Backups

Backups

FiveLaunch tries to be safe by creating backups when it first takes over folders/files, but you should still make your own backup before doing anything advanced.

What to back up (recommended)

These are the main locations FiveLaunch can modify during linking/sync:

• %LOCALAPPDATA%\FiveM\FiveM.app\mods
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\FiveM\FiveM.app\plugins
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\FiveM\FiveM.app\citizen
• %APPDATA%\CitizenFX\gta5_settings.xml
• %APPDATA%\CitizenFX\CitizenFX.ini

If you have a custom FiveM install location, back up the equivalent folders under your custom FiveM.app path.

What FiveLaunch backs up automatically

Depending on what you enable, FiveLaunch will attempt to create “original” backups by renaming the existing target before linking:

• mods_original, plugins_original, citizen_original
• gta5_settings.xml_original, CitizenFX.ini_original

For plugins in sync/copy mode, FiveLaunch may also rotate/rename an existing FiveM.app\plugins directory if it belongs to another client or is unmanaged, to prevent cross-client mixing.

How to back up (manual)

Simple method (File Explorer)

1. Close FiveM and GTA V.
2. Copy the folders/files listed above to a safe location (another drive is best).
3. Optional: zip them to make a single archive you can restore quickly.

PowerShell method (zip)

If you prefer a single archive, you can zip the key folders (edit paths if your install differs):

$stamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd-HHmmss"
$dest = "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\FiveM-backup-$stamp.zip"

$paths = @(
  "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\FiveM\FiveM.app\mods",
  "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\FiveM\FiveM.app\plugins",
  "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\FiveM\FiveM.app\citizen",
  "$env:APPDATA\CitizenFX\gta5_settings.xml",
  "$env:APPDATA\CitizenFX\CitizenFX.ini"
)

Compress-Archive -Path $paths -DestinationPath $dest -Force
Write-Host "Created: $dest"

Restoring a backup

1. Close FiveM and GTA V.
2. If FiveLaunch created _original backups, you can restore by:
   • Removing the linked folder/file (junction/file)
   • Renaming <thing>_original back to <thing>
3. If you made a zip backup, extract it back to the original locations.

Backing up your FiveLaunch profiles

If you want to preserve all your client profiles and client-specific mods/plugins, back up the FiveLaunch data directory:

• %APPDATA%\FiveLaunch\clients.json
• %APPDATA%\FiveLaunch\clients\

This is separate from FiveM’s own folders.