The new Security Tokens... What you Need to Know
Ragnarok6699:
I'm now running into this problem a lot. Because I do a lot of testing, I often clear our my save folders (including the saves in my game folder, but also the "permanent" save folder in %AppData%.) And that means that I'm getting a lot of warnings telling me that my old saves were created on a different device.
I'm going try to and keep this simple, but there's some background you need to know. I got the initial information shown here from
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and then I experimented a lot
.
(This assumes you are using a Windows computer. Mac details will be different.)
The new Security Tokens
New versions of Ren'Py now use security tokens to warn users when a save file is opened on a different device. The first time Ren'Py is run on a computer, it creates a token. This token is saved in %AppData%\RenPy\tokens (or Users\[user]\appdata\roaming\renpy\tokens).
The token (or security key) is then included in all new save files. When a save file is opened, the token embedded in the save file is checked against the computer token. If the two are not the same, you get the warning message. If a save file does not have a token, you also get the warning message.
The first time a game is run in a new version of Ren'Py, all saves for that game are checked. If the save files do not have a token, the token is added to the save files. So any saves that are in %AppData%\RenPy\HeadmasterDemo-1544382765 or \TheHeadmaster-0.14.3public-pc\game\saves\ will have the token automatically added. This means that you will then be able to open all those files without a warning.
However, if a save is NOT in either of those two locations, and you try to add it into the save folder(s) later, you will get the warning message.
Types of save file
This means that we are now essentially dealing with 3 types of save files:
1)
NEW SAVE files that were created on your computer, and have your computer's security token saved inside the file. These will open without a problem.
2)
OLD SAVE files created in an old version of Ren'Py that do not have a security token.
As mentioned above, when you first run a new version of Ren'Py for the first time, all OLD SAVE files in your save directories will be automatically converted to NEW SAVE files with a security token.
However, if you copy in an OLD SAVE file later, you will get the security warning.
3)
DIFFERENT TOKEN save files. These are new save files but have a different token saved in the file that does not match your computer's security token. If you try to open one of these files, you will get the security warning. However, Ren'Py will then ask if you trust the device the save was created on. If you say yes, then you will be able to open any files that have the same token without the warning message appearing.
* * *
How to fix the problem
There are 3 solutions to this problem that I've found. One is simple and safe, the other two are... more complicated.
1) The Simple Method: Resave the file
Open a save (including saying "yes", you trust it), and then resave it in the same slot. Yes, that's a pain if you've got a lot of saves, but it removes the message. And it's safe and simple.
(When you resave the file, your computer's security token will be added to the new save file. Which means you won't get the message when you re-open it.)
2) The More Complicated Method: Delete the security token
If you want to transfer a whole collection of save files (for example from a previous version of the game), you can delete the security token.
Go to %AppData%\RenPy\tokens\ (or [user]\roaming\renpy\tokens) and delete the files in there. This should remove the security warning when you open the files in your game.
Then
BEFORE YOU START THE GAME, copy your old save files to %AppData%\RenPy\HeadmasterDemo-1544382765 and/or \TheHeadmaster-0.14.3public-pc\game\saves\
Edited to add: If that doesn't work, delete your %AppData%\RenPy\HeadmasterDemo-1544382765 folder as well as your token folder, and just copy your save files into \TheHeadmaster-0.14.3public-pc\game\saves folder before starting the game.
When you start the game, the computer will then automatically create a new security token, and will convert any OLD SAVE files to NEW SAVE files which have your new security token embedded. Your old saves should then open without a problem.
However, if you have any saves that you have created in the new version of Ren'Py, they will still have your OLD security token, not your new one. (In short, the game will now consider these to be DIFFERENT TOKEN save files because their token will no longer match your computer's token.)
Therefore, you will need to open up one of those files and then say that you trust the device the save was created on. This means that you should then be able to open up all the save files which have your computer's old token without a warning appearing.
3) Completely Disable the Security Token
Alternatively, you can completely disable the security token. To do this, open up the security_keys.txt file in %AppData%\RenPy\tokens. You will probably find a header line that says "signing-key" with the security key (a long line of random characters) below. You might also find a second key with the header "
verifying-key".
Delete the key(s) but leave the header(s). This means that the text file will either have 1 line that says "signing-key" or two lines that say:
signing-key
verifying-key
Close and save the text file. Then make the file read only. (Right click on the file, choose properties, and then tick the "Read-only" checkbox.) This should allow you to open any saves without a warning.
WARNING: Don't try messing around with your %AppData% folder and the security tokens unless you know what you're doing. I would also strongly recommend taking backups of the token folder before you remove it.
NOTE ON SAVE EDITORS: According to
this post, using a save editor in the new version of Ren'Py is likely to break your save. You may be unable to open your modified save. I would suggest that you use the cheat menu in the game, and don't use a save editor.
UPDATE TO ADD: some initial testing suggests that using Option 3 (disabling the security token entirely) WILL allow you to use saves that have been altered by a save editor.
Hope this is helpful... good luck!
Edited to add warning about save editors, and additional suggestion to remove the %AppData% saves as well as the security token.
Edited again to add the third method, of disabling the security key entirely. Thanks to dotjeal in this post for the information.
