M.C - Comments

No - the SortItOutSI Data Update is an all-in-one offering and the file that provides the new players is the same one that also provides all of the transfers.

What are the reasons for wanting a version without the new players? We see them as a big part of reflecting the real world environment, which is what the purpose of the Data Update is.

A lack of a complementary facepack is the number one reason we have heard - and whilst that isn't available yet, it is on the to-do list…but for now, there is priority being given to getting all of the nations updated to reflect 2025/26.

An initial version should be included in the update from tomorrow. At the moment, the promotions/relegations are done between the top two tiers (Ligue 1 & Ligue 2), but I don't believe the reduction in Ligue 2 (down to 18 teams) is part of that file. That will get taken care of ASAP, however.

OK, so presumably the issue is that your game still doesn't recognise the presence of any Editor Data files?

Assuming so, can I please ask you to:

1. In FM 24, go to Preferences, click on the Advanced tab and then choose ‘General’ from the drop-down list. Look for the ‘Location’ setting and see what the filepath is specified as. Make a note of it/take a screenshot and share it.

2. Browse to that filepath on your MacOS device. You should see all of the .fmf files in there. If you do, then I would expect that is set up as expected and the game should recognise them. If you do not, that is the folder you need to put all of the .fmf files into.

3. If, doing step 2, you believe all the files are in the right location, please take a screenshot which shows the filepath.

Serbia has been created, internally, so just needs to be peer-reviewed and integrated into the update.

Therefore, I would say ‘any day now’.

Scotland will be released this weekend. I am just finalising things all the way down that pyramid.

Cannot personally comment on Austria, but as a group we will get to it ASAP.

I don’t use MacOS, but from the instructions on the download page I see the expected folder location is:

• Mac: /Users/YOURNAME/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/editor data/

This differs from what is shown in your screenshot. You’re looking for the ‘Application Support’ folder and the Sports Interactive folder structure goes from there.

As your game is not recognising the existence of any Editor Data files, we should start our troubleshooting there.

What is the full filepath that you have copied the FMF files into? Unfortunately, your screenshots don’t show the full filepath.

In general, for anyone not aware, the transfer update on this site is updated once-per-day as standard. On the download page, the ‘Release Date’ gives an exact timestamp.

The transfers that go into it are very much a community-driven effort - supplemented by some automated ones. Moderators approve submissions on a continuous basis.

For anyone who wants to know whether a specific person is updated, the best advice I can give is to look them up on the site. There, you’ll see the status of any transfer submitted and if it shows as approved, you can see the timestamp of that approval. It’s simple to do and it will give you an immediate answer - whilst waiting for a forum reply may take some time.

If that timestamp is earlier than the ‘Release Date’ on the download page, that transfer is included.

If anyone has a specific transfer that isn’t completed, we encourage everyone to contribute and submit it - as those submissions are the lifeblood of this update.

This should be possible. Transfer embargoes are configured in the ‘Club’ Finances section in the Pre-Game Editor. I think, in the past, changes to these settings have been out-of-scope for the updates provided.

I will flag this with the staff team and see what the best way to integrate this into the update is. Priority for right now will remain getting league promotions/relegations sorted, though.

The Changes.fmf file contains both the transfers/alterations made to players/staff in the default database, as well as the newly-added players. There are technical reasons why these had to be rolled into a single file and it is, unfortunately, the only way it is offered. As such, the use of the SortItOutSI Data Update means players need to accept using either the transfer update with the new players, or neither (there's no way to use one part without the other).

It's intended to be an all-in-one offering, providing the most realistic global database of football it can. Naturally, it's driven by a heap of contributions from the community to enable this. Use of the SortItOutSI Data Update provides a single download to reflect the world of football, as it is today, to the best of our ability - including movement of players/staff (i.e. transfers), retirements, new youth players and updated constitutions of as many nations as possible, so that a new game started today allows a player to start their game in the world of football as though it was the start of the upcoming 2025/26 season.

We are always interested in feedback to understand why community members prefer to use alternative ‘new player’ databases. Are they offering more players? Better-created players? Integrated graphics/facepacks? Or is it just a loyalty thing, because they were being used first?

Staff team are in the process of collating as many of the major/playable nations with updates to reflect 2025/26 as we can. As others have mentioned, seasons around Europe are very much just finished or just about to finish.

In the coming days, those updates to nations will start to get integrated into the Data Update. My recommendation is to hang on versus try to make those changes yourself.

You can use most of the SortItOutSI Data Update alongside a different data update file - however, you'll need to make a concession around which update's file you enable with respect to the English league.

The SortItOutSI Data Update consists of multiple files. It is arranged in a way that each nation has its own file - in the case of England, the update includes a file that is called ‘England (League)’ in the list of Editor Data Files and that file alters the English structure.

The English Lower League Database custom file will probably consist of a single file of its own. That file will alter the English structure.

Because you can only use one file that alters any given nation's structure at a time, you will want to disable the ‘England (League)’ file when setting up a new game. You can keep all other parts of the SortItOutSI Data Update enabled and, of course, you'll want to ensure the other England Lower League database is also enabled.

This allows you to leverage all of the transfers and updated structures of other nations - but you will get whatever English structure the Lower League Database provides.

I think the answer is ‘very soon’ - although noting that the final decisions around promotions/relegations vary by nation and within each nation the majority aren't quite decided yet all through their national pyramid. The staff are working on nations that officially have finished as a priority and, of course, playable nations are being prioritised above non-playable nations.

As an example, in England, there is still a promotion in to League Two to be decided, with Oldham Athletic and Southend United playing each other on 1st June 2025 in the Natonal League Playoff Final. Until that game takes place, there is no way to finalise the England file. Similar situations exist in many of the European nations, right at this moment in time (for example, Germany similarly has one final promotion into the 3. Liga to be decided).

It is likely to be iterative, in the sense that certain nations will be decided, have their updated file included and then some days later other nations will also be in that position. I do not think we intend to wait until every playable nation has been fully decided before updating all of them, as such.

There is more discussion about it in this thread, where I have tried to provide a fair/balanced answer where people have asked the same/similar question: https://sortitoutsi.net/comments/get/824919

At the point of the annual update (and please don't quote me on this, but I think it is being planned for the start of June, i.e. a few days away), I believe everything will be reconciled a further year in terms of player ages, contracts and so on.

The core concept is that the game world, at the start of a new game, reflects real-life in terms of who is at which club and where that club compete. So when a player moves clubs in real-life, that player will appear at their new club at the start of the game.

Even though real-life transfers are being confirmed by clubs already and they technically won't move (contractually) until the start of July, SortItOutSI are bringing that ‘pivot point’ forward by a month because we know everyone will be eager to start with updated squads sooner.

Everything that you see on the site that has been approved gets integrated into the overall Data Update. There is a new release of the Data Update once per day. Please note it does require manual action from the staff team to re-process, so there is no complete guarantee that it happens at the same time every day.

There is usually a small lead-time between a community member (such as yourself) submitting a change and that change being approved by a moderator. We do try to keep up with them as best we can, but invariably sometimes a proposed change can be pending for a day or two before it is approved/rejected. However, as soon as any change is approved by a moderator (whether there's a transfer, contract change, new player creation of PA/CA adjustment), that approved change will appear in the next Data Update that is processed.

The easiest way to think about it - as a guide in plain English - is that within 24-48 hours of changes being approved, the Data Update you download will reflect those changes.

This is absolutely going to be done and, in fact, is a primary priority for the staff team in the coming days/weeks (as different leagues finish and promotions/relegations are decided).

There is more discussion on this topic here, including a sense of timelines: https://sortitoutsi.net/content/65384/fm24-league-updates?page=8

Please have a look a few messages up - specifically here: https://sortitoutsi.net/comments/get/824919.

Realistically, I'd expect the 2025/26 structure to be reflected once all of the promotions/relegations in England have been finalised. In reality, what is left to be decided is who will be promoted from the National League, with the play-off final scheduled for Sunday 1st June.

I can only speak for the SortItOutSI Data Update - we are not quite there, yet. In general, the release will come as soon as all the divisions have been decided (which is, in reality, within the next week). Of course, there may be a small lead-time because the staff have to make the updates, but I'm sure England will be prioritised as we know it's a popular nation.

Here's a more comprehensive answer to this question that I shared earlier today in another thread: https://sortitoutsi.net/comments/get/824919.

That is the way most people like to play - and that is fundamentally what the ‘standard’ version of the Data Update does.

When transfers have happened in real-life, they will be reflected into the Data Update as ‘having happened’. To use the Dean Huijsen example: it's currently a future transfer, set to go through on 1st June 2025 (which matches the real-life situation). On 1st June 2025, the Data Update will process that transfer and so the version released on that day/the day after will have him at Real Madrid.

The point in time when you can have Dean Huijsen at Real Madrid from the start is going to be the first version of the Data Update after the transfer goes through in real-life. Essentially, you're about 5 days early from right now.

I do think there is a point in time (soon, but not quite yet) when things like ages, contracts and so on will all be rolled back the extra year. I do not know exactly what calendar date that will be. The way to think about it is right now we are right at the end of the 2024/25 season. Soon we'll be at the start of the 2025/26 season.

This is the main thing that the staff team are going to be working on imminently - of course, there will be a small amount of lead-time and I don't want to commit specifics on behalf of other members of the team who are working on all of this alongside myself. It's worth noting that, in most cases, we prefer to wait for the promotions/relegations of all divisions to be completed before updating each nation's file. For example, in England, we're about a week away from the lower leagues being finalised.

I would expect England, naturally, to be a priority as soon as it can be completed. I'd certainly expect it to be days after everything is decided, not weeks.

As an aside, we are also working to ensure all playable nations get the same treatment - including some catch-up work wherever seasons have finished but not been reflected. Definitely, over the days, the efforts will ramp up as lots of promotions/relegations across various nations get decided around this time.

Not sure if this is automatically assigned. If it is, you should just be able to go to https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update and it should show you that you have access to the Classic FM update.

if it doesn’t, I would assume the site admins manage it manually and it’ll need them to reflect the change.

Worst-case, I’d expect us to be able to get it reflected following the weekend. As an aside, thanks for your efforts in contributing to the update - it is really appreciated!

Understood. If it helps make things absolutely clear: it is known that there was a period of time during which Nidal Celik was duplicated in the SortItOutSI Data Update. As per our previous message exchanges in recent days.

The duplication was dealt with earlier this week. The current version of the SortItOutSI Data Update does not have the duplicate. So I don't think the ‘duplicate’ issue is a problem any more.

You're now indicating that there seems to be some other problems - though I am not sure exactly what. One thing I can say, though, is that there can be no guarantees about compatibility with other, third-party editor files that are used alongside the SortItOutSI Data Update.

As best I can tell, you are using some other files - those that you mentioned. You want to use those and use the SortItOutSI Data Update. That might be fine, but it might not be fine.

The original issue you reported was a duplicate player, which did exist in the SortItOutSI Data Update. I believe that's resolved. Is there another fault with the SortItOutSI Data Update that you have noticed? If so, can you explain what that fault is?

I'm afraid I can't really advise because I don't know what you're referring to when you say ‘if I add an update where gazidis appears’. I can guess that you mean you are using extra editor files, alongside the SortItOutSI Data Update.

In any case, here is what I would recommend you should do:

1. Go to your \Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2024\editor data\ folder and make a backup of all of the contents. Copy everything that is in there and paste it into a folder somewhere else.

2. Having made that backup, delete everything in your \Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2024\editor data\ folder so it is empty.

3. Download the SortItOutSI Data Update from https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update.

4. Install that downloaded version. Do not install any other files.

5. Start a new game and check to see if you have any duplicates (e.g. Nidal Celik).

If you do not, this shows that the SortItOutSI Data Update is not the cause of the problems you are experiencing. It is most likely that the contents of one (or more) of the other data files you are using are incompatible, or introducing problems.

Of course, I do not know what other files you are using. In reality, for you to have duplicates of certain players it is highly likely that you are using extra files that are adding these players. In this scenario, they are basically not designed to be used alongside the SortItOutSI Data Update - because there is an overlap in content/purpose and if this is the case, it will come down to a choice (on your part) as to which of those files that add the same players you decide to use.

So my level of access as a staff member/moderator means I can just see what appears to be an Invalid submission. It is bringing through only the CA/PA on the visible submission and not various other details.

I tested with my own ‘test player’ submission and get the same experience as you. To that end, I'm confident you haven't done anything incorrectly - so you shouldn't try and re-submit anything further at this stage.

I have flagged to the Site Admin and I am sure he will get it resolved as soon as he is available. I am not sure whether he will be able to retrieve the data input by you and re-process your ones as valid submissions - but hopefully (to save you having to re-submit everything).

OK, in that case - and I note your follow-up message below, as well as the outcome of a test I just performed - I believe we have a technical issue with data flowing through.

I will raise with the Site Admins and we'll get it looked into ASAP. Sorry for the inconvenience.

When a newly-created player submission is returned as ‘Invalid’ it is normally a sign that not all of the fields have been filled in that are required. There is validation in place that only validates a submission if it includes all of the core details for any new player. Admittedly, it may be more intuitive if that validation failed and presented back to the user what they had missed before even allowing the submission - that is something I'll suggest to the site admins (however, it may not be technically possible at this time).

In any case, on to the actual submissions and the correct, minimum detail you should include. Strictly-speaking, I believe you'll need to provide at least a First Name, Second Name, Nation, Position and Contracted Club. Ideally, a DOB would be preferred in all cases, too - as well as a proposed CA/PA if you have a sense of the quality/potential for these players.

Where you've proposed CA/PA-only changes, I can see that those are all in Pending, awaiting moderation; and so those will make it into the Data Update once they get approved by the staff (we try and keep a steady flow on these).

For those new player creations that got marked as in invalid - my recommendation to you would be to go to the Colchester team page (https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update/team/636) and from there, click on the name of one of the players. This will present the fields you can fill in and you can then hit ‘Save’ at the bottom and it'll attempt to create the submission. Perhaps do one to the best of your ability and then let me know and I can validate whether that has come through as ‘Pending’, before you spend time on all of the others.

Alternatively, you can click ‘Add New Youth Player’ from the Colchester team page, which will bring you to a completely blank form and you can do the same. If you do it this way, I'll then tidy up the ones that currently show as ‘Pending Moderation’ and have only ‘Invalid’ submissions behind them. One way or another, happy to work together to ensure everything gets (a) submitted that you want and then (b) gets moderated in the right way so we end up with a clean list on the Colchester page.

I have checked at my end, downloading the latest version of SortItOutSI Data Update from https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update.

The first step I took to check the contents was to load up the main ‘Changes’ file in the Pre-Game Editor. There, I can clearly see there is only one Nidal Čelik - which is what I would expect, based on the data I can see on the site.

Next, I started a new game and ensured I had enabled all of the files that are part of the SortItOutSI Data Update - and no other files. This part is crucial - and is what I suspect is happening for you: I think you maybe have additional custom editor files that are also enabled, alongside the SortItOutSI Data Update.

The result, in my game, is that there is only one Nidal Čelik.

I would strongly recommend that you check your ‘editor data’ folder and verify what you have in there is:
 

• only one copy of the SortItOutSI Data Update (just in case you have somehow ended up with more than one copy of any of the files - although I doubt this would be the case)
• no other custom editor files that add new players. If you're using extra custom files and they are also adding (for example) Nidal Čelik, this is what will be causing the duplication. I think this is the most likely cause

If you are struggling to identify what the cause is, please share a screenshot of your ‘editor data’ folder that shows the full contents, as well as a screenshot of the enabled files that you choose as part of setting up a new game. I'm referring to the screen that looks like this:

 

This is the information required to be able to troubleshoot your specific case further. As I say, from my tests, I am fully confident that the SortItOutSI Data Update is not the cause of the duplicate appearing.

The daily update was a bit delayed in getting generated/processed - this is something the team have to do manually on a daily basis. In reality, it was a small delay versus the normal timing and the exact time I corrected the duplicate compared with when the next update was processed just meant there was a slightly longer wait.

The version now available should have that duplication removed, along with any other changes that were made up to the point the update was processed incorporated.

As I have mentioned, as a general rule you can expect the Data Update to be processed once per day - so in general, changes that are made on the site (e.g. deletion of duplicates, approval of new players, approval of submitted transfers, etc) will be available in the Data Update no more than 24 hours later.

The SortItOutSI Data Update now operates a ‘rolling update’ concept - that is, the New Youth Players, Ability Submissions and general transfer updates, which are all driven by a community effort and moderated by the staff through this website - are all integrated into the central Data Update that is available for members to download via https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update.

There are no ‘batch updates’ that take place, as with the initial addition of around 10,000 that occurred initially.

Therefore, adding new players happens on an ongoing basis - members of the community submit additions and these are moderated. Any submissions that are approved get included in the next daily Data Update. For duplicates, as previously mentioned, staff need to remove these and it does help if duplicates are reported through this thread. We also try and prevent them, ourselves, through accurate moderation of submissions - but some do slip through.

Are you maybe confusing this update with the fairly populate one hosted on this website at https://sortitoutsi.net/content/67825/fm24-the-ultimate-new-wonderkid-database?

Yes, that is absolutely the plan. Of course, in real-life, most European leagues (and globally, those that follow a typical winter schedule of August - May) are just coming to a conclusion, now. The staff team are working behind the scenes to start readying updates to reflect the league compositions for 2025/26, wherever possible.

If you look at my previous reply in this thread you will note I was answering a similar question. I cannot guarantee when the files will become available in the Data Update, but it will be one of the focuses for the coming weeks.