Guide: Preserving macros when transferring servers

He didn't have his macros. Do you want to end up like him?

As you may have noticed in my earlier blog posts, I've changed servers on a couple characters recently. Upon logging into both of those characters I realized something horrible. The worst thing possible had happened. All of my macros were gone. For the first character I transferred, my priest, this wasn't a big deal. However, when I transferred my druid, this was a massive deal. My bottom left action bar was filled with macros that changed the ability they displayed every time I changed form. Recreating all of those would have been an absolute mess to figure out.

I thought, "There must be a better way." Lo and behold, there was.

If you find yourself transferring servers and missing your macros, there is an easy fix. While logged off, go to your main World of Warcraft folder (for me in Windows 7, it's C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft), then go into the "WTF" folder, then "Account" and then into the folder for the account the character was on. Then go into the folder for your old server and into the character's personal folder. For example, the full path for the folder that I'm in is "C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\(account name)\(old server)\(character name)".

Once there, copy (or cut) both of the files named "macros-cache". One of them is a '.txt' file and the other is a '.old' file. I don't know if both are necessary, but I copied both and it worked. Now go to the folder for your character on the new server ("C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\(account name)\(new server)\(character name)")and paste these files into there, overwriting any version of these files that is already there. Once you've done that, all you have to do is log in and all your macros will be there, on your bars, where they belong.

This will definitely put all your macros in your macro book. If you have action bar addons, I don't know if they'll automatically be on your bars. I use the default UI for my action bars and all of my macros showed up there when I logged in.

In short:

1. Go to the folder for your character on the old server
2. Copy macros-cache.txt and macros-cache.old
3. Paste those files into the folder for your character on the new server

You have to be logged out of that character for this to work. World of Warcraft loads your macros when you log in, so if you do this when you're already logged in your macros won't show up. Then when you log out World of Warcraft writes what macros it has to those files. So if you put those files there while logged in, it won't load them and it will take what macros it has (none) and overwrite the files you just put there (with empty files).

I hope this helps!

A while back I wrote a guide on how to get your addons to stop talking to you, especially on log in. If you hate your addons welcoming you when you log in, go check it out.

My Macros and Me: Useful macros for all classes

R Code

As a general rule, I don't like addons. I'll use them if they're particularly warranted, but otherwise I try to stay away from them. Generally, the only thing that I'll use will be recount (if I'm DPS), a bag addon that tracks items across my characters, and nothing else. For this very reason, I love macros. I like being able to modify my interface to make it cleaner, more powerful, and more intuitive. This is some of the macros that I use and how they can be modified to suit your needs.

The general purpose shift macro
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Inner Will; Inner Fire

This macro will cast Inner Will if you're holding down shift and it will cast Inner Fire if you aren't holding down shift. This is, by far, one of the most useful macros there is. Inner Will and Inner Fire could easily replaced with any other two spells to achieve the same effect. I also have one of these for Power Word: Fortitude and Shadow Protection. My shaman has one for Astral Recall and his hearthstone. This macro is really good for just cutting down on bar space and combining similar things that can't be used simultaneously. It can also be expanded, such as

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] spell1; [mod:ctrl] spell2; [mod:alt] spell3; spell4

This macro would cast each spell if its corresponding modifier key was held down, and would cast spell4 if no modifier key was held down. These are also fun to put different mounts and pets on, so you don't have to go digging through your menus to find your favorites.

LaTeX code

Stance/Form Macros
#showtooltip
/cast [stance:1] Enrage; [stance:3] Tiger's Fury; [stance:5] Nature's Swiftness; Hibernate

This macro will show something different depending upon which form the Druid is in. Stance 1 is bear, 2 is aquatic, 3 is car, 4 is travel, 5 is moonkin or tree of life form, and in this case Hibernate would be shown in caster form. This one is currently very useful for feral druids in PVP because they tend to do a large amount of form changing. This macro is really great for cutting down on how much bar space is taken up on your screen. Now, this macro won't work on your main bar, because that bar changes every time you change form. This one can also be used for warriors and death knights, although it's probably far less useful for them.


The Atonement Macro
#showtooltip
/cast [@targettarget,harm] Smite; Smite

Every discipline priest who uses Atonement should have this macro. If I'm targeting a party member, then I will Smite their target. If I'm targeting and enemy, then I will Smite them. The macro would fail if a party member wasn't targeting and enemy. I use this macro so that I can keep my tank targeted but still use my Atonement healing. This way I don't have to change targets to switch from direct heals to Atonement heals. I actually have two of these, the other one has Holy Fire as the spell.

Java Code

Crowd Control
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [mod:shift, @mouseover] CCspell; CCspell

This macro will cast your crowd control spell at your mouseover target if you're holding down shift. If you aren't holding down shift, it will cast your crowd control at your regular target. The '/stopcasting' at the front will cause you to stop casting whatever spell you're already casting so you can crowd control faster, since it can be a time-sensitive action.

There are tons of things that can be done with macros, and wowpedia is a great place to start learning how. Their Making a macro page really helped me.

All code in the images comes from projects that I've worked on. Now, enjoy this opening from a 90s show!