Xchange2 logged hunts folder?

MexGT

Full Member
Sep 23, 2013
180
83
MĂ©xico
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX-3030 & Stealth 920i
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
So ive been saving my hunts with the 3030 so I can see them with Xchange2, but where are the files located in my PC? I dont seem to find a folder for minelab or Xchange2, because now I want to make a backup for the files Ive been storing, so where should I look for?

Thanks in advance!
 

SD51

Silver Member
Aug 24, 2016
4,832
9,957
MI
Detector(s) used
E-TRAC
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have the E-Trac and my E-Trac Xchange software resides on my desktop folder. The path to the desktop folder on my PC (Windows 7) is C:\Users\Steve\Desktop.
 

OP
OP
M

MexGT

Full Member
Sep 23, 2013
180
83
MĂ©xico
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX-3030 & Stealth 920i
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Maybe I didnt explained myself correctly, within the Xchange2 folder, there´s several others that I have no clue which ones are or if any are the saved GeoHunts I´ve been saving in the PC. There is no mention of a name of the hunts I have in the PC, or I cant find any of them :(
 

SD51

Silver Member
Aug 24, 2016
4,832
9,957
MI
Detector(s) used
E-TRAC
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Sorry, I misunderstood you. See if this helps...

When I create a file in Xchange and save it to my PC, it saves the file with the filename extension called .mode. So it should look like this, FILENAME.mode. If I called the filename oldcoins, it will be saved on the C drive as oldcoins.mode. Now it most likely won't be saved in the Xchange 2 folder on your PC, it will be saved in a different folder.

Try this to do a search of your C drive to see if there are any files with the file extension name of .mode.

Do a search of your C drive by clicking on COMPUTER and then click on your Hard Disk Drives displayed there which should be the C drive.
To do a search, look in the upper right hand corner of the screen for a small window labeled, Search Computer.
Click in this box and type *.mode and hit the ENTER key.
* is a symbol the PC will recognize as a wildcard which essentially means that it will display every file on the hard drive that has the filename extension of .mode.
If any .mode file was stored , it will be displayed and it will show you the path where the file is stored. Hope this helps...
 

OP
OP
M

MexGT

Full Member
Sep 23, 2013
180
83
MĂ©xico
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX-3030 & Stealth 920i
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Thanks SD51, ill do that once I get home, need to do a backup of those files! You know, looking at the map starting to get filled up with the logs gets interesting, I can see where Ive been in low tides, high tides, what places I´m missing and so on!
 

jhittle

Jr. Member
Jun 7, 2016
68
81
Vancouver WA
Detector(s) used
â—„ Minelab CTX 3030
â—„ XP Deus
â—„ Minelab Equinox 800
â—„ Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
the data is stored at this location in your user profile default directory Appdata folder, also Appdata is a hidden folder so If you want to navigate to it cut-past the following into file explorer
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\XChange2\

here is a sample bat file I use to backup my data, I use this BAT file to launch Exchange2 and auto back up the data each time its loaded

I modified the xChange2 shortcut to point to this Bat file by updating the short cut target: with the location of this bat file I call "xchange-autobackup.bat"
just edit the text in RED to your choice of backup locations, I use two local Drive D: and a safety copy on Microsoft OneDrive

the file MLDATA is the key file you want to backup as it is the core data for XChange2 and the Attachments directory contains any pictures you may have added related to a GeoHunt or Find.
.Mode files are export/import files that contain custom hunt modes

-----------------------------
Echo off
REM **********************************************
REM Batch file to backup MineLab XChange2 database
REM
REM Variables to update - in the script update the
REM following using your personal preferences
REM
REM Backup location Drive Path (where you want your backup data to be stored)
SET BackupLocation=D:\Library\Documents\MineLab\AppData-Backup
REM
REM I also use Microsoft OneDrive and backup an extra copy there as well
SET OneDriveLocation=C:\users\Jerry\OneDrive\Documents\MineLab
REM
SET XChangeLocation=C:\users\Jerry\Appdata\Roaming\XChange2
REM
REM **********************************************
C:
cd %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\XChange2\
REM
REM start XChange2
REM
start XChange2.exe -d'.\' -n'mldata' -r
REM
REM copy Minelab database to D: drive
REM
Copy %XChangeLocation%\mldata %BackupLocation% /Y


REM
REM copy Minelab database to OneDrive
REM
Copy %XChangeLocation%\mldata %OneDriveLocation% /Y


REM
REM Clean up attachment directory
REM
Rd %BackupLocation%\Attachments /S /Q
Md %BackupLocation%\Attachments


REM
REM Clean up attachment directory on OneDrive
REM
Rd %USERPROFILE%\%OneDriveLocation%\Attachments /S /Q
Md %USERPROFILE%\%OneDriveLocation%\Attachments


REM
REM copy GeoHunt Attachment Pictures to D: drive backup
REM
xCopy %XChangeLocation%\Attachments\*.* %BackupLocation% /Y /S


REM
REM copy GeoHunt Attachment Pictures to OneDrive backup
REM
xCopy %XChangeLocation%\Attachments\*.* %OneDriveLocation%\Attachments /Y /S
 

Last edited:

McClod

Sr. Member
Jun 14, 2013
285
211
Oregon
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030, Garrett Pro Pointer and Whites TRX Pin Pointer.
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Wow, thanks J for that info! I'll definitely try that out! I had one a year's worth, more likely 1.5 years of saved find points and hunts on my computer as I use the GPS feature every time I hunt to build up a list of where I've been, or not been hunting and one not so fine day a few months ago I logged into xchange 2 only to discover ALL of my data was simply no longer showing up! I'd love to be able to recover it if possible, but from now on I will definitely back it up!

Has anyone else had this happen to them, suddenly find out all of your geo hunts, findpoints and way points are just gone? I'll check for the file to see what's in there, I don't see how it could just suddenly dissappear, I didn't go into those folders or delete anything within the program ever. Thanks again for sharing your batch file J!



Update: Sorry MexGT I didn't mean to Hijack your thread and I hope you got the answer you needed! When I saw your post it gave me an idea because at one point after saving all of my hunts and hunt data for over a year, one day when I opened Xchange2 all of my old hunts and data were gone, and I had done nothing intentionally or otherwise to delete the files, so I hoped with the answer to your question I might have a fighting chance of 1. hopefully at best recovering the data I had lost by moving the mldata file from my old computer to new along with the attachments, or 2. if not that then at least be able to combine the data I had since acquired and move it to the new computer so I'd still have my old hunts when I use the program on the new computer.
Perhaps I should have started a new thread, but maybe someone else besides me has encountered the same issue?

So in an attempt to combine my OLD mldata and attachments with old hunt data I copied the files from my old computer to the new and saved them. Then I copied the NEW mldata and attachments folder and saved it to a backup just in case. Then copied the old files into the new program folder, hoping not only to update so now I'd have all of my old hunts on the new computer, but was hoping to also recover all of the data that some how no longer appeared in Xchange2. SO FAR that is not seeming to work. When I go to open the new program it just spins around but does not open so I may need to rethink how I did this and try it from another angle to see if I can possibly do it, if at all. Will see what happens.
 

Last edited:

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top