Alright, I've had this happen a couple times on my server now and my method will work. Until someone (I'm not gonna be the one) figures out how folder names are generated based on account ID's, I believe this is the best method.
A player formats his/her drive, upgrades his Windows, or does basically ANYTHING that makes him lose his/her FL account ID. They e-mail you, wanting their old characters back. Here's what I've been doing. Your player will have to create a new character on your server so a folder is created on your server reflecting their new account ID.
1. I get the player to list for me ALL their old character names. This is a security measure to ensure another player isn't trying to steal a character from someone.
2. In IFSO, the view or edit options both tell you the folder path of a given character. I load up one of the players' old (missing) characters in the viewer, and make note of their old files' path.
3. I load up one of the players' NEW files and do the same thing (to get the folder for their NEW account)
4. I copy the .fl files from their OLD folder to their new one.
5. To ensure proper functionality of kick/ban functions with FLServer, FLServer should be restarted. At this point, the player should have access to all their old characters again. Please also note that there have been reported problems with folders containing more than 5 .fl files. You may want to take this into account when performing this procedure.
Good luck server ops! Things are getting much easier now, but it still isn't the simplest job
-- JoeBoomz
IONCROSS