Need help getting uPlay to recognize Far Cry 4 game files | Forums

[Riffnugget]

Hi, so apparently uPlay isn't like steam when it comes to 'discovering existing game files'. I have purchased and downloaded Far Cry 4 on my laptop, then I put it on my external harddrive and put it on my desktop. I made sure uPlay had the right directory, but it just wants me to download the whole game again!! My internet is rreeaallly slow, so its very difficult to download 31 gigs again....

I've googled about a solution for this, apparently it can be done with registry entries. My Far Cry 4 game sits at D:\\Far Cry 4

If anybody can help me with this, it would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou =)

[RollMe1Kenobi.]

I'm having the exact same issue with my copy of FarCry 4. I will be searching for a solution as well.

[Riffnugget]

well I can't play it until I find a solution... I've tried other workarounds, like starting the Far Cry 4 download then pausing it and then copying over the files, but that didn't work. I wish it was as simple as 'discovering game files' like steam does. I mean come on, its nearly 2015 and we can't get a game client to recognise existing game files....

[Riffnugget]

Ok, after many hours I found a solution myself. For some reason I was only able to get uPlay to discover the game files at the default game installation location. Heres what I did

1. Open uPlay and download Far Cry 4 until its downloaded about 5 mb.
2. Pause download, close uPlay
3. Went to "C:/Program Files (x86)/Ubisoft/Ubisoft Game Launcher/data/420" and deleted the manifests folder and the .state file
4. Went to "C:/Program Files (x86)/Ubisoft/Ubisoft Game Launcher/games/Far Cry 4", and deleted everything in there (was empty for me anyway)
5. Copied entire contents of my backed up Far Cry 4 game files to "C:/Program Files (x86)/Ubisoft/Ubisoft Game Launcher/games/Far Cry 4"
6. I added this to the registry (just copy this, save to a notepad file and save the extension as .reg)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ubisoft\La uncher\installs\420]
"InstallDir"="C:/Program Files (x86)/Ubisoft/Ubisoft Game Launcher/games/Far Cry 4/"
"Language"="en-US"

7. Double click the saved .reg file to add it to the registry
8. Ran uPlay, Far Cry 4 said 'Play', but I clicked 'verify files' just to be sure.

Now, I want to get one thing off my chest. This was a hassle to get to work. PLEASE Ubisoft, add a 'Backup/restore' feature to uPlay! You guys obviously want people to use uPlay rather than steam... but why should we when steam has more features and is more reliable? Even Origin can easily detect games. I wish I had purchased via steam, or had purchased a physical retail copy. I will not be making purchases off uPlay again until you implement this feature. Thankyou.

[RollMe1Kenobi.]

Dude I love you. Thanks a ton.

[Ubi-Cain]

Now, I want to get one thing off my chest. This was a hassle to get to work. PLEASE Ubisoft, add a 'Backup/restore' feature to uPlay! You guys obviously want people to use uPlay rather than steam... but why should we when steam has more features and is more reliable? Even Origin can easily detect games. I wish I had purchased via steam, or had purchased a physical retail copy. I will not be making purchases off uPlay again until you implement this feature. Thankyou.

Hi Riffnugget, (And everyone else considering the topic)

First, thanks for posting your workaround.
I would like to stress for others to be VERY careful when editing the registry. It can be quite a delicate thing from time to time, so you do so at your own risk.

That being said, and I won't go into details, but this is something we're looking into, among MANY other things. So in the future we hope you won't ever have to do this yourself.

We're taking a lot of your suggestions into account and you can expect to see some big changes coming to Uplay next year that will no doubt better your experience.

/Cain

[Ubi-Cain]

Now, I want to get one thing off my chest. This was a hassle to get to work. PLEASE Ubisoft, add a 'Backup/restore' feature to uPlay! You guys obviously want people to use uPlay rather than steam... but why should we when steam has more features and is more reliable? Even Origin can easily detect games. I wish I had purchased via steam, or had purchased a physical retail copy. I will not be making purchases off uPlay again until you implement this feature. Thankyou.

Hi Riffnugget, (And everyone else considering the topic)

First, thanks for posting your workaround.
I would like to stress for others to be VERY careful when editing the registry. It can be quite a delicate thing from time to time, so you do so at your own risk.

That being said, and I won't go into details, but this is something we're looking into, among MANY other things. So in the future we hope you won't ever have to do this yourself.

We're taking a lot of your suggestions into account and you can expect to see some big changes coming to Uplay next year that will no doubt better your experience.

/Cain

[Shaldanin]

I have the same problem with a physical copy of Far Cry 4. I installed the game with the discs and registered the game on uplay. When i click the Far Cry 4 icon on my desktop it opens up uplay and wants me to download again. how do I get around this.

edit: physical installation took 20 min. Download is now at 4 hours and still not finished. You do not have a reliable download client at all.

[Lihkan]

Well this is what you get for buying games. Another reason to stay with Steam, this is even worse than Origin even though I really hate it. I'm not gonna risk doing something wrong with the registry just because of your not working Uplay

[mooncalf2012]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ubisoft\La uncher\installs\420]
"InstallDir"="C:/Program Files (x86)/Ubisoft/Ubisoft Game Launcher/games/Far Cry 4/"
"Language"="en-US"

There's a typo in there, should be /Launcher/ not /La uncher/, and be sure to also copy the "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" or it will not work. Best to first run regedit and navigate down to the ubi registries, mine was already set to the same path.

[garyogaz]

I went into the data folder and deleted the manifests folder and the uplay_install.state file and job done, restart uplay and I was able to hit play rather than download. This was for AC:U but still it works