Let's start with some good news for pc players : currently if you need to reinstall your game, you need to manually save some files if you don't want to lose some configuration settings like action bars and macros. 2.1 will implement a tool to back up and restore certain things.
In a post, Minagawa gives us more details about this feature.
Minagawa about the backup tool
Hello,
With the arrival of update 2.1, we will be implementing a tool that allows you to save and restore various settings.
* Details for Update 2.1 will be available in the coming days. I'm sorry that we weren't able to implement this in an emergency patch earlier.
You may have noticed a golden gear icon, titled "CONFIGURATION", displayed at the bottom of the start window. A button will be added to this option to backup and restore your data.
Character configuration settings, action bars, and macros stored locally on your system can all be saved.
We have not included system configuration parameters such as graphics, number of monitors used, or any other informational parameters related to computer equipment. It is still quite rare to change these settings, and in the event that they should be lost, reconfiguring them should not take a long time. We therefore felt that it was more practical not to include them and therefore decided not to save all of these settings.
We also haven't included screenshots, character creation data, and other information with files that are too large.
ATH information is largely dependent on display resolutions and we did not want to include it; it is nevertheless part of the recorded characters, so it was included in the set of saved data. We have found it dangerous to allow access to the backup files by a third party program, which is why we have implemented a system that is easy to use, secure and convenient.
Let us know what you think about it and what you would like to see added to it when you have had a chance to use it.
Please also note that this will only be available on Windows at first, as we need to agree on some aspects of the save data with SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment).
* There are no technical or legal restrictions for the Windows version on moving or replacing backup files. We are aware of the need for such an option for PS3 and PS4 versions and continue to research methods for it.
Let's move on to a suggestion regarding the PS3 : the possibility of modifying the name size displayed on the screen (NPCs, players, etc.). Elmoria informs us that this is technically possible and that the team is considering implementing a parameter to configure the size of the names. However, no date has been given.
Around the hand disciples : Novice-type secondary tools are missing in the game. They will be added in 2.1
Finally, we come back to a stubborn bug on Lodestone : the company safe free does not display stored gils. This will be corrected in 2.1
