Syncing/Restoring your Game: Tutorial

[RebelYell]

Important:
This Tutorial is for the Android/iOS/Amazon version of SWC only. Perhaps it is similar on the Windows version. But i simply don't know.

Why Syncing?

SWC allows you to sync your games to one of these platforms:
- Facebook
- Google Games
- Gamecenter (Apple Devices)

I strongly recommend that you sync your game to one of these platforms. (By logging in via the game settings)

These are the advantages:

• You have a backup of the game in case your the app is uninstalled or corrupted somehow, your device gets damaged (or stolen) and/or you've to move to another devices.
• You can play with the same account on different devices (you won't be able to mix Windows with Android/iOS/Amazon though)
  One at a time.

Another important information is your PlayerID. That is a lengthy code which you find via Settings->About in the game. Take a screenshot/photograph or if not avoidable - write it down. You will need the PlayerID if you contact the Disney support for any reason.

How to ReSync/Restore an existing Account:

Warning:
Be very careful when syncing a new device / installation to an existing SWC-Account. You risk overwriting your Account (maybe forever), when you press the wrong button. This tutorial is written from my best memory and knowledge but it may still contain errors. Please always use your brain and don't trust my words.

This instruction is based on the post of a developer in the Disney Forums:
https://www.playdomforums.com/showthrea ... layerID%29

So when do you need to (Re)Sync/Restore your game?

• You uninstalled Star Wars Commander on your device.
• Your device was reset & the previous data erased.
• You want to continue playing SWC on a new device.
• You want to play with your existing SWC account on a second device.

Steps to restore your game:

1. Install Star Wars Commander on the device
2. Play the tutorial. You have to choose a (temporary) name, choose your faction and play until the first chapter starts. Open the Play window, but you don't need to play the chapter itself. Just close the window again and you should be the first time in the game without a flashing arrow. (B.t.w. don't hesitate to use crystals for speeding up the tutorial. They don't count against your original account).
3. Now go to the game settings and login to the platform where you synced to.
4. The game will now ask if you want to either connect your new game (!!don't do that, this overwrites your original game!!) or to Load the original game.
5. Select [Load] and acknowledge the choice on the second dialogue (see screenshots below).
6. The game should now restart and present your original game to you.

This is the Screen (with your own credentials) which should be presented after you logged in to your Syncing platform in the newly installed SWC. Select "Load":

sync600.png

Then acknowledge the second dialogue:

sync600_2.png

Using this mechanism you can play SWC on multiple devices (i.e. phone and tablet). You can also play the android version on windows android emulators like Genymotion or Bluestacks. But beware, never press the red button!

[eclampsium]

Well written RebelYell! I just saved a snapshot of my player Id just in case...

[Stefan]

Thanks for this

[RebelYell]

Yes, syncing is important.
Double syncing (i.e. FB and Google) might be even better.
Having the same game on multiple devices - including emulators - (via syncing) is good.
Having a (real) backup of your device (if possible) also helps.

Many people have had difficulties with the last update. Some lost their year-long progress. And even the player-id alone doesn't help much (according to support answers I read) when you lost your game.

So: sync, duplicate, backup what you can.

And: If a problem occurs on a non-synced game: Don't uninstall! (Or game data is definitely lost)
Better contact the forum (and/or support) first and have some patience.

[eclampsium]

Great tips RebelYell! You could include some other solutions and pertinent actions people had used in the Line chat about it... Like removing the memory card on android devices on special situations...

[RebelYell]

Eclampsium. That is sure. But I'm not totally in the memory card topic. (Android for sure)

I think it was removing the memory (microSD)-Card before newly installing the SWC App.

But Stop: Uninstalling SWC ist dangerous!

If you have not synced your account then your account is lost for sure.
If you have synced your account then you still risc much unless you used sync before to have a copy of your account on another device.

[RebelYell]

Backup Star Wars Commander on Android devices (& emulators) FAQ:

Why ?

When you've got a (useful) Backup you can "simply" restore it as last resort. Backups may also help retrieving important data (i.e. player-id) to help restoring your account.

The downside is that backing up your apps settings can be complicated and unreliable on Android.

The purpose of this FAQ is to help you getting a working backup from your game. It may also help experienced users retrieving their player-id from a backup or the device in case they didn't note it and need it to contact support.


Does this help me when I'm already in trouble with the game?

If your Star Wars Commander app isn't uninstalled yet then: Yes, I advise to backup up the game. A backup can be used to retrieve vital information and may be helpful when other measures of account restoring become available/known in the future.

If you didn't note your player-id, some backups can be used to retrieve your game-settings file containing the player-id. Even if the game isn't working (but still installed) and the device is not rooted.

I already synched my game to Facebook/Google/Game Center isn't that enough?

A Backup is an additional measure of safety. Synching may fail and there's a possibility of accidentially overwriting a snych with another game.


I have an old backup. Is this still of use?

Yes, but be careful when restoring! If this is a full backup of your device then other important data on your device may be overwritten with old data.

If you can selectively restore only the Star Wars Commander app+data then this should be fine. This is because Disney stores your base on their servers and uses your player-id (and a player-secret for verification) to retrieve the current base to the devices. So any old backup of SWC should restore your most current version of the base. (you would need to upgrade the app though)

Also, if the backup file is in the "AndroidBackup" (*.ab) format, then the player-id can potentially be retrieved from such a backup.


How do I backup?

Google Backup
If you device uses Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or newer then an existing backup of Star Wars Commander may actually be possible & useful. (I don't have such a device so this answer is theoretical.) Google Backups on older Android versions usually don't backup the preferences of SWC and therefore are of no use here. (to my knowledge)

Manually retrieving specific data (i.e. the player-id) from Google Backups is not possible to my knowledge.


Manufacturer provided backup software
Some manufacturers put own backup software on their devices or offer some PC-Software for backup up the device on PCs. These may be helpful but I am not using them so I can't tell.


Backup software for non rooted phones/tablets
This software usually relies on the Function "Android Backup" of the developer tool "adb". You also need to enable "USB debugging" on your phone. This backup often requires a link via USB to a Windows/Linux PC or Mac. Backups are then transferred to the PC or to internal memory/SD-Card.

Helium Backup
This backup software actually saves what we need. The free version should be sufficient. You can restrict the backup on Star Wars Commander (or "com.lucasarts.starts_goo") only to speed it up.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... tta.backup

Total Commander (Windows) + ADB Plugin
Personally, I use the Windows software "Total Commander" (a File Manager) combined with the Plugin "Android ADB" to backup android files via USB to a Windows Computer. Total Commander is shareware but is completely usable after acknowledging the nag screen.
Use the following settings: "Include APKs, Do not include devices's shared storage, Do not include all system applications, Backup selected packages: check: 'com.lucasarts.starts_goo'"
http://totalcmd.net/
http://totalcmd.net/plugring/android_adb.html

Ultimate Backup
A free Backup utility. But beware! The download sources are highly unreliable and downloads may even contain malware!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=1844032

adb: (from Android SDK, for more experienced users)
Backups can be made by PC-commandline after having installed the Android SDK and USB-Drivers suitable for your device.
See here for instructions: http://www.howtogeek.com/125375/how-to- ... ur-device/
(adb backup -f SWC.ab -apk -noshared -nosystem com.lucasarts.starts_goo)


Backup software for rooted phones/tablets and emulators
Backing up data from a rooted Android device is far easier and more reliable but not everyone can or wants to have a rooted device. On Emulators you have the additional possibility of simply copying the whole emulator image (or retrieving it from an older PC backup).

Titanium Backup
This is the most popular backup software for rooted devices. There's also a paid "Pro"-Version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... niumBackup


Can I extract my player-id from a backup?
If you use a backup utility based on "Android Backup" then there's a java based tool to unpack (&pack if you change something):
"AndroidBackupExtractor"
https://sourceforge.net/projects/adbextractor/

This tool needs a technically able user who can work with command line utilities and archivers (tar). But it allows to access the settings file of Star Wars Commander which contains the player-id.

You find the player-id as "prefPlayerId" in the file "com.lucasarts.starts-goo.xml".

It is most certainly not possible to "implant/edit" an existing player-id (alone) to a backup made of a installation with another player-id.

Extracting Data from other Tools (like TitaniumBackup) may also be possible. But if you've root access on the device you can easier retrieve the player-id from the device itself (\data\data\com.lucasarts.starts.goo\shared_prefs\com.lucasarts.starts_goo.xml).

[RebelYell]

There are also a number of official Disney FAQ articles.
See this post in the other forum:
https://www.playdomforums.com/showthrea ... on-4-22-16

[RebelYell]

Backup up and restoring the preferences files seems to definitely work for windows. This file is called playerprefs.dat.
See:
https://www.playdomforums.com/showthrea ... rprefs.dat

This is probably similar to the file:
\data\data\com.lucasarts.starts.goo\shared_prefs\com.lucasarts.starts_goo.xml
found on Android devices.

[RebelYell]

Internal details for recovering Android/iOS accounts.
Disclaimer:
These informations are meant as help for experienced users.
I can not guarantee that these steps will always help. They're meant as last resort when nothing else helps.
The given information is only helpful for recovery purposes. It is not helpful for manipulation or other misuse of the game.

SWC Login
Basically you "only" need the PlayerId (which is visible in the about screen) AND the PlayerSecret (retrievable from a preferences file) to restore an account. These are comparable to a userid and password which the game uses to log in to your account and retrieve your game data from disneys servers.

The problem is, that the PlayerSecret ist stored in a location which is normally not accessible for non-root users. And - naturally - it is wiped from the device when you uninstall the game. (Android allows to access this file without root indirectly (& non-trivial) via an adb backup/restore)

I tested this successfully. Here's how:
I created a secondary (test) account (let's call it "Account1") in a Android Emulator. Played the tuturial, placed some buildings. In that case it is a lv 4 HQ base. This account was not synced b.t.w.
I then saved the contents of the following file:
\data\data\com.lucasarts.starts.goo\shared_prefs\com.lucasarts.starts_goo.xml

I created another, new Emulator image (=new device). I installed the game again and started it up once. Just clicked once on the base but did not play through the tutorial. I then ended the game and made sure the app actually was stopped. (Dragged it out of tasklist).

Now i opened the preferences file on the same location as mentioned above. Naturally, it contained different values for playerid and playersecret. I then edited the file and changed the values of "prefPlayerId" and "prefPlayerSecret" to the values of the saved file from "Account1".

Then I started up the game and it showed the HQ 4 base and the correct username of "Account1".
Success!

Other possible means of retrieving your login data:
Most certainly the login data is also stored in the synch data when the game is/was synched to google/FB. But I have no idea how to access this synch data outside the game (i.e. when it was uninstalled).