Re: Unable to import character from ME2 to ME3 with Mass Effect Trilogy

There was no save folder created in my documents.

The saves were located in the game folder which was something like

G:\Orgin Games\Bioware\Mass Effect 2\Binaries\(weird backwards "N" character)(Chinese character)\Saves

I tried manually copying the character folder to the standard folder c\users\ryanh\Documents\Bioware\Mass Effect 2\Saves

And still doesn't work?

Odd location for your ME2 save.

I have my Origin games install to the G-drive as well.  My official documents folder is on the D-drive. I've gone to another PC since I played ME2, but did copy the file structure over and it does import to ME3. The relevant info:

ME2 save folder:

D:\[my login name]\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save   (no "s" at the end of "Save")

If that still doesn't work, maybe start a new ME3 game, and see where it saves that one.  Then go back up through that structure and make your Mass Effect 2 save structure there?

@ryanhall85 

Did you changed the location of your standard documents folder? 

C:\user\>your user name<\.... is only the location of the save files if you not moved your user account "Documents" folder.

Do you use onedrive?

The fact that the game saves to the game folder might hint a permissions problem with the "Documents" folder?

Did you tried to run Origin and/or the game as Administrator?

To avoid any potential issues, I went and set everything back to default settings.

I moved Origin Games folder back to the C:\program files (x86)\ folder.

I set my default documents folder back to C:\Users\ryanh\Documents\

I copied the Bioware save folder to the Documents folder at C:\Users\ryanh\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save\Ryan_12_Soldier_030720_0

I ran ME2 as administrator, loaded completed game and created a new save.

Its still saving to the G:\ location...

So I ran Origin as administrator, started the download process and pointed to the location that the games were saved to in C:\program files (x86)\Origin Games\...

I deleted the game folders from the G:\ drive.

The download process completed instantly as all files were already there. I ran the game, loaded from the last save, created a new save and it is still saving to the game folder, but at least the correct game folder on the C: drive.

Launched ME3 and it still does not show any importable characters...

I removed the saves folder from the game folder and it now only exists in the documents folder as it should. Now neither ME2 or ME3 will detect the save files in that location.

Ran a game repair for ME2 and ME3. Still neither will detect the saves in that location.

There has to be a file that can be edited that is telling it where to create the save files. It appears to be

C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 2\Binaries\и\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\BIOGame\Profile\Player1.prf. It's mostly gibberish though and I can't decipher most of it, except for the save file name.

@ryanhall85 

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ryanhall85 wrote:

To avoid any potential issues, I went and set everything back to default settings.

I moved Origin Games folder back to the C:\program files (x86)\ folder.

I set my default documents folder back to C:\Users\ryanh\Documents\

I copied the Bioware save folder to the Documents folder at C:\Users\ryanh\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save\Ryan_12_Soldier_030720_0

I ran ME2 as administrator, loaded completed game and created a new save.

Its still saving to the G:\ location...

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The "Player1.prf" is the profile file for your character, it will not contain the save game location.

The location of the game game folder will also not make a difference.

You used the build in tools of Windows to move your "Documents" folder?

Meaning you did not just copied the folder to a different location?

Is there a "BIOGame" (Not BioGame) folder inside the folder the game saves to in your game folder?

I changed the default location of the documents folder.

Documents pointed to a cloud storage folder.

The saves were not going there either.

I am pretty sure I have seen a biogame folder in the game folder. I will check

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@ryanhall85 wrote:

I deleted the game folders from the G:\ drive.

The download process completed instantly as all files were already there.

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Okay, so you copied the game files from G-drive to C-drive (thus the "completed instantly")?  I'm admittedly grasping at straws, but ...

Maybe it's time to delete all the ME2 game files (except make a copy of the Save folder & files!!), delete the Origin cache, and completely re-download ME2?

Separate, but related Q to @holger1405 :

Maybe it would help to get some clarity on what cloud saves vs. local saved games are doing?  I can't understand their behavior... 

I have cloud save usage set (ME3).  When I save a game, it clearly shows on my local drive. This happens whether I save when I'm online or offline (tried both).  When I go back to Origin -->ME3 -->Game Properties -->Cloud Saves, the text at bottom reads that it will "restore last local saved game", "will restore data from [an older date ~2 months ago]",  Yet I clearly have local saves from today.  I didn't click on it as I was just testing and didn't want to screw anything up.  What is it doing??

I backed up the save folder to c:\users\rhall\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save

I completely uninstalled all Mass Effect Games.

I disabled Cloud backups in the Origin app.

I ran origin as an administrator and installed the games to the C:\ drive

I launched ME3, went to import ME2 character and there were no characters to select.

There is a serious F***** problem here.

I have now completely uninstalled all Mass effect games, and Origin.

I have cleaned up the registry to removed traces of uninstalled apps.

I have deleted all files and folders containing the name "origin" or "mass effect" or "bioware"

I am now going to reinstall everything from scratch and see if it detects this save folder in its correct default location...

Complete reinstall from scratch and save file from ME2 in standard location is not being detected.

What kind or official support and recourse is available for this issue?

https://help.ea.com/

They are hit and (often) miss when it comes to ME.  They'll run through a bunch of the usual checklist operations, many of which you've already done.  But since this appears to be an install/PC issue, maybe they'll find something we haven't. Good luck!

EA support was unable to be of any assistance.

Even the workaround suggested with the configuration tool wont work because the ME3 configuration tool errors out when running it.

I dont understand how these issues havent been ironed out after all these years.

Sorry to hear.

"I dont understand how these issues havent been ironed out after all these years."

That's partly because EA "does't support ME game anymore" (!).  Yes, I've heard that line numerous times from ea.help customer support after I try to elevate when they haven't come up with a fix for my issue.  So we only get Origin changes, which if anything, make things worse for ME since any resulting newly introduced bugs aren't addressed.

Config tool crashes?  Wow, something odd between Origin, ME, and your PC. But you can play ME1, ME2, and ME3, it is just the import that fails?

Since you obviously have been willing to go the extra mile, here's one last ditch thing you may consider trying:

Install on another PC (or have a friend install) and just try the import on that one (did they already have you try making a new user account on your PC?).  Not sure that solves anything since you still would have to take the resulting new ME3 save file and get it to work back on your PC...

Yeah the games play fine, but I end up losing out because I can't import from one game to another.

The only workaround I have found is to take my information from the ME2 save, open it up in Gibbed editor, then create a new save in ME3, then copy over the settings the best I can manually from the ME2 save.

@ryanhall85 

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ryanhall85 wrote:

I dont understand how these issues havent been ironed out after all these years.

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Because it is an issue on you system, not a general problem with the game.

A repair installation or fresh installation of Windows will fix this issue most probably.

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ryanhall85 wrote:
Even the workaround suggested with the configuration tool wont work because the ME3 configuration tool errors out when running it.

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The Config tool don't like CPU with a high core count.

If you have such a CPU here is a workaround. (Set it to not more than 4 cores)

I doubt it will help here, there is no import feature in the ME3 config tool.

I started up the game again and it for some reason, acted as if I had never started on and the only option was "New Game".

That seemed weird, so I went into the saves location and found that it is repeatedly creating a new profile. It's hard to determine because it's all in Chinese characters.

I have to copy my saves to the newly created folder each time. This is borked.