. Even on my laptop, a completely different system without junction links, I have had the same problem; the game will overwrite my macros with a server-side copy that is outdated.

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/run SetCVar('synchronizeMacros', 0)

https://wow.gamepedia.com/CVar_synchronizeMacros

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Thanks for that. I knew there had to be a simple on or off switch!

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For me, nothing worked, I tried all four variables:

/run SetCVar(‘synchronizeConfig’, 0)
/run SetCVar(‘synchronizeMacros’, 0)
/run SetCVar(‘synchronizeBindings’, 0)
/run SetCVar(‘synchronizeSettings’, 0)

But it still overwrote my general macros. So I found a workaround:

  1. Copy your backed-up macros, bindings, settings, and config files into your game folders.
  2. Launch the game, it will still overwrite them as usual.
  3. Now here’s the trick: delete all the macros on the general tab, then log out to the character selection screen but don’t close the game.
  4. While at the character screen, overwrite the files again with your backups.
  5. Then log in, this time, the game should load your files correctly and not overwrite them.
  6. Once everything looks right, log out again, then close the game, and back up the working files once more.

Whenever things get messed up again, just restore your backups or repeat the process as needed.

Not sure why Blizzard doesn’t honor a simple “don’t replace my files” rule, but at least this workaround does the job.