FM2021 Licensing and Real Name Fix File v4.0 for FM21.4 [released on 16/03/2021]

Everything looks to be installed in the right place. What exactly isn't working? Screenshots would help 😉

Are you using the latest official database update (i.e. January transfers)?

Are you playing FM or FM Touch?

Hi, sorry for my english and I hope I'm on right place. With new update and new save, I have a small issue with name and 3 letter of cup/league. It should be (and was) like in správně.png, now it is like in špatně.png, and I see double name, like in chyba.png (MOL Cup is right). Thanks

For the first issue, it's something I'll fix in the 3 Letter Names for Competitions.

As for the second issue, competitions have a long name and a short name. The long name is usually the official sponsored name (Serie A TIM) and the short name is usually the informal name (Serie A). For the Czech cup competition, the official name is MOL Cup, and Pohár FAČR is the informal name. Is there anything wrong with that?

As you're evidently Czech, I wonder if you could help me with the missing competition names in the database 🙂

Hi everyone,

last week i installed the update 2.2 and everything was working fine,

now i had to do it again because of the update 21.3 and 3.3 fix file

As i play with Cruzeiro do i need to reinstall this again right after the engine

updates itself every time?

Or is it because i ticked use auto saves and reloaded the skin?

everything was still fine with the old update only the kits were gone for brasileirao B with update 21.3

As outlined in the second paragraph of the main post, this file will need to be re-applied if/when official patches/updates are released to ensure full compatibility. This is due to the fact that some files which are removed when installing this file are automatically re-installed by Steam when official patches come out.

It's a 20 second job and ensures you avoid any issues.

Hello everyone,

I've got the game through Game Pass today and as always all the file in the folder of the game is blocked and not editable. 

Will you make a guide for the users of Game Pass like last year, hoping there is a way to do it?

Thanks in advance and good day to everyone.

A fan of FM e Sortitoutsi, Dionigi

As I don't have the Gamepass version, I'll have to find a way to get the old ‘regular’ FM21 deleted files back and do what needs to be done. I'll try and do it later tonight, but I have some other engagements so it might have to wait for the weekend.

Hi, mons,

Thanks for the quick answer. Take your time man, you (like all of the others who run and administrate this site) already do a marvelous job. I can wait to play the game with the addition of your great work.

So take your time and have a good day and luck with your engagements

With gratitude, Dionigi

I have the same problem and I am looking forward to the solution. Thanks already.

well said Sir @mons  is 😍

EDIT: Damn, I don't think the Game Pass version can be modded after all after reading this related article to the end, which really sucks: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/cannot-acces-windowsapps-to-delete-edit-save-files.3513262/

ORIGINAL POST (TRY AT YOUR PERIL AS CHANGING PERMISSIONS MAY RESULT IN ISSUES WITH OTHER APPS):

For those interested in installing the licensing fixes in the Game Pass edition... You have to do a bit of hacking around.

Once you've installed the game (you may need to run it first if the FM folder doesn't appear in the next steps), you need to access the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps folder. (You need to change your Windows folder view settings to allow the viewing of hidden folders and files if you haven't done that already.)

No amount of fiddling with user permissions would let me in, even as an administrator. But then I found this guide: https://www.maketecheasier.com/access-windowsapps-folder-windows-10/

The only thing that worked for me was to download the registry hack that adds an extra to your Windows context menus (there is a file that adds it, and one that removes it again should you wish) - direct link to that here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8yk084d4bf1ixy/TakeOwnership.zip?dl=0

After installing the registry hack, I right-clicked on the WindowsApps folder, clicked "Take Ownership", and after a few minutes (it takes a while) it was done.

Then I went into the WindowsApp folder, then the folder in there that starts "SportsInteractive", then "data", and at that point it looks like your standard Steam install folder (go into "database" then "db" to find the folders where you need to install the license fix to).

But. The above lets you see the folders, but doesn't let you delete the folders within each db directory that need to be deleted, nor create new files. You still get an access denied error.

@TRFC, I don't have Gamepass so would appreciate your help - am I right in understanding the above to mean that not only can you not overwrite existing files but neither can you add new files in the 2130 dbc, edt and lnc folders?

That's right, sadly.

I did a bit more research last night thinking that there must be a way - mostly looking up what the Flight Simulator modders do. Turns out they can change add-on folder locations in the game's settings, which then allows them to be edited, but while they're in the WindowsApps folders they are completely locked down.

Apparently (from the same research) what appears in the WindowsApps folder “isn't real” anyway - UWP apps are so locked down that they're played in the same way as mounted ISOs, where there is one large central (encrypted) file that contains all game content, which (when the game is installed, or in a sense “mounted”) creates a virtual file structure on the HDD. Which would explain why, even when taking full recursive ownership of the directory, you still can't add, edit or delete files.

It would appear that all you can get to are the Documents files and the skin cache files.

That means that, unlike last year, it is therefore not possible to have the licensing fix for Gamepass users, sadly 😢

How did it work last year? Just trying to wrap my head around whether UWP storage has changed or whether there's another folder somewhere I'm not seeing!

Sent you a PM 😉

Wow this is really disappointing, maybe eventually there will be a work around 😢 i was looking forward to using the gamepass version with the license fix

@xcr and @Merdo16 I'm afraid it's looking like it may not be possible this year.

ahh its a shame but that alright, maybe someone will figure something out down the road. Alternatively, couldn't we just buy the official editor and make these changes ourselves aslong as we had the list of changes?

You can download this file and open the ddt, edt and lnc files with Notepad to see what's in there. There are tens of thousands of edits, though, be warned.

Some changes, like Brazilian club names and kits, and Juventus-related fixes are over and above that. Some other changes, like licensing-related restrictions on displaying images for French and Dutch national team players and activating the German national team can't be done through the editor.

Also Gamepass user here. I managed to sort out Juventus name, the Portuguese clubs, etc. just by placing the editor data files on my Documents folder - no need to delete the license files.

However, the Brazilian clubs names and colors were still wrong! Any idea on what to do here? This is the only thing I wanted to sort out as I'd like to start a save in Brazil this time around. 😢

(Weirdly, Athletico Paranaense, RB Bragantino and Vasco are OK, but all others are still with their three-letter names.

I installed the Gamepass version yesterday and put the editor data files in as you would but for some reason I can't find the option to activate them when starting the save? Maybe I'm being blind or it's in a different place.

EDIT: I am blind, ignore me.
EDIT2: The exact same behavior occurred in the brazilian teams for me, only those 3 were fixed.

Also slightly unrelated question but were you or anyone else by any chance able to add any graphics to the game? I tried adding a logopack and it doesn't seem to work, even after clearing the cache multiple times and reloading the skin data…

EDIT: Disregard this too, the TCM logopack worked

You'll have to make the changes for the Brazilian clubs through the editor yourself.

Sorry for the ignorance - would the pre game editor work, or would I have to use the ingame editor to do it?
Would you have any idea why the Juventus file work fine, but the Brazilian clubs fix don't?

Use either editor will work, and creating a file with the pre-game editor will mean that you can reuse the changes in future save games.

The Brazilian club fix editor data file is only part of the solution to the licensing issues for Brazilian teams, which fix also includes the removal of some of the dbc files which cannot be removed in the Gamepass version. That is why the fix for Gamepass is only partial in this case.

I thought that you also needed to delete the “zebre” file from the dbc (or lnc?) folder for the Juventus fix to work. But even without that, just by adding the juventus_fixes.fmf to my editor data folder, it already solved it. I was then wondering why would this work for the Juventus case, for the Portuguese clubs case, but not for the Brazil case. Seems very weird there, perhaps because there are two license files affecting Brazil?

The issue with Juventus is also two-pronged. The dbc files affect staff names and awards and the rest is changed by the editor data file.

As explained already, the licensing issues affecting Brazil clubs can be only partly fixed by editor data files, because some issues are changed by the dbc files, which you could ordinarily delete but which you can't on Gamepass.

Sorry for the off topic post but it seems to fit in with 2021's problems with altering the game. I can't seem to even get the graphics mods like the face, logo, kit and competition packs. I put them on Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2021\Gamepass\graphics but they dont show ingame despite clearing cash and doing everything like previous years. 

Thanks. 

Post this in the right forum please 👍

Game Pass version dead for this year?