WoW Sync

Keep your World of Warcraft addons and addon settings identical on every PC — using the cloud storage you already have (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox…). No server, no subscription, no third-party sync service.

Update an addon on one machine, it's updated on all of them. Move a unit frame on one machine, it's moved on all of them.

How it works (v1.1)

Two layers, each using the safest mechanism for what it protects:

• Addons (Interface\AddOns) move into your cloud-synced folder, and a directory junction — a folder link the game can't tell from a real folder — is left in place. Addon installs and updates sync live.
• Settings (WTF\Account — addon config, UI layout, WeakAuras, keybinds) stay in a normal local folder. A tiny background agent pushes them to the cloud right after WoW closes, and pulls them down when the cloud copy is newer (i.e. you played on your other PC last). WoW itself never depends on the cloud drive being online — if your cloud app is off, you just play with local files and the sync catches up later.

Machine-specific settings (WTF\Config.wtf — graphics, sound) are never touched, so each PC keeps its own video config.

Upgrading from v1.0? v1.0 linked WTF\Account directly into the cloud. Just run the new setup — it detects the old link and converts your settings back to a normal local folder automatically. Nothing is deleted.

Quick start

Grab WoWSyncSetup.exe from the latest release.

1. Main PC (the one whose addons/settings you want to keep): close WoW, double-click the exe. It auto-detects your WoW install and cloud folder — check them, click Set Up Sync. Your setup is copied to the cloud and becomes the master.
2. In your cloud app, mark the new WoW Sync folder "Available offline" (Google Drive) / "Always keep on this device" (OneDrive) so the game reads real local files at full speed.
3. Every other PC: install the same cloud client, then — before running setup and before launching WoW — mark the WoW Sync folder "Available offline" / "Always keep on this device" and wait for it to finish downloading. Then run the same exe. It backs up that PC's folders and joins it to the shared copy.

⚠️ On the second PC: make the folder available offline before you start WoW

Google Drive and OneDrive normally keep files "online-only" — the names are there, but the contents are not on disk until something opens them. Your addons are read through a folder link into that folder, so if you launch WoW before the download has finished, the game sees missing or half-written addon files. Typical symptoms: addons missing from the list, a wall of Lua errors, or a UI that loads with default Blizzard frames.

Nothing is corrupted when this happens — the files simply weren't there yet. Close WoW, let the folder finish downloading, and start the game again.

To do it: right-click the WoW Sync folder → Offline access → Available offline (Google Drive), or Always keep on this device (OneDrive). Wait for every item to show the solid green/check "on this device" icon, not a cloud icon.

Prefer scripts? Setup-WoWSync.ps1 does exactly the same thing (keep wowsync-agent.ps1 next to it):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Setup-WoWSync.ps1 -CloudFolder "G:\My Drive\WoW Sync"

Works with retail, Classic, and Classic Era — pick the game version in the dropdown (or -Flavor _classic_) and run once per version.

The background agent

Installed to %LOCALAPPDATA%\WoWSync\wowsync-agent.ps1, started at login via a HKCU\...\Run entry, ~0% CPU (checks for the game every 15 seconds).

• WoW closes → waits 10 s for SavedVariables to flush → pushes local → cloud. If the push fails (cloud app not running), it retries until it succeeds and never pulls over unsaved local changes.
• Idle and the cloud copy is ≥2 min newer → pulls cloud → local.
• Never syncs while the game is running; never copies from an empty folder.
• Log: %LOCALAPPDATA%\WoWSync\agent.log

Good to know

• Don't play on two PCs at the same time. Settings save on logout; the last logout wins.
• Nothing is deleted. Originals are kept next to the links as *.pre-sync-backup. Delete them yourself once you're happy.
• SmartScreen: the exe is unsigned, so Windows may warn on first run — More info → Run anyway. Or build it yourself (below) — it's one command.
• If WoW ever loads with no addons: your cloud app isn't running. Start it and restart the game.

Uninstall

1. Close WoW. Delete the Interface\AddOns link (it's just a shortcut), then copy the AddOns folder out of your cloud WoW Sync folder back into Interface\ (or rename AddOns.pre-sync-backup back to AddOns).
2. Settings are already a normal local folder — nothing to undo.
3. Remove the agent: delete the WoWSyncAgent-* entry under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (Task Manager → Startup apps), and delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\WoWSync.

Building from source

No toolchain needed — the C# compiler ships with Windows:

build.cmd

(It embeds wowsync-agent.ps1 into the exe as a resource, so keep the two files together.)

License

MIT