Dependencies

• Understanding of entity export and import - This guide builds directly on Entity Export and Import. Read that first.
• Understanding of accounts and authentication - See Recovering Lost Player Accounts for how the Reconnect Devices tool moves login methods between accounts.

Overview

Some player issues are difficult to understand from the dashboard event logs and server logs alone. To investigate them, it helps to step through the player's exact state in a local environment where you can attach a debugger and modify game logic freely.

The workflow has three parts: export the player from the cloud environment, import the player into your local server, and attach your own login method to the imported player so your client connects to their state.

Always Work in the Local Environment

This workflow attaches your own login method to a copy of the player's account in your local or development environment. Avoid modifing the login methods in the production environment to avoid inadvert mutations to player's state.

Debugging Workflow

1. Export the Player from the Cloud

Open the LiveOps Dashboard for the cloud environment, navigate to the player you want to debug, and export them as an Entity Archive. The detailed steps are in Exporting a Player.

A serialized entity can only be imported into a compatible game version. If your local server runs a different schema version than the cloud environment, the import may fail. When in doubt, use the exact source code version the server is running. The server's Commit ID is visible on the front page of the LiveOps Dashboard.

2. Import the Player into Your Local Server

Start your local server and dashboard, then import the Entity Archive through Settings → Advanced → Import Game Entities. The detailed steps are in Importing a Player.

If the imported player conflicts with an existing one, you can create the player under a new ID so your existing local accounts are left untouched.

3. Attach Your Account to the Imported Player

At this point the imported player exists in your local database, but your client still signs in to your own local account. To connect your client to the imported player's state, move your own login method onto the imported player:

1. Start your local client so that it creates and attaches a login method to your own local account.
2. In the local dashboard, open the imported player's page and use Reconnect Devices to move your own local account's login method onto it. See Recovering a Lost Account for how the tool works.
3. Restart or reconnect your client. It now connects to the imported player's state.

You can now reproduce the player's issue locally, step through it with a debugger, and modify game logic as needed.

Alternative: Overwrite Your Own Player

If you do not need to keep the imported player as a separate entity, you can instead overwrite your own player with the exported data. This replaces your account's state with the imported state and automatically remaps your player ID and login methods on top of it, so your client connects to the imported state without a separate reconnect step. See Overwriting a Player.