Save Games Files No Longer Show Up in Files - iOS

Development Platform & Builds
, ,
1

Hey all,

We have been testing and it would seem as if we cannot get the save games to appear in files on iOS anymore (nor when we plug it into itunes/macbook).

Before we used too see it if we deployed to the iPad, using a development deployment and the ‘support itunes file sharing’ & ‘support files app’ enabled, we could see the save game files, but no longer.

We can still see logs, etc, just not save games.

Any ideas as to why?

Thanks,

[Attachment Removed]

2

Steps to Reproduce
Deployed to the iPad, using a development deployment and the ‘support itunes file sharing’ & ‘support files app’ enabled, we could see the save game files, but no longer.

[Attachment Removed]

3

Hi Connor,
Can you confirm Xcode version, iOS version of device and whether you are using a source or built installed build of UE?
Best regards.[Attachment Removed]

4

Hey,

iOS version - 26.0.1

XCode Version - 16.4

Source code.

Thanks.

[Attachment Removed]

5

Hi Connor,

Do you see the files in question if you download the app’s full container from Xcode? To do so, from Xcode, go to ‘Windows’ -> ‘Devices and Simulators’, select the device then select the application from the ‘Installed Apps’ list, the press the (…) button below the list (App Container Actions) and select ‘Download Container…’. That will download a .xcappdata which you can Right Click -> ‘Show Package Contents’ and go to AppData/Documents/$appname/ where you should see various directories including the ones containing the same files. We still need to investigate the production File Sharing feature, however, wanted to communicate this back to you in case it addressed your immediate need to access save files without needing File Sharing.

Best regards.

[Attachment Removed]

6

Hey,

No that results in us seeing the same files we do on the ipad, but still no save files.

Thanks!

[Attachment Removed]

7

Can you confirm the path used to write out the save file that isn’t showing? Do you see save files in the downloaded container if you write these with the File Sharing features disabled?

Best regards

[Attachment Removed]

8

So, the path to where they are saved is:

../../../APPNAME/Saved/SaveGames/SAVEFILE.sav

This is using native Epic logic. We’re only specifying the SAVEFILE name, not the path of where.

Looks like trying the ‘turning off file sharing feature’ doesn’t solve the problem either.

Connor

[Attachment Removed]

9

After digging even further, it would seem as if they do exist in the package file taken through xcode, but not in the expected location.

Expected location ( SaveGames folder doesn’t exist ):

FILENAME.xcappdata/AppData/Documents/APPNAME/Saved/SaveGames/…

Found save game files at instead:

FILENAME.xcappdata/AppData/Library/APPNAME/Saved/SaveGames/…

Which is not visible through the default apple file browser app.

[Attachment Removed]

10

Hi Connor,

If file sharing is disabled, saves would get wriiten to …/Documents/APPNAME/… while if it enabled, the file system redirects to …/Library/APPNAME. I am also observing however that the files when sharing is enabled are not visible on the Mac side with MacOS 26 on an iOs 26 device. We will investigate further, however, this may be an issue on Apple’s side. Will confirm once I have more details. Are you able to pull the files you need via Xcode in the meantime?

Best regards.

[Attachment Removed]

11

Hi again Connor,

It seems that Files access to iOS may only be showing top level files and folders. However, if you drag copy the APPNAME folder from iOS to a local folder in Finder, it becomes expandable and Saves/SaveGames/*.sav are visible and accessible.

Best regards/

[Attachment Removed]

12

Hey Stephane,

Sorry not sure what you mean, as we can access the save games on the macbook via the path that we provided above, the main issue is that we then need to continuously backup the entire app to be able to access them, whereas before we could just backup the savegames from the files app on the iPad.

In the meantime we can backup the files from XCode using the provided path, but it’s far from ideal and strange that it’s changed. Has there been no changes to that part of the logic from an Epic side that could cause a directory change for these files?

Thanks,

[Attachment Removed]

13

Hi Connor,

Apologies if my last message was unclear. I was referring to the fact that only top level folders show in the iOS device Files view when using Finder on MacOS.

Regarding the behaviour, I was misled by consecutive runs with the project settings flags being toggled. It appears that when File Sharing is enabled, in the project settings, save files at runtime are written to a subdirectory of the container’r Library folder (due to the project setting causing the definition of FILESHARING_ENABLED=1). However, the Files app and Finder are mean’t to show files and directories from the container’s Documents/ folder when sharing is enabled for an app. As a result of toggling the project settings for file sharing, you could get into a situation where you would see a previously written safe file from the Documents/ directory from a prior install of the application. I am unsure as to the origin of this behaviour, however, as a workaround, you can edit Engine/Source/Programs/UnrealBuildTool/Platform/IOS/UEBuildIOS.cs changing:

			if (ProjectSettings.bFileSharingEnabled)
			{
				CompileEnvironment.Definitions.Add("FILESHARING_ENABLED=1");
			}
			else
			{
				CompileEnvironment.Definitions.Add("FILESHARING_ENABLED=0");
			}

to only define

CompileEnvironment.Definitions.Add("FILESHARING_ENABLED=0");white maintaining the sharing related project settings to the enabled state.

Thank you for your patience on this issue. I’ll circle back once I have more clarity as to the stock behaviour but wanted to make sure you had a viable workaround as soon as possible.

Best regards

[Attachment Removed]

14

Hey,

This seems to have fixed our issue as a temporary measure. Thanks for the help.

Please let us know when you know why it’s happening.

Thanks,

[Attachment Removed]

15

Hi Connor,

This behaviour appears to date back to the initial implementation of file sharing in early/mid UE4. This is intentional as the File Sharing feature was not designed as a mechanism to access application generated Logs/Saves/etc. but rather it was designed for users to drop custom data that the application could use in app (custom textures, sounds, etc.). We can potentially look at a behaviour override controled by a CVar or alternatively, limit this behaviour to shipping builds while allowing Development builds to write saves/logs publicly regardless of File Sharing enable state.

Best regards.

[Attachment Removed]