Troubleshooting Football Manager Data Update Installation - How to install Football Manager Databases

If you are having trouble installing our Football Manager Transfer Update or any other Football Manager Database then please read everything below.

The guide is split into two sections, the basic installation instructions, which should be very simple for 99% of users and some common mistakes and issues. Please make sure to read the guide in full and check you're not making any of the common mistakes before commenting asking for help.

How to download and extract the Football Manager Data Update

• First download the Data Update. You will then be presented with a “zip” file to save somewhere on your computer
• Extract the zip file
  • Mac: Usually you can just double click on it.
  • Windows: Right click on the file and click “Extract All”
• You should then be presented with a folder that contains files named “.fmf”. In some cases you might be presented with just a single “.fmf” file not in any folders.
• Move the “.fmf” files to your “editor data” folder. See below for where this folder is located on different systems
  • Make sure to put the “.fmf” files themselves directly in the “editor data” folder. You cannot have any sub folders within the “editor data” folder.

Windows: Where to put Football Manager Data Updates on Windows

The default path on Windows is:

Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data

Obviously change the year to whatever version of the game you're playing.

Mac: Where to put Football Manager Data Updates on Mac

The default path on Mac is:

/Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data

Obviously change the year to whatever version of the game you're playing.

This can be difficult to find on Mac using Finder, use the following steps to easily find this folder:

a) Open Finder

b) Click “Go” from the menubar and select “Go to Folder” (alternatively press Shift+CMD+G)

c) Copy in the following: ~/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/

d) Open the folder for you game e.g: “Football Manager 2023”

e) Open the “editor data” folder (or create it if it doesn't exist)

f) Move the “.fmf” files into the ”editor data" folder

By default in Finder the path is not shown. Click “View” > “Show Path Bar” in Finder and the full path will now be shown at the bottom of every Finder window.

How to find and change your “editor data” folder in Football Manager

Below you will find the default paths, but not everyone's installation is the same. The easiest way to be sure is to check in Football Manager itself.

• Open Football Manager and click “Preferences”
• Search “Location” at the top and you should see a path, stupidly FM has bad UI and you can't read the whole path.
• Click “Change Folder” and click the dropdown at the top and it should display the whole path.
• If you do wish to change the location you can do so here, but if you're struggling to install a file and asking for help this may confuse the situation.
• There is a reset button to the right of where it says “Change Folder” click this if you're unsure if you've changed it.

Common Mistakes

Not extracting the zip

The “.zip” file should not be in your “editor data” folder. You must extract the zip file. If you are seeing a .zip file in your editor data folder instead of .fmf files then you're doing it wrong. 

Do not use sub folders

Your “editor data” folder should never have sub folders.

Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data/new leagues/France.fmf  BAD

Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data/France.fmf  GOOD

Sometimes when you download a file it will be organised in sub folders like “Football Manager 2023/editor data” already. Make sure to copy just the “.fmf” and not all the sub folders.

Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data/Football Manager 2023/editor data//Data Update.fmf  BAD

Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data/Data Update.fmf  GOOD

Having “public” folders

For some reason some people have duplicate folders under a parent folder called “public”. I'm not sure why this is, but sometimes it can cause problems. Check if you have the files under a folder folder called “Public” or “Public Documents” and move them to the correct path instead.

Here's some examples.

Windows

Users/Public/Public Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data  BAD

Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data GOOD

Mac

/Users/yourname/Public/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data BAD

/Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2023/editor data GOOD