I am so tired of this, please FIX keyboard bindings not saving problem in the next Update

[DawnTreader777]

This has gone on long enough. I know that FDev's might have more important things to do, but honestly this is breaking the game everytime it happens. Just when you think you have it fixed the stupid thing starts happening again. Whether it is an update to elite or a reinstall of your computer, it will break, it is just a matter of time. This time for me it just decided to stop working. I had everything working fine, but now for the last week I have been unable to save the tweaks I am trying to make to my binds that have been working since 2019! Do you think I can remember how I fixed it last time? Not a chance.

SO, I go do a web search.

Only about 818,000 results. This is ridiculous. It is one of the oldest, stupid, confounding, problematic and aggravating issues that Elite has.

There are 10 pages worth of issues in the issue tracker relating to the search Keybind. Most of them are EXPIRED. Not fixed, not invalid, EXPIRED. Because FDev doesn't seem to care.

This is a most basic game mechanic. When I was toying around in Unreal Engine I created a simple runner game that KEPT THE KEYBINDS. I am no expert, but for the sake of keeping your players...

PLEASE FIX THIS.

 

[Greasetrap42]

but honestly this is breaking the game everytime it happens. Just when you think you have it fixed the stupid thing starts happening again. Whether it is an update to elite or a reinstall of your computer, it will break, it is just a matter of time. This time for me it just decided to stop working. I had everything working fine, but now for the last week I have been unable to save the tweaks I am trying to make to my binds that have been working since 2019!

• I'm confused with your contradictory statements. Does it happen regularly or your first time since 2019?
• You can back up your keybinds. Its just a text file. It is stored on your local computer, not on a frontier server.

-----------> %LOCALAPPDATA%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings

• Backing up your keybinds is a particularly good idea because when you want to install ED on a new computer... obviously a new installation will not know your preferred keybinds. I always assume my computers could die at anytime, losing all data. Anything important gets backed-up semi regularly.
• Personally I keep a couple copies saved using the date, so if I screw something up I can go back to how it was.
• I agree setting up your keybinds from scratch is a pain. Some of them are obscure or challenging to find. But even when I upgraded from Horizons to Odyssey it wasn't a big deal. For me anyway. I have never had any issues with my keybinds getting messed up following a game update installation. And my keybinds have never spontaneously messed up.

 

[metatheurgist]

I have literally never had this 'common' problem in 10 years.

 

[varonica]

I have literally never had this 'common' problem in 10 years.

Same, despite backing up everything before each major and minor update I have never lost my keybinds once since 2015, it's curious this is claimed to be a common problem. I suspect common translates to, it annoys people a lot and they make a lot of complaints compared to other issues that may be more common but less annoying, thus not complained about as loudly and often.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Never happened to me either - from what I've heard it depends on how you control the game; if you just use keyboard and mouse it'll never happen (unless you actually switch computers, obviously). If you use a controller/joystick of some sort, then any change to that compared with the last time you played - plugged in to a different port, got a new one, hardware detection hasn't quite finished yet, etc. - will make ED think that you have a different control setup (maybe true) and therefore want to be reset to default bindings for everything (false).

The easiest "fix" would probably be to have new control bindings for new controllers copy from your previous one rather than copy from the default - at best they'd be right, at worst they'd be no more wrong than the defaults and at least your keyboard bindings would be kept.

For a manual workaround, I believe you can rename the bindings file to something other than Custom. That then won't get overwritten on controller changes, and the worst it'll do is switch back to a default Custom, and then you can change in one short piece of setup back to your normal ones. I don't know the details - I don't use a controller myself so I've never had to look into this.

 

[Ultra Fluffy]

Nope. Never had this problem. It sounds like it is a very specific issue (rare occurrence), after all you have only had it happen once in 4 years. Perhaps the fix that you applied last time is interfering with the game now.

I would suggest that you put as much detail in a possible. That way other forum users and the dev can repeat the steps you are trying and see if they can replicate.

For example, your fix may have had a step to write protect the key binding file (to prevent the game blanking it out), but now that is preventing you doing a normal key bind update.

 

[amigacooke]

There are workarounds, but there shouldn't need to be.

I've lost the bindings on a couple of occasions.

Frontier offer advice for this apparently non-problem.

 

[varonica]

Never happened to me either - from what I've heard it depends on how you control the game; if you just use keyboard and mouse it'll never happen (unless you actually switch computers, obviously). If you use a controller/joystick of some sort, then any change to that compared with the last time you played - plugged in to a different port, got a new one, hardware detection hasn't quite finished yet, etc. - will make ED think that you have a different control setup (maybe true) and therefore want to be reset to default bindings for everything (false).

The only time I have had to reset my binding for the joystick was when I replaced it with a different type, but I don't count that as losing my bindings because I expected that to happen, change joystick model of course the bindings are going to be different. When I replaced a faulty one with the same make and model I just plugged it in and it was good to go, no rebinding needed.

 

[Brrokk]

I backup the keybinds. I had to restore them once, and I think it was some kind of glitch with the Thrustmaster joystick (small people changed the mode switches). I've never lost them in a game update. I don't doubt that it happens to some people, but I guess it's something hardware-specific and will be hard for FD to track down. Maybe they could provide "save" and "reload" options within the game menu so that backing up doesn't have to be a manual process.

 

[amigacooke]

I backup the keybinds. I had to restore them once, and I think it was some kind of glitch with the Thrustmaster joystick (small people changed the mode switches). I've never lost them in a game update. I don't doubt that it happens to some people, but I guess it's something hardware-specific and will be hard for FD to track down. Maybe they could provide "save" and "reload" options within the game menu so that backing up doesn't have to be a manual process.

Am I losing my keybinds in other games when they update, no. ED is a special case it seems.

 

[Ultra Fluffy]

Wasn't there an issue when switching between Odyssey and Horizons? Is there still an issue when switching between legacy and live?

 

[Kissamies]

Used to happen to me 5 or so years ago. The thing is, this game has always been very finicky about the integrity of control setup. If it thinks a controller is missing, wether you use it for anything or not, it switches to default just to be sure and refuses to even make the custom binds visible. This includes all sorts of virtual controllers too. You got to make sure everything is plugged in and loaded just like it was when you made those binds.

 

[DawnTreader777]

• I'm confused with your contradictory statements. Does it happen regularly or your first time since 2019?

You got me there, kinda. I have had the issue multiple times since I first started playing. I haven't had an issue since the last time I fixed it, sometime late 2019. The thing this one of the last updates must have done something and broken it again. I changed the user I was logging into my computer because of a permissions problem in using microsoft apps from the store. When I remade my user on the computer I went to great lengths to make sure my binds were working correctly on that new user. Between that event and the 2 updates since, something changed because the binds that I knew I could change before update 14 were now no longer editable.

This should not be a "normal" thing, nor should I have to do all the work arounds. I haven't lost anything, I have backups upon backups, the issue here is being able to edit the current version in game so that I can make changes in game.

I shouldn't have to do this to enjoy this game.

• You can back up your keybinds. Its just a text file. It is stored on your local computer, not on a frontier server.

-----------> %LOCALAPPDATA%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings

Thanks, been there done that.

• Backing up your keybinds is a particularly good idea because when you want to install ED on a new computer... obviously a new installation will not know your preferred keybinds. I always assume my computers could die at anytime, losing all data. Anything important gets backed-up semi regularly.
• Personally I keep a couple copies saved using the date, so if I screw something up I can go back to how it was.

I am an IT guy, so this is all "back of the hand" knowledge.

• I agree setting up your keybinds from scratch is a pain. Some of them are obscure or challenging to find. But even when I upgraded from Horizons to Odyssey it wasn't a big deal. For me anyway. I have never had any issues with my keybinds getting messed up following a game update installation. And my keybinds have never spontaneously messed up.

As I mentioned, I have backups, ED Copilot backs them up each and every time I try to change something, heck even when I poke around just to see what the current binds are.

I have literally never had this 'common' problem in 10 years.

You are one of the lucky ones I suppose.

Am I losing my keybinds in other games when they update, no. ED is a special case it seems.

THIS. This is what I am trying to get at. We the players shouldn't have to deal with this.

I totally understand that this is a complex game and that there are things a user can do to mitigate the issue. But why should we have to?

Eventually I corrected the problem. But it took 2 hours for me to figure it out just so I could change 2 keybinds. Is that really worth my time? I just want to play the game.

 

[varonica]

Wasn't there an issue when switching between Odyssey and Horizons? Is there still an issue when switching between legacy and live?

There was, but I think that's because the old Horizons used the 3.8 key binds file and Odyssey uses the 4.0 key binds file, and if you didn't rename them it was quite possible to accidentally overwrite one with the other, now that they are both 4.0 that shouldn't happen anymore. This is one of the reasons it's recommended to rename your keybinds file to a custom name and select that in the list instead of using the default names.

 

[CMDR X]

Backing up is always good practice but if you never want to loose your bindings again you need to make a copy of them with a name that is different
than "Custom.4.0.binds".

Make a copy of it in the same directory and name it "MyCustom.4.0.binds" and load that in binding settings. Custom.4.0.binds may be reset at any time
but the update will not touch your MyCustom.4.0.binds file. o7

 

[DawnTreader777]

I really don't think people understand this problem. I haven't lost my bindings. Elite wasn't saving changes. This is not a me problem. This is a program having the ability to save the file problem. Because the game doesn't have the correct permission when running, the file cannot be saved in the current folder FDev saves it to. If FDev put the binds in the users folder along with the journals we wouldn't have this problem.

I do all the backups. ED CoPilot does backs every time I look at the binds in game. This is not my complaint.

 

[varonica]

I really don't think people understand this problem. I haven't lost my bindings. Elite wasn't saving changes. This is not a me problem. This is a program having the ability to save the file problem. Because the game doesn't have the correct permission when running, the file cannot be saved in the current folder FDev saves it to. If FDev put the binds in the users folder along with the journals we wouldn't have this problem.

I do all the backups. ED CoPilot does backs every time I look at the binds in game. This is not my complaint.

That is indeed a your problem then, if ED doesn't have permission to write to the directory they can't change those permissions for you, that would be a huge security risk. This isn't an issue that happens to many other people, if any.

 

[CMDR X]

...If FDev put the binds in the users folder along with the journals we wouldn't have this problem...

Err, what are you talking about Beavis? FDev does save everything in the users folder:

C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings\<bindings>
C:\Users\me\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\<journals>

Your install must really be borked if its trying to write these somewhere else.
Open a support ticket because this is a 'you' problem.

 

[Fixitman]

This has gone on long enough. I know that FDev's might have more important things to do, but honestly this is breaking the game everytime it happens. Just when you think you have it fixed the stupid thing starts happening again. Whether it is an update to elite or a reinstall of your computer, it will break, it is just a matter of time. This time for me it just decided to stop working. I had everything working fine, but now for the last week I have been unable to save the tweaks I am trying to make to my binds that have been working since 2019! Do you think I can remember how I fixed it last time? Not a chance.

SO, I go do a web search.
<snipped useless image>
Only about 818,000 results. This is ridiculous. It is one of the oldest, stupid, confounding, problematic and aggravating issues that Elite has.
<snipped another useless image>
There are 10 pages worth of issues in the issue tracker relating to the search Keybind. Most of them are EXPIRED. Not fixed, not invalid, EXPIRED. Because FDev doesn't seem to care.

This is a most basic game mechanic. When I was toying around in Unreal Engine I created a simple runner game that KEPT THE KEYBINDS. I am no expert, but for the sake of keeping your players...

PLEASE FIX THIS.

Number of search results does not equate to how common the issue is. Google is searching a garbage mound, looking for something edible. As such, 99% of those results will be useless garbage. The issue is on your PC, and FDev is not responsible for that.